Are there any?

Coastal states preferred...

Isn't that desire similar to the price, quality, service triangle? You can usually only pick any two of the three.

Having issues with one or more of those three in the Bay area?

Cost of living, yes, that's a big strike there, I know. I'd figure the education and weather would be pretty decent.

So, you talking about moving the familia? I'm thinking your wish list is a toughie, since (1) and (2) together in a place are gonna make it hard to find (3) - as in your current situation.

Northern Virginia is not bad - Fairfax's Thomas Jefferson magnet school often is at the top of the Newsweek public school rankings.

Education is crap if you don't live in an expensive area. School funding is tied to property tax.

For the nice weather, I recommend Canada

What do you define as "decent weather"? I'd take the occasional snowfall over earthquakes, hurricanes or tsunamis any day. I think you pretty much eliminated the west coast of North America when you said "low cost of living".

I'm not good in the snow. Heat is better than snow, basically. Limited snow might be fine.

I'm also used to earthquakes.

Oklahoma has really cheap housing prices compared to many places and mild weather. Ranks low in education but I felt adequately educated growing up in oklahoma schools and I wouldn't complain. The large school districts within the wealthier parts of the state are actually pretty good IMO.

Not on the coast, but we have lots of lakes.

I really can't think of a lot of good about Misery, I mean Missouri. Too hot and humid in the summer, but not as bad as Texas. To cold in the winter, but not as bad as Montana or Canada. Southern MO might be a good place to fish or hunt, but it's not my thing.

Ken, if you move, you have to make sure your new job allows for your current level of Axiom activity, or Peter will overtake you in the post count.

Yeah, I know. This is dangerous.

Sleep is over-rated, you can work during the day and post all night....or we can send cousin Gino over to Peter's house and knee-cap his knuckles(!??) so you stay in front.

I just moved to Vancouver, WA.

They say it's grey season here, but I certainly love it. No income tax, just over the border from Portland...great.

We had higher temps than Florida Yesterday!

As far as I can tell, the cost of living is decent. And, in Oregon, no sales tax!

Come on up Ken. My employer is recruiting an IT bandit right now too. PM me for info if interested. If Michael's better half gets her way, you'll have company. Oh wait, you said decent weather and low cost of living....never mind. But, the salary just might convince you otherwise.

Not necessarily true. You can live in an area with lots of industry which can make school districts rich. The houses near industrial areas also tend to be less expensive. In this instance, you are sacrificing a desirable neighborhood for a rich school district. I live in a coastal area, but the weather is a big drawback here. I would also not brag about our education here as we tend to value athletics more than education.

The public education funding model varies widely from state-to-state. It's usually inaccurate to generalize about "quality" of education based on location because the primary factors tend to be the individual teacher, the class size and parental involvement.

Dan, now that we're within 150 miles of each other, I look forward to getting together some time. I absolutely agree that the Vancouver WA / Portland OR area is fantastic. I tried pretty hard to talk bigwill into moving there a few years ago.

Ken, because of you and Jen, your kids are going to get a great education regardless of the district or school they attend. You'll be involved, and they'll be ready to learn.

I'm a little surprised you didn't mention commuting or transportation infrastructure in your criteria. You are fairly spoiled in this area at the moment, and obviously have a pretty high threshold of pain relative to how much time you're willing to spend commuting.

My opinion is that there are too many micro-zones within your question for it to be meaningfully addressed here. You're really talking about a geopolitical boundary the size of a neighborhood (or an elementary school or - at largest - a school district) rather than a State.

Honestly, especially in the current economic climate, my opinion is that you have to let your job/career drive the location.

Your right Tom. As part of a graduate seminar I wrote a chapter of a congressional report on rural education. Path Analysis of data collected across the U.S. over 10 years and in Brazil for over 20 years showed a correlation coefficient of +.8 (nearly unheard of in sociological studies) showing that “significant others” (parents, teachers, siblings, clergy etc. . .) was by far the most significant factor in predicting the future educational and economic outcome of a child. School funding was uncorrelated when other more salient variables which almost always contributed to the low funding were controlled for. We found that the single most determining factor in a child’s educational outcome was the value the child’s parent(s) placed on education.

OTHO schools with students from poor neighborhoods, regardless of how funded did correlate with weaker educational outcomes because of underlying family and social issues (broken families, drug use, education being viewed negatively, etc. . .) that tended to cause these neighborhoods to be poor in the first place. If I were personally choosing where to raise a family I would seek to avoid such areas because of the pier pressure my children would face which would likely have a negative impact on them.

However, broad generalizations don’t always apply to every specific situation.

Tom, that would be great. I have friends all the way up in Bellingham (they just moved) so I imagine we'll have plenty of opportunities to meet up for a beer when I drive up or meet up in Seattle.

As a youngin...I'd agree on the school "micro" zones. Highschool wasn't...THAT far away (6 years? Crap) and I was lucky and got into a great district. A mile in another direction I could have been in a different one.

Come to North Dakota. As in the Conan O. skit (can't find it anymore on you tube): "Come see if we're murdering visitors....And bring your wallet!!!

Seriously though. Nothing you want exists here. Damn relatives fell for that "free land" (OK, stolen fair and square) thing.

I think I did a quick google search when planning my road trip, deciding whether to drive through ND.

It said it was one of the least visited states in the country.

Don't people want to see corn? C'mon!

Yea but, that was yesterday grasshopper, today is a different day! (Finally)

We are at -15 C and snowing again.

The map above says Fargo is at 12 F. I thought it felt hot out today. Don't even need a coat!

Another interesting news story (maybe you can google it?). A candy company sent 24 of their sales executives to Fargo for their sales convention because of sub par sales. At least we're attracting some people. If you can't be the best "Good" place, you might as well go for the best "Bad" place.

Gene I spent a summer working in Grand Forks and I don't think it ever got above 12*(F) for the entire summer ... or so it seemed anyway.