Currently in Northern CA, but not happy with a lot that is going on in the state now, and getting priced out even with a professional 2 income home. Hubby really likes north TX (Allen/Mckinney suburbs of Dallas/Ft Worth). Seems more affordable, and I know it will be HOT in summer, but not seeing a ton of boarding options (dont have one now, see priced out, but would like to get another horse). Biggest problem is I am terrified of tornadoes, I’ll take earthquakes any day. Found some nice areas in NC in Raleigh and Charlotte suburbs. We are not cold weather snow people, so looking for super mild winters and a minimum of natural disasters. Anybody in these areas, or want to throw their town into the mix? At this point looks like we will be keeping our current jobs, but decent job market just in case is a must. We do also have 2 school age kids, so would love good public schools so I can quit paying private tuition.
I don’t have any advice, but I am looking at recommendations.
Then again…if you’re not against the mid-Atlantic, Delaware (delawhere?) seems to be a good place.
Delaware is super snowy isn’t it? I would think we’d have to be further south for better winters.
Delawhere snowy? Nope…actually anywhere south of the C&D canal is pretty temperate due to effects of Chesapeake Bay. But they do call that “slower delaware”… not quite the thriving big city.
TX does not have an income tax…DE does…but DE property taxes are low and there is no sales tax.
lived in Texas for nearly fifty years have not been hit by a tornado yet, but was hit by one on Kentucky
You can also get a safe room attached to your house. It’s a room with solid concrete floor, ceilings, and walls, with a good solid door. Friends built their third bathroom like that, and I would add a door to the outside too. I also recommend everyone has inside and outside pictures of the their house, out buildings, and any other structure burned to disc, and with a copy in the safe room, and I like to have a copy with a friend that is far away from where I live.
You also need to keep vital papers for house, car, and people in the safe room. You may never need the safe room, but if you do having one that’s easy to get to, and already prepared is invaluable.
Portland, OR!
Louisville, KY - lots of boarding options and event/show/trail riding venues with a couple hour radius. Affordable COL, usually have 2-4 weeks of really cold (low teens) and snow in the winter but otherwise pretty mild.
Nashville, TN area is nice. Low housing costs compared to lots of areas, lots of land available, no state income tax, and fairly decent weather. It does get hot in the summer, but rarely do we get snow. If we do, it all melts by the next day. 
If the OP doesn’t like “what’s going on in CA” they most certainly won’t like Portland! Portland is expensive (the west side of both WA and OR are a tough place to live: cost of living is sky high, property market is hot, acreage near enough to a metro area to work in is expensive, and rain, gray, wet followed by hot and dry weather).
Have you looked in the Boise area of Idaho? Might be a bit too cold/snowy for you though, but no tornados or earthquakes, reasonable cost of living. Not sure what horsey amenities you are looking for (western, English, showing or not).
Have you looked at the Medford/Ashland area of Oregon? That might fit your bill too.
Yeah, no, Delaware is most decidedly NOT “super snowy” - I’m about 4 miles (as the crow flies) from the MD/DE border, a little more than halfway down. We normally get a couple of days of snow a year, but it’s often snowing in the morning, and melted away by the day’s end. Every once in a while, we get a “real” snow storm and have 6-8 inches but that’s definitely the outlier, weatherwise.
Raleigh is great, but I don’t know how inexpensive it is anymore (though maybe compared to NorCal it is), but if you’re weather-averse? Hurricanes.
Northern Virginia! Depending on what you mean by priced out, although if you don’t need to work in DC, it’s super easy to live here. Tons of boarding options, huge horse community. Lots of top public schools. It does snow sometimes but generally natural disaster free (if we can escape Florence!)
we sold a hay ring to two Southwest pilots who moved with their horses from San Francisco to Flower Mound just north of Dallas/Ft Worth… they express the same about being priced out… came here and paid cash for everything
I live in DFW, TX and am happy to answer questions if you want to know any specific! Just PM me!
Oregon is out. My sister is just outside Portland now and looking to leave, much same reason as us and CA. The entire west coast is just crazy expensive without seeing any benefits from tax money. I do have friends in Idaho, but that’s a bit too much winter for us. Even my Idaho friends get out for most of the winter.
I spent a week in Louisville KY and just loved it… not enough time to tell you for sure if it is the dream place but… it was city-feeling enough that I enjoyed it, and a few miles off interstate rural enough that I saw plenty of livestock, farms, and nice quiet neighborhoods… if education for children isn’t a concern I’ve heard it is a great and wonderful place to live – but it does come with some southern detractors (poverty + education struggles).
I have heard that Indiana is a diamond in the rough for horse people as well; I have a few friends local that work in Louisville but live in Indiana and it does seem that right now, it is an affordable area without losing commodities one tends to be fond of, like good infrastructure, education, variety of nearby restaurants, shops, and plazas, etc…
I would also suggest Louisville KY. The downtown is fabulous with tons of “big city” feel, lots of great dining and nightlife. Plenty of rural landscape with land still relatively affordable. Mild winters, but you’ll still see four seasons.
Another option is the Knoxville TN area. Again, some big city feel but the beauty of the Smoky Mountains on your doorstep.
Thanks for all the insight! We do have school age kids, so good schools is top of the list! Our current public school district is beyond horrible, so I am shelling out tuition for private school for both kids. If we move it needs to better our situation, so would want good public schools to save some $$ there. As for my horse background to help narrow areas, I do mostly 3-day eventing, but have also done some jumpers, and dressage. I used to show, a lot, but with kids and work, and age just don’t really care to anymore. But I am still wanting to do more then just putz around at home. I am far enough along in my riding though that I would need a pretty decent non-backyard type trainer to really get much out of lessons, and I am smart enough to know that left to my own devices I will resemble Gumby if left alone too long. Hubby really likes Texas, so that may be a good a jumping spot as any since we do have some friends there we can visit and scope out the area first. Sounding like tornadoes in the area we are looking aren’t as bad as they portray in movies, go figure!
if looking at Louisville, look in Oldham County, the school district in number one is Kentucky I believe… Goshen area on US 42 used to be horse heaven as there is an outcropping of bluegrass there …I grew up in Oldham Co but left after the winters of the late 1970s when we had over sixty inches of snow and it got down to well under neg 20F and stayed there for a long time…our water lines that were buried to 40 inches froze
Fort Worth Texas is much like Louisville, Ft Worth is an easy town to get around in …horse friendly with a few hundred miles of trails in the city
The closest my aunt in Oklahoma, home of tornado alley, and she never had a close call at her place.
There was a small tornado that hit about three miles away from her house, and took down a country church about 30 years ago. It was heartwarming to see everyone in the area rally around and rebuild the church, not matter whether they belonged to that church or not. Everyone should have neighbors like that.
My personal view is that tornadoes follow the geography, so look at the overhead google map view of properties you’re considering, and see if you see swaths of tornado damage. Tornadoes come back, and often bad thunderstorms follow the same track too, it all boils down to geography.
When researching a place to move to, I go to Google, search : city-data forum city name, state name. I look at the relocating to, moving to, best schools, and other threads that discuss what it’s like to live there. I toss the postings that say everything is wonderful, the ones that say everything sucks, and go for the people that tell you the good and bad.
A friend’s daughter just got recruited to teach in the Dallas area, and liked what she heard about it, but went with another opportunity to stay in one school all day (she’s teaching Spec. Ed, in elementary), but the schools are recruiting highly qualified teachers, and that’s a good sign.
