So the work I do is 100% remote now. I moved to Southern California because of an industry that has in part moved to remote work. My only requirements are a temperate climate, nature access and hopefully a blue-ish state. Is there a place out there that makes sense financially? I’m hoping to buy a house less then 500k. I don’t need access to large cities as I honestly don’t do anything. The only requirement I can think of is access to solid internet as I stream full screen video for what I do.
I’m currently looking at Michigan and Virginia as options.
Regarding Detroit, when I step back and look at the country from a climate perspective, it looks great. From what I’ve been exposed to media wise, it sounds scary and crime ridden. I live on the outskirts of LA county, so I’m no stranger to a large city next door. Why wouldn’t I want to be looking at a town 30 minutes or so from Detroit? It seems like a logical option from my perspective.
Detroit has some great suburbs (check out areas like Ferndale and Plymouth/Canton), but don’t write off Detroit based on what you’ve read in the media. A lot of people in Michigan are in the same boat as you and are missing out on what Detroit has to offer because of what they think Detroit is.
There are some incredibly rich and affluent communities with very safe neighborhoods in some of the “suburbs of Detroit”. Metro Detroit is a much larger area than Detroit itself and there are many types of communities to choose from.
Random interesting trivia…but the city of Dearborn in that area is home to some of the largest number of Arabic speaking individuals. There will even be signs in the downtain area written in Arabic instead of English. It’s not a city I would recommend to live in due to safety, but it’s a random interesting blub I wanted to word vomit out lol.
Winters in Michigan can be absolutely gorgeous when there is a fresh snow…but unfortunately much of winter is just freezing, brown, ugly, and incredibly dark and depressing (less sunlight hours in Northern winters due to the position on the globe). Subjectively, winter seems to last around 5 months out of the year. It starts late October to early November and lasts until mid April.