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Across the Fence:  Best Places to Live  |
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mima
True Blue Farmgirl
1573 Posts
1573 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 07:22:01 AM
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| I live on the Central Coast of California. It is beautiful here and you can't beat the weather. But!!! Its very expensive. My husband and I have four grown kids, retirement is looming. We own a home but we have big college loans for our kids.(college was so important for them and i wanted so badly for them to go......)Even though they have pretty decent jobs they will probably never be able to buy a home here in or So. Cal where they live.( A condo starts at half a million!)Anyway, The thought to relocate is kinda in the back of everyone's minds. Where is the best place to live?????? Any California transplants out there? What do you think? I've heard the Carolinas are pretty. Anyway, open to suggestions! Thanks! |
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Past Blessings
True Blue Farmgirl
1083 Posts
Brenda
Orchard Prairie
WA
USA
1083 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 07:53:28 AM
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I live in Spokane, Washington and am amazed at the number of California "transplants" mostly because of the high cost of living. I think what makes this area popular is that we have all seasons, it is not nearly as wet as Seattle (people always group Washington together with Seattle . . . even though there is an entire Mountain Range separating us! LOL!), we have wonderful warm dry summers, beautiful colorful autumns, lovely snowy winters and beautiful, but muddy springs. It is a skiiers paradise and we have over 70 lakes within a 100 mile radius!! There are gorgeous rolling wheatfields, forests, mountains, prairies . . . you name it. About the only thing we don't have is the ocean! The area is big enough to have everything, but small enough to find everything. Living in one of the surrounding country communities such as Freeman, Valleyford, etc. would be the ideal. I have lived here my entire life. Sometimes I dream of leaving, but it is simply for the sheer adventure . . . but truly this is one of the prettiest places on earth!
Best wishes in making such a big decision!
Brenda
Past Blessings . . . Celebrating Life as it used to be . . . when people loved God, loved their families and loved their country. |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 08:28:18 AM
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Hey...I am from the Central coast (Arroyo Grande) and have lived here in Utah for 4 and 1/2 years. I have grown kids (3 of them) still in Calif..two in AG and one at UCSB. I love the seasons and the small town life here. I think Idaho is beautiful too. Most of my family still lives on the Central Coast..but you are sure right..very very expensive and alot more crowded that it was when I was growing up!!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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mima
True Blue Farmgirl
1573 Posts
1573 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 09:36:44 AM
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| Thats funny Aunt Jenny! We live in Santa Maria! I love A.G and SLO so much!!! And I love Santa Barbara! UCSB is great! How do your kids feel about your move? You know whats funny? I see Bo Derek and John Corbett in Costco all the time!!! Im usually eating a hot dog when skinny skinny Bo walks past me! No joke!!!!! |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 10:35:32 AM
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How funny!!!!!! My DH grew up in Santa Maria!! (my favorite Aunt lives in Los Alamos too)
Gosh..when I am out to visit for EAster we should meet up!!!
My kids wish I were there still I guess..they are out on their own now..and they do come visit when they can. I miss them like crazy though. Oldest son lived here for a couple years but he is back in our hometown now.
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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faithymom
True Blue Farmgirl
360 Posts
Faith
Sandpoint
ID
USA
360 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 11:22:00 AM
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I am a transplant from the wet Willamette Valley in Oregon to North Idaho. I love it here and as Brenda said, we have a great range of seasons in this area (for those unfamiliar to these areas, Seattle and Eugene are similarily damp and gray a lot, and I am just 1 1/2 hours from Spokane, WA)
We have been here 3 years. It's beautiful...nature is close by (as evidenced by the TWO deer I've hit since being here...having never hit any before then), it's not terribly over-populated, the mountains are stunning, summer days at the lake are awesome!
I do love Oregon and both of my parents migrated from CA to OR in the 70s.
I don't know that the cost of living is much lower here than OR, however...it seems it's pretty close, but real estate is *a bit* less...was A LOT less 10 years ago...
Faith
"All television is educational television. The only question is, what is it teaching?"-Fmr. FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson |
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Tracey
True Blue Farmgirl
766 Posts
Tracey
State of Confusion
USA
766 Posts |
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mima
True Blue Farmgirl
1573 Posts
1573 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 7:14:18 PM
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| Thanks for all the replys mmm... Spokane, Idaho, Utah, maybe I'll check out their chamber of commerces! What is an average home price? Aunt Jenny let me know if you come this way! Costco hot dogs and stargazing! David Crosby haunts Costco alot too hee!hee! Though today it was almost 80 degrees, I went jogging in a tank top. It would be hard to give up.By the way, where did your DH go to high school. We came from Burbank nearly 28 years ago when our oldest was one. But everyone is related to someone here. We probably know alot of the same people!Thanks for everyones replys.... love to hear more! |
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Aunt George
True Blue Farmgirl
1476 Posts
Georgann
Midlothian
VA
1476 Posts |
Posted - Feb 17 2007 : 7:53:17 PM
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Mima,
I think it would be hard to leave the show at Costco. Tell me, does Bo still bead her hair? *g*
Anyway, Virginia is beautiful. We live around the Richmond area...capital of the South. The real estate here is really on the way up too. This whole area has been bought up by developers. Even the "rural" land has been scooped up. You just can't your few acres and settle in with a few chickens. The average home price in our subdivision has gone from the original building costs of around $130,000 to $300,000. This will get you around 2600 sq ft with less than an acre. Four bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths and a 2 car garage, usually with a walk up attic and possibly a basement. These homes were built in the late 80's (1980's). ONe of the historic homes on Monument Avenue (antebellum or shortly thereafter) will cost you, refurbished half a million or more. You can't find many ranch style homes all on one floor. Mostly 2 and 3 story colonials in this whole area.
I loved North Carolina when we lived there. The pay is decent and the homes outside of the Raleigh-Durham area are fairly reasonable. Both VA and NC are close to mountains, beaches and lots of historical sites too. The weather has all four seasons, good skiing with an hour or two, beaches close, excellent health care facilities, plenty of work for almost everyone here too.
Good luck with your homesearch and retirement!
G
http://auntgeorgeshouse.blogspot.com/index.html
Thanks for checking out my apron and sewing musings! |
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mima
True Blue Farmgirl
1573 Posts
1573 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2007 : 10:39:46 AM
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| Thank you Aunt George! I just read your blog! So cute! Virginia sounds beautiful too. We are the same age too! P.S. We are still a couple of years younger than Bo! She doesn't have braids any more just beautiful long blond hair on her all of 90 lb frame!Maybe because she never had any kids?????(no one to give her gray hair......lol!) |
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YiberryYadeeKarin
True Blue Farmgirl
343 Posts
Karin
Spokane Valley
WA
USA
343 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2007 : 2:38:18 PM
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Another vote for the Spokane/Coeur d'Alene (eastern WA/northern ID) area! (Although I hate seeing "progess" taking over, gulping up our wonderful farmland and choking our roads with more and more cars!)
I'm a Spokane native. Actually, my daughter is a fourth generation Spokane native! I have lived a few other places in my life, during my 20s, while working for the Park Service -- southeastern MT, southern ID, the Black Hills of SD, the Grand Canyon, and the Blue Ridge area of Virigina. If I didn't live in Spokane, I'd consider the Rapid City area of SD, Bozeman (MT), or the Shenandoah Valley in VA.
BUT, I do happily live in this area. (Brenda did a wonderful job describing it!) I love the outdoors and enjoy the variety -- everything from mountains and forests to the east and north, the rolling farmland of the Palouse to the south, and the unpopulated farmland of the Columbia Basin and the Channeled Scablands, too.
As the second largest city in Washington (can't remember the metropolitan population of this area -- 500,000 or more?), we have most everything. Yet we're also very isolated as we're 300 miles from Seattle.
Let us know if you have any questions about our area!
Karin |
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katmom
True Blue Farmgirl
17470 Posts
Grace
WACAL Gal
WashCalif.
USA
17470 Posts |
Posted - Feb 18 2007 : 8:37:43 PM
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Well Mima,
I don't know about you,,,,but I am certainly sold on the Spokane area, so much so that i have been contacting ladies here at the F.G. connection as well as "Sisters on the Fly", a fishing group that I am a member of. Everyone that I have contacted who lives in the Spokane area, LOVES it. No complaints. Some adjustments but are happy that they did so. I live in the So.Cal. area and while for the most part climate wise it's not a bad place to live, the cost of living is outrageous. We have 2 very large phyarmacutical(sp?) companies that have impacted the housing market. A small condo run's about $400K and a ave. house is around $700K on up.
So my vote is for Spokane, & if all goes well, my hubbie & I will be up the next year at this time when I retire from my county job.
Who knows, we may all be neighbors someday... : > )
>^..^< |
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mima
True Blue Farmgirl
1573 Posts
1573 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 05:25:08 AM
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| Thanks katsmom! My daughter lives near you in Camarillo. Prices are crazy down there!!! Im really gonna have to check out Spokane,now!!!! |
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westernhorse51
True Blue Farmgirl
1681 Posts
michele
farmingdale
n.j.
USA
1681 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 05:39:45 AM
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boy Spokane does sound great! I couldn't leave my ocean though as I have tried numerous times in my 55 years. Monmouth County N.J. is VERY expensive now but I was born here & it is home. N.J. does have wonderful places still, contrary to what most people think, they usually think of The Sopranos type of people or all the tanks in Newark by the airport. Two of my favorite places in my home state are Cape May & Ocean Grove which is my beach & 8 miles down the road. Most of my life I lived only a few blocks from the ocean. I've tried other places many times but always come back. It's changing like most other places but it is still HOME to me. It's got alot of diversity still, beaches, horse farms, lighthouses, boating, great food, small family farms (so far). Guess I will always be an East Coast Girl! 
she selects wool and flax and works with eager hands Prov.31:13 |
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Aunt George
True Blue Farmgirl
1476 Posts
Georgann
Midlothian
VA
1476 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 05:41:04 AM
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You know, my hubby and I want to downsize in the next year or so. We too are tired of the rat race. Now we do have 2 young daughters, so schools are still an important part of any move decisions. My son is in Austin, but Spokane is sounding better and better to me too. We are still looking at NC again though. Gotta have the good jobs, but me being a nurse, my profession is both portable and in demand...I love reading the area descriptions...thanks girls!
G
http://auntgeorgeshouse.blogspot.com/index.html
Thanks for checking out my apron and sewing musings! |
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl
8529 Posts
Frannie
Green County
Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 12:33:13 PM
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oh gurlfrenz ... i pu tmy vote n for GREEN COUNTY, KENTUCKY!! my very own home sweet kentucky home... where the living is easy .. (and VERY inexpensive) .. surrounded by beautiful NATURE .. kind friends and neighbors .. the GOOD LIFE! got questions, i'll be happy to answer them or find answers for you if any of you ever consider moving this a-way! xo
True Friends, Frannie
CABIN CREEK FARM
KENTUCKY
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Feb 19 2007 : 8:41:45 PM
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Frannie:
My husband and I are not ready to retire,but we are looking at future hometowns for ourselves. You make Kentucky sound good to me!
I would love Washington or Idaho, but my husband has that circulation disease (pronounced Raynoids) and cannot handle real cold weather. This thread has been good to look through! |
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laluna
True Blue Farmgirl
295 Posts
New York
USA
295 Posts |
Posted - Feb 20 2007 : 04:43:07 AM
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| Well, Forbes just ranked my lovely region as #1 in cost-of-living (Buffalo-Niagara)! The average cost of a home here is about $81,000, and you couldn't find a warmer, friendlier group of people anywhere. Plus, we *really* have all four seasons, and within about a 20-25 minute car-ride, you can go from urban to rural - so I always think we have the best of both worlds. Oh, plus it's about a 90-minute ride up to Toronto, which is another lovely little perk. This site is more Buffalo-specific, but it gives you a good idea of what's going on: http://www.buffalorising.com/ and then there's always here too: http://www.buffalocvb.org/ which offers more general visitor-information, but still a great place to look! |
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shmeg
True Blue Farmgirl
222 Posts
Megan
Granville
Ohio
USA
222 Posts |
Posted - Feb 20 2007 : 05:38:02 AM
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This has been such an interesting thread! I'm not really looking to move but my situation is uncertain. I'm a nanny for a pretty wealthy couple and in exchange for watching their son, we get to live in one of their properties on 11 beautiful acres in a quaint small college town with great schools! It is ideal for now but I don't know how long it will last and it never hurts to have a backup plan. I'm in central ohio and unfortunaltey "progress" is rearing its ugly head here too. They are extending the highway from Columbus to just about 5 miles from our idyllic, historic little town, making us that much closer to the city and all of its sprawl. Most of the farms along the way have already been bought up, destroyed and marked for development. It breaks my heart. Almost enough to make me want to move back to the city, afraid the more I run to the country the more country I'll see chewed up and spit out by developers. Depressing. Anyway, sorry, sounds like some beautiful places out there and has given me some ideas on where to look should we have to pack up the kids and move on someday.
-Megan |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Feb 20 2007 : 2:21:13 PM
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Laluna: I read Tim Russerts book a few months back and he really made Buffalo sound like a great place to grow up and to raise a family. I thought it would be too cold for my husband, otherwise we would look there too. We have been looking into upstate for years, and it is still a possibility, so you might have me taking a look. I think I saw there are a few nice quilt shops in your area as well. A good church, quilt stores and a college nearby are crucial for me when I make my next move. Do you have mountains nearby? That is something I want too. Thanks for sharing!!
XXOO Sheryl-lyn |
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Past Blessings
True Blue Farmgirl
1083 Posts
Brenda
Orchard Prairie
WA
USA
1083 Posts |
Posted - Feb 20 2007 : 4:38:30 PM
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I am not sure what the "official" cost of an average home in Spokane is, but I do know you buy a nice, newer home that is at least 2600 square feet for between $250,000 and $300,000. Our home is a 5 year old daylight, walk-out rancher with 4 bedrooms, three full baths and over $2800 sq. ft. It would sell for about $280,000. Of course older homes in older neighborhoods go for less, except for the ones in the more spendy historical districts, such as the South Hill. Our dream is for acreage, but that is where the prices really start raising. To get a home similar to ours on acreage, it will be about $450,000 to $500,000.
Will we don't want too many people finding out about our great location, we would love to have some MaryJane Farmgirls join us! Best wishes as you make your decisions.
Brenda
Past Blessings . . . Celebrating Life as it used to be . . . when people loved God, loved their families and loved their country. |
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Amie C.
True Blue Farmgirl
2099 Posts
Finger Lakes Region
NY
2099 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2007 : 06:11:20 AM
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| Yikes, Brenda! You guys pretty much had me sold on the Spokane area (I'm thinking about moving in the future too). But those home prices seem awfully high to me. Of course, I'm in the same general region as Buffalo, so that's more the housing price I expect as "normal". Is $200-300K really what everybody pays for a house these days? |
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laluna
True Blue Farmgirl
295 Posts
New York
USA
295 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2007 : 08:27:01 AM
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Wow, I wouldn't be able to afford to live where average housing costs are that high! I guess I'm just used to what we pay around here. But still...
@Sheryl-lyn - heh...Buffalo loves it's native sons and daughters, and Tim Russert always gets the royal treatment when he's in town! Despite what the national media would have people believe, I really don't find the Buffalo area to be all that cold. Sure, we have our stretches of cold weather during the winter, but to truly have all four seasons is something that can't be beat, imho :-) And we have *tons* of churches, quilt shops, craft/fabric stores and the like in the general area. Add to that the many colleges in the area as well (SUNY at Buffalo, Buffalo State College, Canisius College (my alma mater ;-) Niagara University, etc. etc.) I think you'll at least have to come for a visit! :-) |
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lamarguerite farm
True Blue Farmgirl
649 Posts
missy
Battle Ground
Wa
USA
649 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2007 : 08:38:30 AM
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We live in the "dreary" part of Western Washington, but I have to say the summer's and the foliage here are absolutely gorgeous. I've never been able to grow good tomatoes here though.
I would like to eventually move to an area that has more sunshine. Not the best place her for someone with fibromyalgia!! When we went to farm fair last summer I absolutely fell in love with the area. The rolling hills are breathtaking and the air was so much drier. The people were so friendly. I have this feeling that at some point in my life, I'm going to end up there!!
Blessings,
Missy
If you have a dream, even if you don't feel qualified to accomplish it, just try your hardest.-Maggie Jensen
http://18happyhens.blogspot.com
http://LamargueriteFarm.etsy.com |
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Past Blessings
True Blue Farmgirl
1083 Posts
Brenda
Orchard Prairie
WA
USA
1083 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2007 : 10:52:51 AM
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I guess it is all "relative". Compared to most parts of California, we are cheap, and even compared to Seattle and Portland, Oregon we are affordable. If you go to the further out areas in rural towns such as Latah and Oakesdale (an hour or so from Spokane) you can find things for around $100,000. My husband has to be closer in for his job as a paramedic. There is an old farmhouse for $109,000 right now in Oaksdale that would be really tempting. Housing prices have changed rapidly in Spokane. We bought our first little bungelow for $51,000, sold it 7 years later for $83,000, bought our next house for $95,0000, sold it 6 years later for $138,000. Bought this one 2 1/2 years ago for $141,000 (it was a repo and far below market value) would sell it now for about $280,000 (though we have fixed it up a lot).
Brenda
Past Blessings . . . Celebrating Life as it used to be . . . when people loved God, loved their families and loved their country. |
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sewgirlie
True Blue Farmgirl
1894 Posts
Sheryl-lyn
Calverton
NY
USA
1894 Posts |
Posted - Feb 21 2007 : 3:10:59 PM
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Laluna:
I am actually planning a trip your way this summer (I hope!) to visit quilt shops all the way from my sister-in-law (in the Warrensburg/Lake George area) to New Boston and Buffalo. Who knows!? I told my husband that one of these days I will be buying us a home on one of my little trips. He says, "Go ahead!"
On Long Island, the average 3 bedroom little house on a 1/4 acre is from 400 to 500 thousand! Taxes are over $10,000!!! a year for most people too! The kids and older folk are running from there because of it. We will not be able to stay once we are retired in 15 years. |
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Across the Fence: Best Places to Live |
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Best Places to Live
