Flop Florida and Tennessee, and bump Mississippi to the top. Florida is way worse than Tennessee, so glad I left the one for the other. Still need to find somewhere better long term though.
If you want to stay on the east, New England, New Jersey, DC, Virginia(Virginia's the weakest of these options). West coast: Cali, PNW, Colorado. Michigan gets an honorable mention due to the whirlwind of progressive legislation they've been passing lately. Along with the more favorable weather they will have long term as climate change destroys the rest of the country. Illinois is apparently pretty ok too but I don't know much about the state. Source: I'm looking to GTFO of Florida next year and have been reading up on these states for a few months now
E: here's a tool that helped me get started with my research
Have to stay in Eastern time zone. Initially I was looking at NC, but that has gone downhill lately. My kid wants us to look at Vermont or Maine, but I'm leaning towards Virginia. We tend to avoid large cities, so NJ and DC are out.
Vermont's gonna be a rough one to move to, they have one of the worst housing shortages in the country atm. Maine might be a good pick, you may want to check out Connecticut too, that's the one I'm leaning more towards. The towns are small, but close to one another so you get the benefits of a city with a more small town feel. Cost of living is reasonable, schools are good, pretty progressive govt. It checks a lot of my boxes and I get the feeling it might do the same for you.
Flop Florida and Tennessee, and bump Mississippi to the top. Florida is way worse than Tennessee, so glad I left the one for the other. Still need to find somewhere better long term though.
If you want to stay on the east, New England, New Jersey, DC, Virginia(Virginia's the weakest of these options). West coast: Cali, PNW, Colorado. Michigan gets an honorable mention due to the whirlwind of progressive legislation they've been passing lately. Along with the more favorable weather they will have long term as climate change destroys the rest of the country. Illinois is apparently pretty ok too but I don't know much about the state. Source: I'm looking to GTFO of Florida next year and have been reading up on these states for a few months now
E: here's a tool that helped me get started with my research
Have to stay in Eastern time zone. Initially I was looking at NC, but that has gone downhill lately. My kid wants us to look at Vermont or Maine, but I'm leaning towards Virginia. We tend to avoid large cities, so NJ and DC are out.
Vermont's gonna be a rough one to move to, they have one of the worst housing shortages in the country atm. Maine might be a good pick, you may want to check out Connecticut too, that's the one I'm leaning more towards. The towns are small, but close to one another so you get the benefits of a city with a more small town feel. Cost of living is reasonable, schools are good, pretty progressive govt. It checks a lot of my boxes and I get the feeling it might do the same for you.