From Texas to New Hampshire

[Richard Soule]

R S wrote:
> Hello, my name is Ross and I come to you from Austin, Texas.

I went exactly the other way, from Nashua NH to Austin TX (by way of Los 
Angeles and San Francisco). To me Austin is MUCH better than NH from a 
quality of life standpoint with the one exception being the GNHLUG 
folks. Of course I lived on a small tropical island in the South Pacific 
for 5 1/2 years so I can't stand the cold. While the heat in Austin is 
extreme, it's nothing compared to the cold in NH.

> Secondly, where do you recommend a person move in NH who is looking
 > for a modest cost of living?

I've got a friend who lived/worked in Nashua NH making about 60-70K. 
With that job he was able to purchase a garden style 'condo' which was 
really an old apartment building that had been converted into condos. It 
was on the ground floor (half windows on the top of the walls) and had 
no garage (which is a big deal with all the snow). He moved down to 
Austin less than one year ago and struggled for a while trying to find a 
job. Eventually he got a job with a small company but they are only 
paying him 35K. However with that job he is able to afford a 4 bedroom 
house with a one car garage on a 1/2 acre lot with a fenced in back yard.

If you like city life then I think that you will find housing to be much 
more expensive in NH than Austin. If you don't mind a longer commute 
(and remember snow can make a long commute much longer) than you should 
be able to find housing that is comparable to Austin.

I've got another friend in NH who is looking to move to Austin. He 
doesn't know much about Linux/Unix, but is in IT. If you guys do the 
evil empire stuff maybe you two could switch jobs...

Good luck on your quest! The GNHLUG folks are great. You'll find that 
GNHLUG is the greatest LUG in all of the US and probably the world! I 
miss them quite a bit.

Rich