How to choose where to move to raise a family
Deciding on a new city requires balancing major lifestyle factors like climate and walkability with the challenge of finding a community where you can put down roots. Moving across the country with a baby and limited connections makes it difficult to know if you will find friends or if the new location will truly feel like home.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Visiting prospective areas for a week before deciding
- 2Renting for a year before making a permanent move
- 3Researching average rent costs, local taxes, and school ratings online
- 4Narrowing down options based on online research and neighborhood recommendations
- 5Visiting prospective cities to test out the weather and walkability firsthand
- 6Staying in the city while struggling with high costs and poor local schools
- 7Moving to a rural area now while kids are young and potentially moving back to an urban area later when they reach their teens
- 8Living in a small town and traveling frequently to larger cities for entertainment and worldly exposure
- 9Having family members fly or drive out to visit and help periodically
- 10Flying back home for holidays and birthday parties
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I have to leave my hometown of Austin Texas because it is too hot and car-centric for me to have a happy life”source ↗
“I've narrowed it down to Chicago or Pittsburgh.”source ↗
“My most pressing question is, which one do you guys think would I be more likely to find friends and community?”source ↗
“On one hand it feels wild to sacrifice all the amenities we have in California, but on the other it feels selfish to be so far from family that loves to help and be present.”source ↗
“Would CA be the right place for our young family to finally put down roots?”source ↗
“Moving across the country with a baby and limited connections would be a huge leap of faith.”source ↗
“We are getting priced out of the major city we live in. We are ok now, but it’s getting very difficult to sustain.”source ↗
“neighborhood safety isn’t great and schools in the areas of town we can afford to live in aren’t good either.”source ↗
“We also don’t have any family nearby and most of our friends have moved away over the years. We can only afford an apartment here… maybe a small duplex if we were very lucky to find one.”source ↗
“With our firstborn, not being around family was so isolating and sad.”source ↗
“We moved for financial reasons cause we couldn't afford California anymore and it has been very hard, granted we bought a home, something we could never do there.”source ↗