OT: Where do you live, and what are the pros and cons of living there?

New Jersey: lots of cons including expensive housing, taxes, crazy laws 

San Diego.  Lived in South Bend in high school and then Indianpolis after college.   Came out west for the first time on a business trip and fell in love with San Diego.  Sold my business and moved my family out here 11 years ago when the kids were very young.  Cons - Yes, it's expensive, but you adjust and the weather and vibe is amazing.  Traffic here isn't as bad as everyone thinks (Indy was worse). Mind you, everyone thought we were crazy when we made the leap, yet we look back and can't imagine living anywhere else.  

Evanston. 

Pros: Large town near a larger city, easy drive to Chicago or you can take the L, sandy beaches/water activities in the summer, diverse population, good place to bring up a family

Cons: Weather. Summers can be nice or scorchingly hot. Spring is always cold and lasts too long. Winter is like Ann Arbor's. Property taxes are high. The restaurant scene isn't nearly as thriving as it should be. I've been here for almost 20 years and admittedly it has gotten boring, but that could happen anywhere except maybe NYC. 

I'm the black guy who lives in Saline. If you've seen him around, that's me. We got a decent deal on 3 acres in 2014. We built, and so far like the area. The school district is pretty good. My taxes make the high school look better than most community colleges. The dirt road sucks but other than that, I can't complain.

Seattle: 

Pros: Its beautiful. Maybe the best spot to live in the US if you like outdoors stuff. Surprising amount of Michigan transplants. Lots of stuff to do. Very diverse population. No state income tax. Weather isn't extreme in either way. 

Cons: Everything else is super pricey. Traffic is a nigthmare. Homeless are everywhere. If you are religious than its a con living here as its one of the least religious areas in the nation. Everyone here thinks they have the best beer in the nation when in reality its about average. 

I’ve learned that every place has its pros and cons, warm and sunny all year still has other draw backs that you would have to deal with, live in GR btw

Northwest Montana

Pros: Everything but the winters

Cons: Did I mention the Winters?

Actually, I love the mountains, no traffic, hiking, biking, skiing, great people.

Housing costs can be high and we are a long way from a major city for shopping, sporting events, etc

New Jersey. About 20 minutes from New York City.

Pros:

• You get all seasons in about equal amounts
• No natural disasters to worry about
• Close to NYC and about an hour drive to the beach
• It's home for me. Born and raised

Cons:

• Decently high cost of living
• High taxes
• Bad drivers
• Winters are bad

Atlanta.  Pollen sucks this time of year, but that's my only real complaint.

Pretty insulated from natural disasters, weekend trips to the mountains,  gulf coast, or Atlantic are all reasonable.  Tons of direct flights to places all over the world.  Diverse. Good food. Affordable housing. Weather. 

I live in Lexington, SC which is a city just outside of Columbia.

Pros: very mild winters, haven't seen snow or ice in the 4 years I've lived here. Only about 2 hours from the oceans or mountains. Live in a very fast growing area so the economy is booming. Columbia has the small metro town feel like GR which I grew up near and I can be in downtown in about 20 minutes if traffic is light. We have a huge lake not 5 minutes form the house, Lake Murray, would love to have a retirement home on the lake. Only 6 hours from Orlando and 4 hours from Atlanta, plus 5 hours from my baby girl in TN. 

Cons: traffic is horrible because its a fast growing area. Summers aren't jus hot, they are miserably hot in the mid 90's to 105 most of the summer and high humidity. Michigan has nothing on the humidity here. 

All said, I love this area and besides after living in the armpit of America (Ohio) for 22 years just about anyplace is an upgrade.

Milwaukee. (Suburb)

Pros: Nice people.  Not a big city.  Relaxed homeschooling criteria.

Cons: no good hiking nearby.  (comparing to Cleveland which was excellent in that regard.)

Toledo, OH

Pros: It's cheaper to live here than  Michigan, where I'm from. Roads are also better for the most part. Enough to do without traffic being too bad. 

Cons: It's Ohio

Madison, WI

Pros: Great restaurants and breweries, nice people, lakes everywhere, and the most beautiful summers I've ever lived through. You get to live the city life but it still has a small town feel to it.

Cons: Winters are just brutal and never-ending. Sometimes the free-wheeling spirit here goes a little too far (there was a naked bike ride of about 50+ people last summer, protesting something or other. Not the greatest thing to have your kids around).

San Diego

Pros: sunshine

Cons: sunshine tax

Temperance,MI located north of Toledo.

Quick drive to AA and Detroit, nice people.The weather is the weather, you take the good with the bad.

DC area.

Pros: Lot of professional opportunities; free stuff to do; near historical sites; not too far from beaches; 3 major airports to choose from (makes a big difference for pricing).

Cons: High COL; shit people; shit drivers; people expect you to be available 24 hours/day (unless you work for the federal government); traffic is bad; public transportation is bad.

Byron Center, Michigan.

Gods country. 

Atlanta

Pros: big enough city to where we can do whatever we want, but not so big that we feel overwhelmed like when I was in NYC, great food, cheap cost of living, can get a direct flight to virtually anywhere in the world, my wife and I are only a day’s drive from both of our families, only a few hours from both the beach and the mountains, good job market, great Fall weather.

Cons: traffic, summer weather is pretty brutal, not a walkable city unless you live in Buckhead or midtown/downtown, and then while Atlanta is relatively moderate compared to the rest of the state, there are plenty of closed-minded bible-thumpers. Our neighbors across the street came to visit us right after we moved in, and the second or third question they asked us is what church we go to. When we we told them we don’t go to church, this look of confusion came over their face. They tried to hide their horror, jokingly called us heathens, made some excuse about having to leave, and haven’t even made eye contact with us since. 

Minnesota.

Pros: better schools and roads than Michigan, cheaper housing than California. (Im using those two states as examples because they're where I have lived previously.)

Cons: high taxes, six-month winters, countless mosquitoes in summer, tater tot hotdish, passive aggressive and thoroughly provincial natives.

I'm only staying 3 more years, when my oldest finishes high school and my wife can retire with her teacher's pension.

Southcentral Kentucky around Bowling Green. 

Pros: kind of rural, not overly populated or heavy traffic. About 35 minutes from Nashville. Fair amount of entertainment from Nashville up to Louisville 2 hours away. People are pretty friendly, the southern charm. Low housing costs. 

Cons: Kentucky weather is bipolar. Its 70 one day, 45 the next. It has rained a ton the last few months, almost like Seattle. Summers are very muggy and there is a high pollen count for those with allergies. Mosquitos! Cold winters with very little snow. If it's going to be 5 degrees I'd like to have some snow. Takes me 9.5 hours to get to AA for a game. 

45mins north of Albany NY

cons: winter lasts till about now. Rednecks and republicans everywhere. Zero diversity. Not a high level of competency from many college degree required professions (nursing, MDs) due to the cloistered experience of the populace. Ie, few people have experience outside of the Albany area. No one thinks white privilege exists.  Ppl seriously can’t park. Like in a spot at target for example- what those yellow lines don’t mean anything to you buddy?

Pros: weather the other 7 months of the year. Skiing if you’re into that. No traffic ( the con of which is that you develop zero tolerance for any level of traffic at all). People are generally nice schools are good mostly, low cost of living outside of NYS taxes, easy access to lakes and hiking. 3 hours from NYC, BOS, MTRL. Visiting Vermont is like if Europe were 30mins away. Weird as hell. 

Cincinnati, OH

Pros: it’s a very old city and was Chicago before Chicago was Chicago so it has the amenities of a much bigger city (though limited supplies of each) with a much lower cost of living than those bigger cities. 

Cons: it’s a little parochial and conservative for my personal tastes. It’s also really hard to get any sort of ethnic food in the city due to a lack of new immigrant groups. 

Muskegon, MI. Most beautiful sandy beaches in the world. In the summer I can’t imagine a better place to be. The problem? Summer only lasts three months. My boat was launched on Friday and today she is covered in four inches of snow. 

20 minutes south of Nashville proper.

Pros: moved during the recession in 2010 and bought houses stupid cheap.  Decent food options.  Decent sports teams, lots of outdoor activities and decent winters

Cons: dislike country music, locals think Nashville is a ‘big’ city, bad drivers, racism, religion is shoved in your face often.  Heat and humidity in the summers

Flint.     The crime rate is still high, however the water is pristine.........

brutus, 

its more about where you want to raise your children and maybe, though not necessarily, where you want to retire.  what do you think the best place will be for you and your bride?  do you really value some of the many things that have been posted about 'the scene', shopping, extended family, cuisine, etc?  

do you tolerate heat better than cold, rain/snow over dry/arid, twisters over monsoons or hurricanes? do you prefer crowds over dirt roads and the occasional tractor that your neighbor might have on that road, but pulling too many hay wagons?   want to know your neighbors by name and have helped them out (and they, you) on a number of occasions?  do you care if you make maple syrup with the county plow truck driver in the spring, and that he always grades your road first in the summer even though you've never said a word about it?  do you want to farm cattle (or ducks!) and let folks borrow your combine in the fall, or is mall parking and internet speed more important to you/yours?   

for me and my bride, it wasn't really safe for us to stay where we were and i couldn't wait to get back home. our courtship in socal included that knowledge that when we got married we would leave very soon.  it was the right decision for us x 1,000,000.  but that was what worked for us. 

one other factor besides these.  there's a saying i am fond of:  people make places, places don't make people.  where are your peeps, and will you actually see them and interact with them,or will social media still be the main connection?

one other thing i forgot - that whole dexter/saline/AA area is one of the cloudiest in the lower 48, only some of the coastal oregon/washington places surpassing it.  that was a downer in undergrad. 

there's more to it, but that's a start. hope there is something of value in there for you.