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bergbryce
Mountain climber
South Lake Tahoe, CA
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Bend got the kiss of death in the late 90s I believe when AARP magazine labeled it the best place to retire.... The cost of living there skyrocketed in the 00s, but the housing market has collapsed like many other places in the past few years. And the economy in Bend was more dependent upon housing than many other areas, so it's been particularly hard hit in this recession.
From what I know, it's one of those small cities, like Bellingham, that has an incredibly over-educated populace and not enough good paying jobs. So living there must be pretty good.
For the record.... a hobby of mine is studying places to live. As a Geographer, it kind of comes naturally and I find combining the various factors that make a place desirable kind of fun. So apologies in advance if I appear to have a lot of opinions in this thread.
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martygarrison
Trad climber
Washington DC
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Hum, downtown Washington DC, with a second spread on Lopez Island, Washington. I'm all good.
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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YES I live where I want to live. A small town in NorCal at the start of the foothills. We have lots of space and acreage but are still close to anything we need (jobs, schools, restaurants, airport, home depot, etc.). I'm not right next to climbing/skiing but a 15 minute to 4 hour drive takes me to some of the best mountain recreation in the world and also the ocean.
It's always a compromise.. unless you have the money to have multiple homes. I'd love:
a house in Hawaii for the surf/beach
a ski in ski out condo at Squaw, Snowbird, or Jackson Hole, etc.
a thousand acre ranch with a lakefront house
a house in El Portal
I've been to 45 states and about 15 countries. The same reasons I moved to Cali at age 20 hold true now:
Mediterranean climate. That is rain in the winter and sun in the summer. It's pretty unusual, only the mediterranean and Cali have it. So you have months and months of sun to climb, do water sports, etc. But as a skier we still have 40 feet of snow a year and great steep expert terrain. Sunny, long summers with Yosemite, Lovers Leap, Donner Summit and a bunch of other uncrowded crags.
The Sierra. The ocean.
I lived in Alaska for a year, it was great, but summers are 70 degrees and partly cloudy on a good day and last about 2 months. I need more summer than that.
I lived in Truckee/Tahoe for 4 years. I like it about the same as where I'm at now. It was nice to be closer to recreation, but now I don't shovel snow or freeze my ass off, I enjoy the hot days on the water and warm nights, and have more stuff nearby (small towns get boring after a while). Plus I'd never be able to afford the property I have now up there. And it's only a 1 hour drive away.
You have to take into account everything: jobs, friends, family, recreation, weather, transportation, housing, if you have kids then schools/activities/friends for them.
My bro recently moved to Malibu. If you need to be in LA it's hard to beat. But expensive!
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