My DH and I were living in midtown Manhattan when we decided we wanted a weekend house in the country, and we wanted a boat. We got out a map and saw a big lake in northeast Pennsylvania. We drove to the lake, stopped at a real estate office, and bought a little house nearby.

After our first child was born, we bought a bigger house on more land. It was farther from the lake, but by then we were spending more time gardening than fishing and water skiing.

I met Joe online and moved here.

I live here because I was born here, had my children so spread out that I stayed so they could all attend school here. Then I had a good local job and stayed for that. I would love to move just to experience living somewhere else, but since I own my home and don't want to get into more debt, guess we will stay here.

We originally came here because of DH job, but now have kids and grandkids living close by. Even if that were to change youngest DD has some medical stuff that is better here in the warmth of TX so will stay.

Dean took a job in Ames right after he graduated from College. We looked in Ames for an apartment, and just didn't see anything that was 'just right'. We saw another ad in a local paper, decided just to stop and look. We drove into town, and as we did, I said this was such a pretty well cared for town! We loved the apartment and stayed to build our house and home!

This is where we were when DH retired from the military. We had kids in high school so decided to stay until they were all graduated. Well that was 22 years ago and both the kids are living in other parts of the country and we are still here.

Let's see.... 35 years ago, we were very young, very poor. We bought the nicest house we could afford, in nice little town. And we've never left. We were only 2-3 miles from our families. Only a few miles from our jobs. The schools were excellant. Great neighbors. We never had any reason to leave.

But we will be leaving within the year. The taxes here are getting out of sight ($5000/year property tax on a small 40 X 100' property). The city (one of the most dangerous in the country) is snaking out toward us. My mom is gone, his family has chosen a path we cannot agree with or tolerate.

So how did we chose where to go? We picked a place that isn't too far away, where property taxes are lower, where the sales tax is halved, where we could get 4 times the property we have here for about the same price. As we head toward retirement, we wanted an area with a slower pace, but all the 'ammenities' we have here in the suburbs. So we've been researching for about a decade. Finally settled on a place in our state (dd still lives here and we don't want to be to terribly far away). It's a large city (areawise, the largest in our state), but one that's actually rural. The house we're buying is only a couple of hundred feet from a farm, in fact. It's quiet, laid back, but has shopping, a big new, state-of-the-art hospital. We've met some of the neighbors, and they're just lovely. In short, we found a place where we feel very comfortable, where the finances look to work out better for us.

My husbands job was here, and the gym he goes to is within 3 miles.

Now, we will do this all over.... but this time, I don't think the gym is on his top list.

Moni

We live in LV now, for our jobs. They in turn help us save for our move to Montana. My kids are here and they have no desire to move to Montana. They are born desert rats. I, however, hate the desert and I always have.

I moved here a couple of years out of high school, to be near my sister.

When I met late DH, we both worked in center city Philadelphia. My family lived in NJ, he and his lived west of the city.
We looked for an apartment in both places, and found one we liked here, in "his" area.
Within a year, we changed jobs, and got jobs out here.
When he died, I had lived here for 36 years, owned my house free and clear...so, why move?
Then, I met Tom, and moved where I am now....about 10 miles north of my old house.

I could never, never move back to Jersey...even though what little family I have is there. I like it here.

When I married DH, he wanted to move to a smaller town than from where he had lived (30,000 people) and I wanted to move to a larger town than the one I had lived in my whole life (500 people!) so we moved out to the town we live in now (about 5000 people). We're still within a 45 minute drive of both of our parents.

Our children went to college in TN and both settled in the Nashville area and have lived here for several years so they wanted us to move closer to them when we retired. My husband and I grew up in Asheville, NC, so we're living closer to all of our families since retirement. We love living in TN!!

I was born and raised in Tyler. I went off the college and came back to Tyler to student teach and met DH. He taught 5th grade at one of the schools where I was the Speech Therapist. His family was near and mine was here, so that was it. Now 2 out of 3 kids are here and 5 out of 8 grands are here. I have the best friends in the world and I'm here to stay.

Our home has been in my family for over 70 years. It was my mom and dad's and they cleared the land and built the house, originally a summer cottage. We used to summer up here and then we moved up "full time" after my junior year in HS. When my father got sick my parents moved back to NYC so he could get the care he needed, and at that point I took the house over from my parents. DH owned the house he grew up in, buying his brother out after their parents died. When DH and I decided to get married we had a stronger connection to "my" house than to his, since we both love this land. It's also the house my DS grew up in and we didn't want to have to make a small child move away from the home that he'd known since birth (his father and I divorced when he wasn't quite 2. My DH is his step-dad, and has helped to raise him since he's been 4). So we sold DH's house and now this is our house. We've done so much work and made many improvements and someday we'll pass it on to DS. I know my mom and dad are smiling down on us.

My family moved to the area with I was in the sixth grade because of my dad's job. Then after I graduated from high school I went away to college came back to work and met DH and moved about 45 minutes away.

DH's work is here. I use to HATE it here, but now I like it. Only took about 7 years for that to happen. :)

Cause I like it :o)

DS was having allergy problems & we were sick of the cold & snow in Wisconsin. DH's brother lived in CA & really liked it so out we came. Gave up 2 good jobs & just took off. Sometimes I wonder if that was the best move, but after all these yrs. we're not about to move back.

We moved up here for the ex to get a better job. I stayed because of the kids. Once the kids are grown and possibly gone somewhere else I'm thinking of moving but not sure where.

As I neared retirement age, I wanted to get out of the SF Bay Area and live where the cost of living is lower and where I could buy a house. My mom was born and raised in Iowa and I have second and third cousins here. I love living in a college town, low crime and no traffic compared to CA. Since my State of CA pension and my Soc. Sec. are based on CA wages I earned, I do quite well here. I love owning my own home and having as many pets as I want. Iowa weather is not the best but the friendliness of the people here make up for it.

My husband and I are both from the suburbs of Pittsburgh. We came to Philadelphia when he started graduate school. By the time he finished all the necessary degrees and fellowship programs this area had become our home. I was a librarian in Philly until we were started our family. Now we've been here for 35 years.

We moved here because that's where the work was in my DH's field. We could barely afford to buy our first house, sold it three years later for twice what we paid and bought the house we're in now. Expected to move one more time but it never happened. Now the house is paid for and with our taxes grandfathered in to stay low with prop 13 it just pays to stay put. I figure I could use the money I save by not taking on another mortgage to travel. Our neighborhood has aged gracefully and I have a nice big yard for the dogs. The house felt a little small(2000 sq.ft.) when the kids were home but now it's starting to feel just right.

When I was about 25, a couple of friends and myself decided to go see the country and end up in California. We were going to stay for about a year and then go back to New England.
I stayed. As a matter of fact, they did too...but I don't know where they are now.

My husband and I both grew up in the town we live in. We both have good jobs, better than we could probably get elsewhere. My DH is nearing retirement now anyway. If we moved, it would be south, because we don't like the cold. But we want to stay close to the kids anyway.

We moved to CA from IL over 30 years ago because this is where the IC engineering jobs were. We had to leave right after the wedding because DH had to be at work the very next day. We moved over to the coast 22 years ago because we wanted a place with some land and couldn't afford anything in Silicon Valley.
Clare

alisande, mrsmarv, lindakathy, and others:
What GREAT stories!

I was born an Okie but lived in several other states (Kansas and Utah). I moved to this area 25 years ago with an ex-DH when he lost his job and the chances of finding employment where we lived looked grim. I had family here, so he and I moved.

Within a year, all my family had moved to Florida (*sigh*), he and I divorced a few years later, then I met DH a few years after that. Three houses and 20 years later, we are finally "home" and hope to spend the rest of our lives in this house.

I grew up about 8 miles from where I am now. Went to school, got a job, moved into an apartment with a friend, after a year we were ready to kill each other, got a different apartment for a few years until I bought the house. Thought I'd live here about 10 years and move. That was almost 30 years ago...

I have a pipe dream about moving northward to a slower paced community where the taxes are MUCH lower and friendship is valued much higher. Though I'd enjoy Lake Woebegon, I'll probably wind up on the edge of the rhubarb patch, where the winters are cold and the women are colder, the men are tough enough to fry bacon without a shirt on and all the mosquitoes are bigger than average.

My hubby's job at a University here. I like him a lot so I guess I will go where his career takes us.

We were living in Lake Forest, in south Orange County, CA. Hubs went to work for the state, and after a couple years they transferred him up here. Since it was a State-initiated transfer, they paid all of our moving expenses (I think it even included paying the commission on the sale of our home in Lake Forest).

Anyway, we've been here since December 1987. We like the Sacramento area because we get definite seasonal changes without having severe weather ('cept it can get danged hot in the Summer); and we're close to so much -- it's so easy to get to San Francisco, to Napa/Sonoma, to Lake Tahoe, etc.

Now we're tying to decide where we want to live when we retire... and we're thinking "Italy."

We had planned on moving to Georgia when we retired, but further south in the state. However, God works in mysterious ways and put us right where He wanted us to be and it is perfect. We love it here in Fayetteville.

My ex, our son and I transferred here with his job, in 1971. Our DD was born here about a year later. The kids went all 13 years of school here and my DS and grandkids live here. Twinkie was born and raised here and when we got married - this was still just "home" to me. I am a "two home" person - Des Arc and here. When I say that I'm going home it means I'm going to the town where I'm NOT! LOL

I'm two hours from my DD and an hour and a half away from my DM and my DB. Close enough for convenience and far enough away that we don't all get in each other's pockets.

As a young couple, DH and I were priced out of the Santa Cruz mountains by the Silicon Valley employees. We got pre-approved for a loan, opened the paper to the real estate section, found our price range, and went and found a house we fit into. Only problem is he still works in Santa Cruz, 90 miles away.

After we had our first baby, we realized we could never afford a house in Northern CA, where both of us grew up. We decided to check out Portland, Oregon and loved it. We moved here when baby #2 was almost a year old. We actually live in a suburb of Portland and we chose it because we loved the schools, the people were so friendly, and we were close to everything. We've since moved 2 more times but have stayed in the same area. Almost all of our extended family have followed us up here!

Sheryl

Dad farmed near here, London, Ontario, then moved to Prairies when I late teen because of breathing problems (pollution and humidity here, 60 years ago).

Univ. and seminary in a city on the Prairies, 10 years in Korea just after Korean War helping refugees get settled, son needed eye care in this area, I was minister in churches this area ... till Sue and I parted ... clergy didn't do that!

Spent some time on prairies, took stockbroker course, didn't find that work there, but did find work with mutual fund sales broker near here when came to visit my teen kids this area, boarded for a while with friend, then lived in rooming house.

Didn't sell mutual funds long (too few sales) but enjoyed personal financial advisory, despite poor income - "why pay you when I can get same advice for free?" ... well, not quite the same recommendations, usually! Moved to share rental townhome with a guy, he later moved in with widow (sort of temporarily ... turned out she liked the dog better than him). Stayed there for over 15 years. Both kids not too far away.

Stayed with childless Uncle for a couple of months after his wife died, after his death about three years ago, oversaw house for about a year, moved here to what was Uncle's beef farm when it was bought by a sod farmer and he offered to rent the house to me ... at about 2/3 of the fee in town. But I have to haul water, as the well is too close to former barnyard (which is now my garden). Shi! can be helpful ... or a nuisance!

Two bedrooms, filled with too much stuff ... with more in the garage and the barn.

Son lives in the city that I left, daughter recently moved to AZ ... she says I'm to go to her new place for birthday, in middle of next winter.

Living on a farm ... in a village ... in a suburb ... all are O.K. A variety of friendly, interesting, helpful people wherever.

ole joyful

My hubs co. told their employees that some would be offered jobs at the main company. If you were picked to go, you had a great job and benefits. If not you didn't have a job. Well, he was one of those picked. So, we moved over 500 miles for his job. Only a handful of those that moved we knew before the transition. Left behind my daughter and then 18 month old grandbaby. Very hard for me.Also his parents are still up there and refuse to come south. Left a job that I totally loved and would never have quit. The area here has much cheaper housing and taxes. I question sometimes how smart the idea was at our age, but what options we had were very slim up north. I am slowly(it's been four years in June) adjusting that this is HOME. I love my home and yard and the weather. (miss the snow tho !)