Best city for raising family
 

Hi folks -

Currently in Manhattan and am looking to move in a year or two. We have two young kids.

Requirements:
- lots of outdoor activities
- reasonably progressive area
- relatively low state taxes
- near a good international airport
- not a brutally cold climate in winter
- great schools, either public or private
- real estate prices not an issue as we are selling in Manhattan

Current ideas include Boulder, CO and Austin, TX. What other cities should go on the list?

Thank you.

Eugene, OR
Chapel Hill, NC
Charlottesville, VA

Best city for raising family
 

Love Oregon but 10% state income tax excludes it from the list.

Depends what you mean by "brutally" cold, but I'd include

Bloomington, Indiana
Colorado Springs, Colorado (areas around Colorado College are quite progressive even if the rest of the city isn't)
Albuquerque or Santa Fe NM
Chico, California

Seattle

Best city for raising family
 

CA- taxes too high
Seattle - too little sunshine...

I boulder doesn't meet "cold", how are you defining that?

Best city for raising family
 

Yes this is indeed a quixotic exercise. I'm from the Midwest and can't handle winters...but Boulder at least has sunshine and skiing....

Well, the places that are nice to live have high taxes. The price you pay for living somewhere nice. Deal with it.

Best city for raising family
 

Austin and Boulder do not...

nevermind. Thought better of it.

To some of us that are here, though, it's a tradeoff we're willing to make. Add up all the elements that are important to you (schools, crime, airport, commute times) and you might reconsider.

Benicia, where I've lived for 31 years now, was rated the best city in the Bay Area to raise a family (San Francisco Chronicle series a few years back). We have parks, affordable housing (homes up the hill from me start at $600,000 which, compared to anything in Silicon Valley, are a bargain) and we're relatively crime-free in terms of violent crimes. Lots of youth sports and ballparks about, and an excellent school system. The state park has a 2.5 mile paved trail where kids are always out bicycling. We're on the waterfront between the Bay and the Delta.

We do have a Catholic grade school here and there are Catholic high schools in Vallejo, 5 mins up the road, and Concord, a good 20 mins away (one of which was just featured in a movie about their football dynasty). I graduated from the one in Vallejo and friend's daughters from one of the two in Concord. I know there is a Christian school in Vallejo but not really up on private schools aside from the Catholic ones.

Traffic is a consideration, though, if you need to get to an airport during commute times. SFO is a 45 min drive off peak (2-3X longer if commute time), but if you're traveling during morning commute much easier to make the hour drive to SMF (Sacramento) and park on-property for $10 a day. You're also within an hour of OAK and SJC, so pretty much your choice of airports. If you're doing 6-7am flights you can really go from any of them and beat the traffic. I've flown from them all, though now primarily SFO and SMF.

Benicia is known for markets in the downtown area a couple times a year, including this one that literally goes right down to the water's edge:

http://tom911.smugmug.com/Benicia-Va...P1070150-M.jpg

Then, a nice view up the Carquinez Strait to the Carquinez Bridge along I80:

http://tom911.smugmug.com/Benicia-Va...P1070157-M.jpg

We also have a yacht club and docks here:

http://tom911.smugmug.com/Benicia-Va...P1020204-M.jpg

I'm still pretty happy here. I had looked at relocating to northern Washington state when I retired, and one of my high school classmates did just that (he's in Gig Harbor), but after a long visit I decided I could not live without sunshine for long periods of time and just decided to stay here. Not a single regret.

Might be worth your consideration and I'd be glad to show you around.

OP, to get more refined answers, you might want to share which states have what you consider to be "relatively low taxes."

But we have no sales tax.


Also, Austin doesn't have a cold winter, but have you ever dealt with 100+ for weeks at a time? I grew up in the south and the heat is one of the things that drove me out. I just got sick and tired of it. My family is still in SC and ATL and I actually visit Austin quite a bit. It's HOT. As for being progressive, yes, the city is, but look at the rest of Texas.


I would throw in Bend, OR but the airport isn't great. You would just connect to PDX for everything.

Best city for raising family
 

So the deal is that my kids are in NYC public schools and if we relocated to a lower tax state we could put them in private schools with the savings and likely have a better quality of life. I'm thinking <5% state tax rate. Thanks for your insights and patience. I'm sure folks love where they live and want to offer their insights but that's the math underpinning this...