I moved away for a job (Princeton area) and eventually moved back. I missed it too much. I had a great job with wonderful, intellectual colleagues but the overall culture wasn't my thing.

That said, I grew up in CA and now have an aging parent there, and I now have a kid, so am thinking about moving to somewhere on the west coast. I expect that if I do, I will miss DC again -- and I hope that since I love Seattle and San Francisco (most likely prospective job markets for me) I will be happy enough being there that I will miss DC, but not boomerang back again. Of course, I won't experience any great change in cost of living, but other quality of life measures are likely to be better or at least equivalent to here.

I'm from here but I can imagine leaving. The problem is that most of the places I can see myself living are just as expensive to live in, or nearly as bad -- the Philly metro, the NJ suburbs, Baltimore, Richmond, Hampton Roads, and Charlottesville.

We will likely stay put and adjust our lifestyle so we can have what we want and, honestly, keep in mind that families with four children used to all live in the bungalows in Silver Spring, Chevy Chase and Arlington. We need to adjust our mindsets too. For me, a lot of it is getting rid of physical stuff so I can enjoy the emotional richness of my life.

Moved here from the midwest, St. Louis, 20 years ago, and wouldn't leave DC. We like to visit STL, but it's too slow for me, and the city itself is small. I love that my child is growing up here, there is more motivation here to excel in life. I can see why someone would want to leave, due to how expensive it is - but in the end, this city is for me.

We do have a small house close in, and have a very short work commute.

i'd love to move south because the cost of living here is just too high. dh likes his job here. we're stuck until he sees the light.

we have been planning our move pretty much since we moved here 5 years ago - heading back to PA this spring or summer and can not be happier although there are definitely things i will miss.

(We couldn't realistically move there either, however. My husband is in finance and the jobs are not there.)

oh, and <insert dry heat joke here>

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd move to Phoenix in a heartbeat.

Are you from the Midwest? Everyone I know who loves Phoenix is from Wisconsin or Minnesota.

DH and I are from the Phoenix area and moving back never worked out, job-wise. It would be nice only because my parents and large extended family are there. Otherwise, ick. Too sprawly and hot. We are in Colorado now and love it. Excellent public schools and lots of Catholics in our area, OP.

I'm not -- I'm from California, where I would never EVER choose to live. Sprawl AND expense.

I don't mind the hot as it means I am avoiding the cold. The summer is really PHX's winter. At least I can go from a/c house to a/c car to a/c office..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have planned to move ever since we were talking about kids. Our original plan was Raleigh, but has since been revised to Austin for family reasons (his is an hour away, mine is planning to relocate with us). Is it the BEST place for our jobs? No. Our job prospects are better here, but I am lucky to be able to move my current job with me and work from home. There ARE jobs in our fields, but they are not as plentiful. Is it the best way for us to have the kind of life we really want for our family, though? YES, YES, A BAZILLION TIMES YES. We feel like we will never get ahead here. The cost of housing and daycare is just way too high. It is 1/4 to 1/2 less in Austin. And we CAN actually buy a house in a fairly close-in downtown neighborhood on a budget of $300-400K. That gets me a TH here and not even a nice one in the far our burbs.

Congrats and good luck with your move!

thanks - now we just have to figure out if my husband can keep his job OR if he has to job hunt. A decision is close, but we also are trying to figure out schools for our rising kindergartener, so it is causing stress for me to be so up in the air for where we might be next year.

I'm a former Dallas resident with family in McKinney. They are lovely, interesting people with beautiful homes. However, be aware that most of the real jobs are in Dallas, which is a hefty commute (someone said 40 minutes, but I think it's more at rush hour). Plano is a little closer. Both have excellent school systems. If you're going to work in downtown Dallas, I'd encourage you to look a little closer in. It's more expensive, but nothing compared to DC.

For those of you who have commented on your refusal to move to Texas: Texas thanks you.

I'm still here because my job is here, but Texas is definitely an option in the future. However, just be warned that I have had several friends get their "dream job" back home (not Texas), and have moved away with great excitement, only to show up again about two years later. Turns out that they missed Washington.

Anonymous wrote:We have planned to move ever since we were talking about kids. Our original plan was Raleigh, but has since been revised to Austin for family reasons (his is an hour away, mine is planning to relocate with us). Is it the BEST place for our jobs? No. Our job prospects are better here, but I am lucky to be able to move my current job with me and work from home. There ARE jobs in our fields, but they are not as plentiful. Is it the best way for us to have the kind of life we really want for our family, though? YES, YES, A BAZILLION TIMES YES. We feel like we will never get ahead here. The cost of housing and daycare is just way too high. It is 1/4 to 1/2 less in Austin. And we CAN actually buy a house in a fairly close-in downtown neighborhood on a budget of $300-400K. That gets me a TH here and not even a nice one in the far our burbs.

Congrats and good luck with your move!

We have planned to move ever since we were talking about kids. Our original plan was Raleigh, but has since been revised to Austin for family reasons (his is an hour away, mine is planning to relocate with us). Is it the BEST place for our jobs? No. Our job prospects are better here, but I am lucky to be able to move my current job with me and work from home. There ARE jobs in our fields, but they are not as plentiful. Is it the best way for us to have the kind of life we really want for our family, though? YES, YES, A BAZILLION TIMES YES. We feel like we will never get ahead here. The cost of housing and daycare is just way too high. It is 1/4 to 1/2 less in Austin. And we CAN actually buy a house in a fairly close-in downtown neighborhood on a budget of $300-400K. That gets me a TH here and not even a nice one in the far our burbs.

We dream about it, but unfortunately everywhere we'd love to live is as expensive or more expensive as here. Were city people, so don't really pine for the big yards and slow streets. We Aldo have very DC- type jobs so unlikely to make as much money elsewhere, or at least it wouldn't be easy to find.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For me, suburb of Dallas = vestibule of hell. YMMV.

ditto. for f*ck's sake.

Did you grow up there?

Anonymous wrote:For me, suburb of Dallas = vestibule of hell. YMMV.

ditto. for f*ck's sake.