Take a good hard look at eastern Tennessee. The foothills of the smokey mountains are about as beautiful a place as I've ever been. Mountains, water, seasons but with an easy climate that never gets Mississippi hot or Virginia cold. The roads are good, twisty and aside from popular tourist areas... pretty empty. Road Atlanta, Barber, VIR, CMP, and a few others are an easy tow.
EDIT: As nice as eastern TN is, I found the western 2/3rds to be pretty awful so do take care to avoid any correlation to my advice and Nashville.
I don't know what county you're currently in, but I used to live around Tillsonburg.
Norfolk county, about 15 minutes north of Dover.
As someone who has moved from here to there, you probably have some good insight. Feel free to share it 
cwh
SuperDork
2/6/12 12:04 p.m.
In reference to Florida, we proudly announce "WE"RE NUMBER ONE!!". According to Forbes magazine, Miami is the most miserable city in the US. Ft. Lauderdale is #7. No arguments here. West Palm Beach was #4. Enough said.
If you're going to be "wintering" in the US and maintaining you permanent residence in Canada you won't have to deal with a lot of the detail differences. We brought everything with us when we moved 12 years ago, household, vehicles, etc. Because I was coming here as a permanent resident I had to divest myself of all my property and finances in Canada, except for RRSPs. You shouldn't have to do any of that if you're simply buying a home here and staying in the US less than 180 days per year. If you do nothing to earn income in the States you won't have to bother with filing taxes either. You would probably be better to find someone who spends a significant amount of time here to answer your questions. I worked with a fellow, from Courtland, who is now retired ,and he and his wife have had a place in Florida for years. I could put you in touch with him if you would like.
Everything is different here, but the same. It's all in the details though, so you just have to have the patience to find out what needs to be done and get on with it. My wife still lets the differences frustrate her, but I'll bet she would be exactly the same if we were to move back to Ontario! If you spend several months a year here, you'll really notice the costs when you go back ! If you have specific questions just PM me and I'll answer what I can.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:
Take a good hard look at eastern Tennessee. The foothills of the smokey mountains are about as beautiful a place as I've ever been. Mountains, water, seasons but with an easy climate that never gets Mississippi hot or Virginia cold. The roads are good, twisty and aside from popular tourist areas... pretty empty. Road Atlanta, Barber, VIR, CMP, and a few others are an easy tow.
EDIT: As nice as eastern TN is, I found the western 2/3rds to be pretty awful so do take care to avoid any correlation to my advice and Nashville.
The whole Appalachian/Smoky Mts area is just gorgeous. Too bad that employment is scarce. That's why the land is so cheap, no one can afford to buy it. Having said that, I'd really like to retire up there and have an ongoing search for a piece of property in NW GA/ western SC/ western NC/ possibly east TN to buy now so I can build later.
A nice little home (1500 sq ft) ,with a similarly sized garage , on a Appalachian mountain top would be Heaven !
Yes it would. Unfortunately, the mountain tops are all 'spensive as hell. Bad as beachfront property. The Eagle's Nest hillclimb is held here each year: http://www.eaglesnestbe.com/exp_overview.php The place is absolutely beautiful. Mere words cannot describe. There's no pricing on the website, but some people who have a reason to know say the unimproved homesites by themselves go for anywhere from $300k on the mountainsides to over $1M for the peaks.
I have stood in this exact spot. The view is breathtaking, the picture does not do it justice.
Taiden
SuperDork
2/6/12 12:55 p.m.
You all know the difference between yankess and damn yankees?
Damn yankees never go home.
Asheville is also getting really, really expensive.
(no affiliation, etc. just listing for demonstration purposes)
http://asheville.craigslist.org/reo/2812143880.html
versus lakeside above Durham
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/reo/2836530392.html
Not to pollute the thread much, but I'd like to relocate southward (from CT) within the next decade. Where are the engineering hot spots in the south east?
Brotus7 wrote:
Not to pollute the thread much, but I'd like to relocate southward (from CT) within the next decade. Where are the engineering hot spots in the south east?
Huntsville with Redstone Arsenal and Marshall Space Center. Also the Cummins Research Park is the biggest in the US and third biggest in the world IIRC.
Just an FYI, Huntsville will be dead in 10 years, Nasa is closing there
FlightService wrote:
Just an FYI, Huntsville will be dead in 10 years, Nasa is closing there
Where did you hear that? I am 90% sure that isn't true. Plus NASA is fairly small amount of the engineering in Huntsville. Military makes up a much much larger part of the economy and am willing to bet that they aren't shutting Redstone down anytime soon.
TEXAS!! Because, well, it's Texas. I live in Brownwood, small rural town of about 35,000 with outlying smaller towns. I'm about 1.5 hrs from Abilene, 2.5 hrs from Austin, 3 hrs from Ft. Worth and 4 hrs from Dallas (traffic). If you live in Austin, you have not only the F1 track coming to town, but you have Driveway Austin (motorsport driving school) and Harris Hill Road (road course) within about an hour. Motorsport Ranch is in Cresson which is just this side of Ft. Worth and about 2 hours from Austin. There are more scattered tracks and College Station has a small one I think... 
Brotus7 wrote:
Not to pollute the thread much, but I'd like to relocate southward (from CT) within the next decade. Where are the engineering hot spots in the south east?
Definitely not Tulsa. No oil/gas/aerospace industries, or cheap housing, or low cost of living.
Brotus7 wrote:
Not to pollute the thread much, but I'd like to relocate southward (from CT) within the next decade. Where are the engineering hot spots in the south east?
greenville SC has Boeing (iirc), BMW, Michelin, Proterra (electric city busses), and the CU-ICAR (Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research).
Brett_Murphy wrote:
Asheville is also getting really, really expensive.
(no affiliation, etc. just listing for demonstration purposes)
http://asheville.craigslist.org/reo/2812143880.html
versus lakeside above Durham
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/reo/2836530392.html
but to enjoy what could actually be God's country you don't have to live IN Asheville ....
this area seems blessed ... winters: not all that cold or snowy.. just enough so you have actual seasons
summers: hot ... but not hot like farther south or east low 90's are a HOT day for us
no "real" tornados, no hurricanes, very few ( and small in size ) forest fires, no SoCal type mud slides,
where I live ( 10 mi east of Asheville) 3 1/2 hrs to VIR, 3 1/2 hrs to CMP, 3 1/2 hrs to Road Atlanta, 2 1/2 hrs to Charlotte Motor Speedway ( they have an infield course), the new Atlanta Motorsports Park should be slightly closer than RA
and I should have some mountain side land for sale in the not to distant future 
( good and bad ..as it'll be inherited land )
In reply to 93EXCivic:
Congressional energy policy advisor in the house that is in those meetings. And they said the same about Holston Army Ammunition too.
FlightService wrote:
In reply to 93EXCivic:
Congressional energy policy advisor in the house that is in those meetings.
Either way. It still will hardly kill Huntsville. There is much more engineering with Redstone Arsenal then Marshall plus there are some other firms as well.
The only part of "the South" I would consider living in is WV, western VA, or northwestern KY, also known as bluegrass country. Or moonshine and coal country, whichever. But all of those still get winters pretty bad. So I'm really no help to you at all.
As my near nieghbor Mr Jones (5miles or less as the crow flies) says you don't have to live in Asheville and the expensive county surrounding it to enjoy these mountains. There are several couties within 30-45 minutes of Asheville/Hendersonville area that are not as expensive and still the same basic distances to the tracks he mentioned. It''s a beutiful place and Asheville has crowned itself Beer city for the variety and quality of local brews available. Sierrra Nevada just set plans to open a east coast brewery and distribution point here.
tuna55
SuperDork
2/6/12 6:12 p.m.
AngryCorvair wrote:
Brotus7 wrote:
Not to pollute the thread much, but I'd like to relocate southward (from CT) within the next decade. Where are the engineering hot spots in the south east?
greenville SC has Boeing (iirc), BMW, Michelin, Proterra (electric city busses), and the CU-ICAR (Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research).
Boeing is in Charleston, but Greenville has MANY others, including a little known employer known as GE. I go there - uhh - often.
Sput
New Reader
2/6/12 6:14 p.m.
Born and raised in upstate New York (Sodus), lived in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, two places in California, northern Illinois, back to upstate New York, and now we've been in Wilmington, NC for 15 years. I'll never move again. Good sized town, nice beaches, good health care system, college town (UNCW). The comments about military is incorrect - they're up in Jacksonville and Fayetteville.
Seriously, consider Wilmington or Savannah, GA.
LopRacer wrote:
As my near nieghbor Mr Jones (5miles or less as the crow flies) says you don't have to live in Asheville and the expensive county surrounding it to enjoy these mountains. There are several couties within 30-45 minutes of Asheville/Hendersonville area that are not as expensive and still the same basic distances to the tracks he mentioned. It''s a beutiful place and Asheville has crowned itself Beer city for the variety and quality of local brews available. Sierrra Nevada just set plans to open a east coast brewery and distribution point here.
good to hear you on here ... see ya this weekend ... track season getting started
