Where to Move? Help?
 

hi there, i am new to this forum and have been reading lots of information on moving to the USA which has been a great. so thankyou.

Me and my husband currently live in england, however my husband is American and came to england at a young age. We are going to be moving to the US however are really struggling to pick a state/city to live in.

We are a young couple who are wanting to start a family soon, we would like somewhere with nice hot or warm weather. Somewhere where it will be very easy to find a job and a nice place to bring up a family.
We will be looking to buy a home, therefore a place where it is cheaper to buy a nice decent sized home for under $200,000 is also important. Also nice scenery would be a benefit also.

Any information you could share on the different states would be brilliant with your opinions would really help?

Thanks in advance :) :)

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Texas :thumbsup:

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

thanks for your reply bunnygirl! I was actually looking at texas myself. what part of Texas would you recommend ?? I always just thought Texas was more cowboyish if that makes sense and kind of old fashioned?? but i have never been and thats just i see on the TV, also how humid is texas? so compared to florida? i know its big so im guessing it varies throughout?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks again for your reply

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

"Hot"? You can have too much of a good thing! :rolleyes:

What jobs are you looking for? You face two problems: without some sort of skilled or professional job you won't be buying a $200k house, and secondly, whatever skills or qualifications you (both) have may not readily lead to work in the US.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Might depend on what you do for work...that'll make the biggest decision.

Hot, well that comes with potential for humidity, massive AC costs and potential weird weather stuff.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Absolutely, there are lots of people on here who live in different parts of Texas. I only know the DFW area (that's where we're moving to hopefully in the Summer).

Definitely not cowboyish, not in the city areas anyway. Yes, it's hot and humidity can vary across the state but everywhere (and I mean EVERYWHERE) is airconned so it's not too bad. Cost of living/housing is cheap, and the schools seem good (you'll obviously always get your bad areas).

I know there's quite a lot of people on here who live in/near Houston which looks like it might be good for a young couple, check out sites like city data etc to help you.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Only places in the US that I know of that are hot and not humid would be Nevada and Arizona. Hot is a relative term to some ... these states will top the temperature at over 100 for most of the long summer months.

As for employment opportunities, you have to narrow that down to the type of employment you are qualified for unless you want to do menial work or waitress or the likes.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Hey, were looking at sales jobs as we both have experience with that. With regards to buying a house, were not expecting to buy for a while, and to rent to begin with. We have quite a large deposit already which will hopefully help, we also have enough to money to last us up to a year when we first move over there, which will hopefully help us by giving us enough time to find jobs.

Yes i agree with you with the hotness haha.. but id rather be hot than cold. Temperature is really bottom of our list, more jobs and nice lifestyle for familys is up at the top.

Thanks for your reply

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

we are fine with humidity as long as there is aircon :) , come to think of it, were happy with any type of weather/ temperature. just as long as there are opportunities for work.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

My husband also has a degree in Engineering, but i believe that is hard to get into.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

North Dakota... lowest unemployment of any state.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Texas has got to have lots of opportunities for that!

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Does not really equate with 'hot' though :D

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Well, the OP did modify their climate considerations... but, yeh, brutally cold in the winter ;)

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

i know a couple of you said texas? is texas always hot hot hot? does it ever get cold?

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

looking into North Dakota now too :) Thanks giantaxe

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Please tell us you don't mean retail sales. :unsure: Jobs in retail are really bad here, poorly paid, and with minimal time off. Also there is hardly a week goes by without a major retailer announcing major layoffs and closures. Several retailers are teetering on the brink - Sears, JC Penny, KMart, among others. Just about anyone who understands the retail market in the US knows that retail has a long way to fall: there is six TIMES more space per capita devoted to retail sales space (buildings) in the US than anywhere else in the world. A correction to this anomaly was already overdue, but Amazon and the online retail revolution is going to dramatically accelerate the process.

In short, if "retail sales" is your career plan, please either come up with a different career plan, or seriously reconsider your plan to emigrate to America.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

thanks for the info pulaski, hes after any sales, we have a background is call centre/ car sales. or something to do with his engineering degree he will be looking at. There seems to be a lot of car sales

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Colorado. Hot and dry in the summer. Cold in the winter. 300 days of sunshine a year. Very low humidity. Beautiful scenery. Very good employment in the Denver Metro area.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

North Dakota.
Lots of jobs in the oil industry. However 40 degrees below zero in winter.

Sales jobs...very difficult to come by unless you have very specific experience in the particular market. However it's dog eat dog and salaries aren't great. Many organization have a hiring freeze or downsizing. (I know a lot about technical sales.)

However check out Indeed.com.

Not a rosy scenario over here at all. I know I wouldn't move thinking it would be better.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

colorado looks beautiful, but from what ive researched it seems it quite expensive to live there?

we are moving as my husband has wanted to move back to his home country for a while now, and it just seemed there were more opportunitys over there in certain states?

and obviously much better weather than here :) lol

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

I'm not really aware of better opportunities here. It's a race to the bottom generally.

Better weather? I dislike the weather here in Southern California with the relentless heat and sunshine and drought. No joke.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

That's not obvious to me... at least, not for large parts of the country.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Half the country is deluged in snow and freezing rain. Other half is being toasted.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Depends where you live. Boulder is very expensive as are parts of Denver but the Old Highlands area in Denver is worth a look as are towns outside Denver. Young and trendy, lots going on. And there's always the western slope - Grand Junction is a lovely town.

I wouldn't say the weather is better, it's just different - like everything else ;)

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

so would you say it is quite difficult to get a job in the US? compared to the UK?
weatherwise, i think were just fed up of the cold and the rain, especially in manchester :) we would much prefer hotter sunnier weather...

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Yes indeed. Depending of course the level your aiming for...jobs are hard to get. Of course that's generalizing a bit.

I wouldn't come here thinking it would be easy.

Certainly sales jobs that pay in the region 50K -75K are tough to find. There's a glut of young graduates from the past 10 years and employers can hire them cheaply. Additionally employers are very stringent in hiring practices these days with multiple interviews and extensive personality testing. Also very little security...you could find a dream job only to be laid off at the drop of a hat. It's harsh.

Have a quick look at Indeed.com and see if there's anything that would fit hubby's background.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Take a look at Forbes fastest growing cities - never been to Austin, Texas but looking at a long weekend there soon, heard very positive things about it. Also consider the Carolinas - the triangle area - around Raleigh.
The Carolinas have great weather.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

This is worth a read.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/job...-economy/8575/

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Moss Side to Phoenix, AZ. After 10 years of bone soaking warmth I'm still waiting for the too much thing to kick in :D

OP what about Charleston, SC?

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Pretty much anywhere in the deep south apart from Florida is pretty nice - that said, the pay isn't the greatest anywhere in this area.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

What field of engineering and what level of experience does your husband have? Depending on the answers to that, it may not be as hard to break into an engineering job as he might think. There are more engineering jobs in the US than over here in the UK, mostly due to the fact that the US has far more industry. An engineering position is also going to pay fairly well, and far more likely to come with benefits such as health insurance. Sales positions are usually less lucrative (unless you are a damn good salesman), and don't always come with good benefits.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

He has an advanced modern apprentership in engineering with rolls royce, and an mechanical engineering degree. He has no working experience because as you probably know, its pretty much impossible to get a job in this field over here, especially in manchester.
Thanks for your reply and help.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Doesn't the Rolls Royce aspect count as experience? He could highlight that on a resume.

Have you been to Indeed.com yet...do a quick search and see if anything pops up.

For example

http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=ford+mo...mpany&start=30

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

There are entry level ME jobs to be had, otherwise most graduate MEs here would have issues getting into the field. An apprenticeship would go a long way towards getting into the automotive industry - assuming that's what he's most interested in. There are plenty of automotive plants to consider. Some of them may not be in the hottest areas of the country, but they'll be in locations that give you all 4 seasons. For example, Ford has 2 assembly plants in Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville gets plenty hot in the summer, but it can get pretty cold in the winter too.

Just depends on what your priorities are - is it location, or is it jobs? If your hubby graduated in the last couple of years, it may not be incredibly difficult to break into the field...but if he finished school 5+ years ago and hasn't used the degree since, he might find it more difficult.

I'm not an expert on the ME field. I have a US degree in Industrial Engineering (which is similar in some ways to ME). Tell him to start researching some of the professional organizations to see what his chances would be. Like maybe the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

[QUOTE=hotscot;11180890]Doesn't the Rolls Royce aspect count as experience? He could highlight that on a resume.

yeh i suppose it would count as experience, thanks :) il tell him to check those jobs out.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

And also create a LinkedIn profile and start networking.

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

the main importance is jobs, we need a place to move to where we know we will be able to get jobs.

i suppose thats the hardest thing, finding a place that meets most requirements :)

il have a look at louisville. thanks :)

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Well, I have to admit, I'm a bit biased towards Louisville, since that's where I'm from. I don't know if Louisville would suit your needs, but I can tell you that are quite a few automotive and industrial facilities in that region of the country. I can't think of one ME friend that had issues finding employment in that area. It's not as close to the beach as you all may want, but it's also fairly affordable as far as cost of living and housing. I'm not sure about the Texas employment opportunities, but there could be good opps for an ME in the oil & gas industry.

Good luck in your search!

Re: Where to Move? Help?
 

Not sure if that exists anymore...apart from North Dakota...
Just all depends what you guys are looking for, what the employer is looking for, and who's competing for the position.