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I transfer next year

Okay here is my .02

Hawaii is a great place but can you say "Island Fever" and I don't mean for you. You'll be able to travel and get wore butt off the island but your wife is SOL she is probably going to be stuck with the kids locked in. Don't get me wrong its a beautiful place to visit and the people are great but the cost of living is astronomical. The other question I have is who funds the entry investment on the housing? Also if you are recruiting aren't you measured on your numbers? Are there that many islanders looking to join the service? My other concern is when you go to sell and how fast you will be able to turn the house around.

San Diego another great place with a great climate. Plenty of nice suburbs and outher line communities to live in as well. Easy access to Mexico, Baja and Tijuana. Seems to me it would also be a haven for recruiting as well.

Phoenix is a boom town! This place is growing like a weed on steriods great opportunities for getting into the right neighborhood and making your money appreciate. This is another community where there our some great neighboring burbs that can offer you a lot with only a short commute to the office. Most important is that people are continuing to flock to Phoenix so when you decide to transfer back home turning your home won't be an issue. Biggest concern for me is that the last time I checked there isn't much water in Phoenix so I don't know where a Coastie like you is going to put his ship ??? ;) :p Also in this part of the country you can go in all directions and get to some interesting places.

Other places I have heard good things about are Atlanta and Charlotte but never spent much time there so its hard to comment on.

Good Luck keep us posted on your choice.......

BenjieV :D
 
WOW, I am really enjoying this thread learning about other parts of the country. I live in the same house I was born in in Connecticut so I have no concept of living anywhere else. When I was married for ten years, I lived two towns away (ten minutes) in Columbia. For me that was a BIG town, population 4500 whereas the styx of Chaplin is 2253 BUT we're less than ten minutes from all the shopping you'd ever need. :thumbs:

Lots of nice pluses that people have mentioned about the other areas, Jim almost has me sold on Sacremento and FullMoonFrenzy makes a great case for San Antonio.

I still like Houston (because of my Astros :thumbs: ) but I'm still sticking with my original vote of:

Honolulu

Sounds like there are LOTS of nice places to live.

What a GREAT COUNTRY :love: :thumbs:
 
benjiev said:
Okay here is my .02

Hawaii is a great place but can you say "Island Fever" and I don't mean for you. You'll be able to travel and get wore butt off the island but your wife is SOL she is probably going to be stuck with the kids locked in. Don't get me wrong its a beautiful place to visit and the people are great but the cost of living is astronomical. The other question I have is who funds the entry investment on the housing? Also if you are recruiting aren't you measured on your numbers? Are there that many islanders looking to join the service? My other concern is when you go to sell and how fast you will be able to turn the house around.

San Diego another great place with a great climate. Plenty of nice suburbs and outher line communities to live in as well. Easy access to Mexico, Baja and Tijuana. Seems to me it would also be a haven for recruiting as well.

Phoenix is a boom town! This place is growing like a weed on steriods great opportunities for getting into the right neighborhood and making your money appreciate. This is another community where there our some great neighboring burbs that can offer you a lot with only a short commute to the office. Most important is that people are continuing to flock to Phoenix so when you decide to transfer back home turning your home won't be an issue. Biggest concern for me is that the last time I checked there isn't much water in Phoenix so I don't know where a Coastie like you is going to put his ship ??? ;) :p Also in this part of the country you can go in all directions and get to some interesting places.

Other places I have heard good things about are Atlanta and Charlotte but never spent much time there so its hard to comment on.

Good Luck keep us posted on your choice.......

BenjieV :D
Click to expand...
Good insight Ben. As far as recruiting numbers go, I am not worried about it. As long as I can go in and produce the same average number of applicants, then I will be fine. Personally, I feel that I can succeed in anything I do in the Coast Guard. I feel that I have a leg up because I do spend a lot of time with young people in my capacity as a soccer coach an ref.
The one thing about Hono is that there are 3-4 ships, a Communication station, and an Electronic support unit there. If I can play my cards right, I could be there for 10+ years, which would bring me into retirement. At that time, my youngest will be graduating High School. Renting the house and moving into something smaller wiil probably be our goal. Living there I would get around $1650 for housing and another 690 for Cost of Living Allowance. I have only briefly looked at the prices of houses, but that should be able to get me into a decent place outside of the city ( I hope )
Phoenix will be a 4 year job and then another transfer, as will be any job except Charleston. I relly don't know how much house prices will go up in Phoenix, nor how much equity I can gain in 4 years. I have always been a person who pays more into my notes than is required. Also, maybe as a realator I could get a question answered. I was once told that at the begining of every year, I could make a one time payment, seperate from my house note, against the principal of the house. Is that true, and how does that work?
Thanks for taking the time to write me.

Emo
 
What, no Detroit? Oh, wait... that's my home <grin>

I too am looking at info on Phoenix as it's one of the only place I can be stationed. As far as HI goes, I have a few friends stationed at Hickam on Honolulu right now. If you don't mind me passing on your email addy I can ping them to email you all the info you would need on the place.

Otherwise don't know too much about the list I'm afraid. My experiences range from MI to Goodfellow TX and Monterey CA then Asia only. I've been overseas for nearly 6 years now....

-K-
 
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