The Tell Coach Rich Where He Should Live Thread
So...
I've been thinking that there's really nothing keeping me in LA. I have a manageable mortgage on a house I'm kinda meh about (needs work), on a street I don't like, but in an incredible training area. Local rents would cover my mortgage and a bit extra for a property management company to handle it for me.
I can't help but think that I could move somewhere, rent a smaller place, and give myself about a $20k/yr raise in the form of reduced cost of living, etc. Then I'd probably apply that savings to doing a lot of traveling, keeping my home footprint low and simple to facilitate an active, go anywhere lifestyle. Basically, Mariah is my hero 
.
And of course I'm looking for a significant quality of life upgrade. Boxes that need to be checked:
- Good weather. I want to be able to ride outside pretty much year round and will go as low as the high 30's, low 40's. I don't do stupid cold or stupid hot
- Good cycling and tri community so I can meet new people in my existing tribes.
- Convenient access to good off road motorcycling. Mountains, deserts, forests, etc.
- Able to rent a 2/1 apartment, condo or townhouse for ~$1500-2k/mo. Need to have a garage too.
- Need to have access to good dining and "sophisticated" type stuff. I'm in kinda a weird place where I dig getting all Grizzly Adams, off the grid, etc, but I also REALLY like an urban vibe where I can swing a cat and hit any type of food, etc that I want.
Anyway, that's the quick list. Any ideas?
Comments
FYI - Your needs list just described "Southern California". Congrats! You are home....
I would avoid these:
After analyzing the biggest 250 cities in the country, here is our list of the worst cities to live in America:
Another thought...why don't you do the snowbird thing. Rent a place from Oct-Mar in Phoenix then in the summer rent a place in Denver.
My grandparents did this sort of thing with Phoenix and NorCal. They also loved to eat dinner at the "Cracker Barrel" at 3:30 PM.
Not trying to poke holes in your plan. I loved my grandparents! They were good people. Salt of the earth.
(not including costs in the following as I cannot weigh in with any certainty on cost of living)
- St. George Utah
I know you enjoy the area from your motorcycle days. Year round training, good athletic community, plenty of outdoor/motorcycle ops would be a plus for you; however, small town atmosphere will fall short of your "sophistication" vibe.
- Nashville, TN
It's close to the smokey montains = great outdoors and motorcycle options. Fairly moderate weather will allow you to train outdoors almost all year round. I know a few people in Nashville and they love it. It's central location might be a nice appeal as well. Has a nice mix of outdoors and sophisticated options.
- Willmington, NC
I know there a Willmington, NC contingency in the haus so I will let them speak for this great area!
Good weather. I want to be able to ride outside pretty much year round and will go as low as the high 30's, low 40's. I don't do stupid cold or stupid hot-- Avg winter temp is 43 and Avg summer temp is upper 70's. I run outside year round, bike not so much.
Good cycling and tri community so I can meet new people in my existing tribes. --Lots of great tri clubs in the area, miles and miles of bike trails. Some worldclass tri and bike shops.
Convenient access to good off road motorcycling. Mountains, deserts, forests, etc. -- 30 minutes to the mountains, 2 hours to the ocean, I live in the forest, 2 hours to the desert. Killer moto riding in all three locals.
Able to rent a 2/1 apartment, condo or townhouse for ~$1500-2k/mo. Need to have a garage too. -- Rent is cheap.
Need to have access to good dining and "sophisticated" type stuff. I'm in kinda a weird place where I dig getting all Grizzly Adams, off the grid, etc, but I also REALLY like an urban vibe where I can swing a cat and hit any type of food, etc that I want. -- Urban opportunities abound within a 15 minute drive or 45 minutes if you want worldclass Seattle vibe.
I agree with Steve. Come join us in the Pacific Northwet - err Northwest! It's never too hot or too cold, the mountains and sound are both within an hour drive from most locations, and the inland desert is just a couple hours away to the east. In addition, there is plenty of opportunity to train in the rain!
Of course my choice is Tucson ! It aint perfect but checks most of your boxes no problem. Sure Phoenix has nicer roads, better sophisticated stuff, but now were getting into that cost of living / traffic thing!
So I've lived in Southern California, Washington State, and Colorado. I also have a weather bias: nowhere East of the Rockies, due to unconscionable humidity.
Knowing what I know now, I'd pick from among Boulder, Tucson, Seattle, Santa Monica Bay (Palisades to PaloVerde), or North County San Diego. Bay Area: you ain't gonna save any money. Portland: you're no hipster. Phoenix - too big, too spread out, there's no there there. Boise, Salt Lake: too cold, snowy in the winter.
I was just in Denver, passing thru on my way home, last week. It was 64F and sunny. A touch of cold in the winter to kill the mosquitos is all, otherwise, you could handle Boulder. Tucson may not be big or cosmopolitan enough for you (sorry, Tim). Seattle, despite being able to ride and run outside year round, gets kinda dark and dreary Nov-mid Feb - that's why I leave for CO in the winter. LA coastal towns...your life would be too spread out and the infrastructure is getting ratty.
There's a reason the tri-tribes settle in North County and Boulder. Join them. Boulder wins for you, as you need to travel via plane enough to make DIA nearby a big asset. Currently, Denver and Seattle seem to be the hottest growth spots in the country; buy in while you can.
Having ridden GMR and such, there's really no comparison to riding in the Rockies - same heights, but the scenery is just not comparable. You want desert - try Eastern Utah any time of year. Seriously, man, you're the co-boss of the leading long-distance triathlon team and coaching service in the world. You gotta be in the triathlon nerve center. Take the leap.
My vote is Bend, OR. Beautiful local. Great tri vibe. John Stark can tell you about that. Easy access to any where. Elbow room and a cheaper cost of living than Denver but with similiar benefits. Great beer too.
Good luck on your quest.
Thanks for the tips. Quick notes:
Maybe I'll knock about all summer in the van and explore stuff
A note on Portland. I left Portland for a reason. For one thing. It has the highest antidepressant use in the nation!
Canby, ORegon is beautiful and only 30 minutes from clothing option hot springs.
Portland is rainy, dark. Bend averages 300+ of sunshine.
@R: SLO is a bit too small town for me. It's also a bit of a haul to quality dirt bike riding due to some hard to explain legal riding restrictions in CA, private vs NF vs BLM land, etc. Tough to beat the deserts north of LA or the mountains anywhere else. SLO makes it tough to get to either...I think.
That is what my aunt and uncle did after a 31+ year Navy career. They bought a motorhome and travelled around the US for a couple of years. Eventually they ended up in Gulf Shores, AL. And that was *not* on their original list of possibilities.
But, if I have to give a recommendation --- join us in CO. We're moving to Colorado Springs in June. If we didn't have to worry about schools for the kids, we would probably end up somewhere between C-Springs and Denver. Not too close, not too far.
If I had kids, I might be concerned about the state of education, etc, but I don't have much knowledge of all of that. If had to drive to work, I'd be concerned about traffic and the state of the roads...but I don't. In general, my life in SoCal is pretty atypical from everyone else and I have it pretty good.
For me, the bigger issues are the cost of housing. If you saw my house and I told you what the market says it's worth...you'd absolutely flip. When I look at home prices in nearly every other area of the country my first reaction is "wow, they're practically giving it away!!" But my house needs a good bit of work to make it a nicer place to live, for me, but...I fundamentally don't have an emotional investment in where I live. It's a place to sleep and keep my stuff. I'm much more into focusing myself on doing and going places vs where I live, so intuitively it makes sense to explore other location and/or downsize my living space by moving into a clean, efficient studio apartment and doing the minimum work on this house to make it suitable as a rental at market rates.
I know you already said Phoenix is out as it doesn't cool off in the summer evenings. But, I have to tell you, that's the only time i can hang out in my pool-with misters on the patio and the pool a perfect temperature, i spend a lot of time on my patio in the july and august evenings. It does make running in those months a chore though.