Comment author: imvk 24 September 2013 05:25:38AM *  0 points [-]

Given a low (I think) fixed income and no particular local commitments (apart from citizenship in the USA) (edit: and being currently located), how do I identify a good place to live?

Comment author: imvk 27 September 2013 03:43:16PM *  0 points [-]

On further thought, since I'm in a low-density area, rather than looking for a place first it might be better to first improve my local mobility by getting a bicycle. Then I could see what possibilities it opens up, and either look for housing next or upgrade to a moped, motorcycle or car. I still don't really know where to start, though.

Edit: I tried looking for relevant ebooks on Amazon. I've found three, and from the reviews, none of them have what I'm looking for; not The Complete Idiot's Guide to Cycling (1999), Bicycling Magazine's New Cyclist Handbook (2005) or The Big Book of Bicycling (2010).

Edit 2: Every Woman's Guide to Cycling seems to have decent reviews; maybe I'll try it.

Comment author: Lumifer 24 September 2013 05:15:55PM 0 points [-]

You can be as quantitative as you like, but you still have to define your preferences (aka fitness function, aka loss function).

There is really no generic advice -- some people hate winter and move to Florida or the Southwest, some people really like the change of seasons and move to the Northeast. Some people need to live near the ocean, some like mountains. Some need the high voltage of large cities, some feel better in a lower-stress pastoral setting. Etc. etc.

In practice most people are driven by job and family constraints. If you have none, well, figure out which climate zone you like, figure out whether you like large cities, figure out what do you want to do and where it's best to do it...

Comment author: imvk 24 September 2013 05:27:37PM *  0 points [-]

Thanks. So there are no common bad or commonly regretted decisions, ways people commonly get exploited, factors people commonly neglect or anything of that sort? (Also, do I really have that many degrees of freedom at ~$1000 a month?)

If so, that's good to know, but I'm still not sure how to actually do it. Is there a centralized list of housing providers, possibly one that can be automatically ranked by relevant criteria? Amazon pretends to do that with computers, but (last I checked) many if not most models don't have the relevant fields entered and so don't show up.

Comment author: Lumifer 24 September 2013 04:39:49PM 0 points [-]

You figure out what's valuable to you (climate, nature, demographics, culture, etc.) and then filter places to live until you get a short list.

Comment author: imvk 24 September 2013 04:48:20PM 0 points [-]

So there's no quantitative approach? If you've done it, could you elaborate on how you did it?

Comment author: CAE_Jones 24 September 2013 05:47:14AM 1 point [-]

Here's Kiplinger's top ten towns for cheapskates, though I'm not sure how useful this is for you (I'm on disability and living in one of those towns. I believe Saint Louis was one of them as well, and I think we have some LWers from thereabouts.).

If transportation is an issue, though, you might try finding a way to optimize for a bigger city where public transit is actually a thing. It depends on your abilities and the amount of your fixed income.

Comment author: imvk 24 September 2013 05:58:56AM 0 points [-]

About $1000 a month. Not sure what you mean by abilities.

Comment author: imvk 24 September 2013 05:25:38AM *  0 points [-]

Given a low (I think) fixed income and no particular local commitments (apart from citizenship in the USA) (edit: and being currently located), how do I identify a good place to live?

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