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Checklist: 20 Ways to Pick the City That's Best for You
By Timothy Haas, May-June 2003
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You're casting about for the perfect new homestead. Perhaps because you're officially retiring the briefcase and three-piece at the end of the fiscal year—or maybe life's gotten just a bit too routine, and you want to shake things up with a fresh start in an up-and-coming city. No matter what kind of change you're looking for, use this resource-filled checklist to find the city that's the best match for you:
DOLLARS AND CENTS
1. Job outlook: If you want to keep a hand in your field or even embark on a second career, use this occupational outlook database to figure out where your skills will be in greatest demand.
2. Housing prices: The National Association of Home Builders publishes a spreadsheet that shows the relative affordability of houses in 200 areas around the country. Once you've picked out a few possibilities, punch them into Realtor.com for up-to-the-minute offerings in your price range. Then check appreciation trends to see if you're buying into an overheated—or underperforming—market.
3. Local taxes: You've found a steal of a house, but it may not be such a bargain if high taxes are going to eat into your retirement income. Connect to each state's taxation department to get details on statewide sales and income levies and get either contact information or, in some cases, complete rate charts for every municipality in the state.
YOUR NEW NEIGHBORS
4. Demographics: Excited by the idea of a vibrant, multicultural suburb that's growing fast? Trying to identify a likely spot to sow your 100-acre organic herb farm? The Census Bureau's QuickFacts site gives you the latest population, income, and business information for every U.S. county. Go deeper with demographic information by neighborhood at Realtor.com, where you can search by city name or ZIP code.
5. Sense of community: Read all the tourist brochures and chamber of commerce ads you want—nothing beats the local paper for evaluating a region's spirit. Pull up this clickable map of local newspapers to see what's making headlines in your possible destination towns. And check out online message boards, where enterprising citizens are chatting up their cities with each other and outsiders—try a Google search with your target town's name.
6. Safety: The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program releases an annual tally of violent and property crimes for nearly every jurisdiction in the country, from New York and San Francisco down to Paw Paw, West Virginia (population 522—and it looks pretty safe, with no reported crime at all in 2001).
7. Starbucks store locator: Don't underestimate this valuable tool. You may need a critical mass of laptop-wielding, latte-swilling "knowledge workers" nearby to nurture that emotional bond with your old corporate life. Then again, 50 miles away might be too close for comfort.
BODY, MIND, AND SOUL
8. Health care: Availability of care isn't an issue near major cities, but coverage can be spotty in rural areas. The American Medical Association's site can help you to locate doctors in various specialties. Other sites can help you find chiropractors and alternative health practitioners nationwide. If a member of your family is managing a chronic illness, moving near a specialty hospital can make a real difference in quality of life.
9. High school confidential: If you still have kids at home, ensuring a quality education for them may be a big part of your decision. The U.S. Department of Education lets you review stats such as student-teacher ratio and spending per pupil for every public high school in the country. Guidebook publisher Peterson's offers a similar database of private schools.
10. Continuing education opportunities: Then again, why should the kids be the only recipients of quality education? Retirement is a prime time to explore new interests or even pursue another degree. Open your mind to the possibilities, searchable by location or area of interest. Iron Age archaeology, anyone?
11. Libraries and bookstores: It's hard to think of a more reliable guide to a community's intellectual vitality than the availability of books. This annual ranking of libraries by staffing levels, collection size, and funding is a good start, while this huge and quirky list of new and used bookshops gives hope that modern man doth not live by Web alone.
12. Religion and spirituality: Joining a house of worship can be a great way of introducing yourself to a new community. Beliefnet provides links to worship locators for major Christian denominations, Judaism, Islam, and everything else from Buddhism to earth-based religions.
CAN YOU GET THERE FROM HERE?
13. Local transportation: You can't wait to leave the city behind, but the thought of using the car for every single trip is giving you pause. Fear not—public transit encompasses more than subways and commuter trains. Get links to local light-rail lines, bus companies, shuttles, and ferries, sorted by state .
14. National/international transportation: For many, it isn't retirement without travel. Have the best of both—rural peace a few hours away from a transportation hub. The FAA's interactive map shows major U.S. airports, with links to maps of smaller regional airports. Of course, for some it isn't travel unless it's on the rails. And, well, Greyhound goes just about everywhere
OUT AND ABOUT
15. Culture and entertainment: Sure, it's easy finding chain movie theaters and Blockbuster video stores, but what if you prefer independent art theaters, symphony orchestras, dance companies, museums, or community theater? Hmm, guess that wasn't so hard, either.
16. Recreation: Here's the basic equation of the post-work world: free time = golf. Well, OK, maybe not for everyone. Cyclists, inline skaters, and walking enthusiasts might like a new home along the growing network of multiuse trails. Swimmers, boaters, and hikers might find state parks and national parks to be congenial neighbors. Of course, if you think flagging down the hot dog guy constitutes exercise, you can set up housekeeping near one of the more family-friendly branches of the Church of Baseball.
17. Weather: Let it snow, let it snow, let it… is it ever going to stop snowing? Find out what you're in for with this database of weather stats from around the country. And though this tool is meant to help you find a vacation spot, enter your temperature preferences for February and August, and then cross-reference to get a list of towns that might be a match for your internal climate.
18. Fiesta time: There are two ways to use this great guide to festivals. If you're just mad about something—let's say garlic—search by keyword to find the towns in which you will be welcomed with open cloves. Or, search by location to make sure your new hometown choice isn't overrun by fragrant tourists every July. (By the way, did you know there will be seven garlic festivals across the country this year alone? Seven!)
19. Food: You know that no matter where you move, you're going to be able to find a classic roadside restaurant and, if you're in a beach town, a seafood place. But what about a kosher deli or a vegetarian spot? If it's natural or nothing on your table, these listings will help keep your plates full. And organic or not, farmers markets allow you to buy locally wherever you are.
20. Cell phone coverage: Connectivity freaks beware—there are great swaths of the U.S. in which the call of the whippoorwill is more common than the jangle of a Nokia. (Heck, there's a big chunk of central New Jersey that doesn't have cell service.) Dial up these coverage maps from AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.
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