Choosing where to live

"What are the most important factors for you in choosing which town to live? Some factors to rate are: weather, population, job market, accessibility, recreation, churches, schools, shopping, crime rate, etc."

Well, the HTML code for my prompt today got messed up somehow (I DIDN"T DO IT!) and it won't post correctly, so you get question only, no link today ;-)

Interesting question. I've never really had to choose where to live. When I left my childhood home, where I lived was dictated by my (now) dh's job. As a sheriff's deputy, he had to live in the county where he worked. After we were married, we did work together to buy 10 acres of wooded land and clear a spot to put a house on. We both liked the woods, and not having neighbors terribly close. Our main factors in choosing where to live was affordability of the land, being in the proper county, and the fact that we liked rolling wooded areas vs flat open acreages.

4 years ago, we moved again. We'd thought that perhaps it was time to move, since by then we were both commuting long distances to work and the kids were getting older and more involved in things that also required a commute from our old house. The blessing that happened was that the house next door to my parents...next door to my childhood home...went on the market, and we were able to purchase it! Our acreage shrunk and we're not in the middle of the woods anymore, but we now have a bigger house that works better for the size of our family, and a nice large yard to play in. I still look out my kitchen window at woods...it's just across the river now and I don't own it, but thats ok. It's still very quiet here, like at our old house. We're much closer to the places we need to go...church, shopping, kid activities, work. We're blessed to have my parents next door, and I know that as they age, it will be easier for me to check on them and help them with their needs.