(elegant music) - [Briggs] What is going on everyone? Welcome back The World According to Briggs and a video that I hope
will answer the question I get asked the most. What state should I move to? I get that question every single day. Sometimes several times a day, via email, or in the comments section of a video. I even get asked that on my other channel that has nothing to do with relocating or geography or anything like that. As the pandemic starts to fade for I don't know, like the third time, people start to move. There a million and one
reasons people switch states. Most of the time it has
to do with work or family. They're not making enough
money in some place or they want to move to be near family or actually start a family. Those are the most common reasons I get asked what state should I move to? Today's video is my opinion based on things that I've
learned over the last year. So if you're looking for
some hardcore stat video, this ain't it. However, I will be
referencing different stats to support why I feel
this is a good option and for who? Who should be moving to this place? Now since I said this is my opinion, there's a certain
portion of the population that just started salivating. I get to tell him why his opinion's wrong. Nobody's opinion's ever wrong. It's their opinion, but keep in mind, every
state, every town, every city, has bad things like crime, poverty, bad weather and drugs. That's life. Normally if a place has
a lot of any of those it will be affordable. If it doesn't, it's expensive. I say that so I don't
have all those comments. Don't tell people to move here. This state's horrible. We're 15th in poverty, and a guy down the street
for me does the weed. Yes Marge, let's avoid the entire state because your neighbor has glaucoma. At the end of this video, I will tell you some states that have been popular in the past but I don't think they're going to be a good place to move in the coming years. All right, let's take a look. (chiptune music) Number 10, Michigan. Now I'm sure a whole
bunch of you just groaned. Keep in mind, the entire state
is not Detroit and Flint. This is a beautiful state if
you don't mind cold weather. They get some brutally harsh winters but the state for the most part is affordable and great for families. If you could bring a job there, let's say you're one of the digital nomads or something like that,
you could work from home, this is one of the best options
in the country right now. Everyone always talks about
you know Detroit and Flint and how horrible they are and just this and that
and I'm one of them. I always bring up the bad stats of Detroit and parts of Michigan, but in reality, you have
places like Marysville which is North of Detroit. They have a crime rate that's actually 66% lower than the national average. Their cost of living is 7%
lower than the national average. Grand Rapids isn't a bad place to live. East Grand Rapids which
obviously is a suburb. We got Traverse City which is great. If you want to live in
the Upper Peninsula, you've got places like Kingsford and a bunch of little small towns that are great places to live. Like I said, cold is your
main issue in Michigan unless of course, you're in Detroit, then it's your safety and the cold. So who is Michigan good for? If you're a digital nomad
and can bring a job, this is a great place to move. Pretty much like any
place that's inexpensive and that's the thing with Michigan, they're very inexpensive, both in housing and cost of living. Retirees don't usually dig the cold so it's probably not the best for them but they have beautiful
summers, cold winters, and it's a great place to raise a family. Again, like I said, outside
of Flint and Detroit and a few other places. There's plenty of places in
Michigan to fall in love with. Different organizations have
this stat called opportunity. That basically gauges
what are the opportunities for women, minorities,
people with disability, things of that nature, and they've ranked the states by this. Michigan is ranked 5th out of 50 states, they're number five. (chiptune music) - Number nine, North Carolina. North Carolina has been picking up steam in probably the last decade or so. The Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, little Triangle of Love there, that's been popular for quite some time. Asheville in I'd say the last five years has started picking up some steam. Charlotte of course, is a great city. Like all cities, these
places have some crime but nothing compared to
what some other states in that area have. It doesn't matter if
you're down by the coast or into the hills, North Carolina is a beautiful state. The education system in North Carolina always seems to rank in the top 10 and I'm not just talking colleges. Grade school, high school, and on to the Universities. They just do a really good
job here in North Carolina. On top of it, the state is
in good shape financially. They call it fiscal stability. North Carolina is doing
things right there. Again, they're another state that always seems to be
in the top 10 for that. So this means their
economy is doing great. They have jobs. They do have some poverty like every place but it's not horrible. Depending on what part
of the state you're in, the winters can be a little harsh, but that's usually up in the hills. Dotted throughout the state, you have a lot of really good small towns. Pinehurst is an excellent place to live. Then you have the major
cities, the metro areas, that have some really nice suburbs. Up in the Raleigh-Durham area, you have Morrisville and Chapel Hill. Wonderful places to live. Might be a little expensive, but they're great places to live, and that goes for all these little towns dotted throughout the Outer Banks. Outer Banks is great. It's like this little strip of islands that kind of separate
North Carolina's mainland from the Atlantic Ocean. This is a great place to vacation and if you could swing it
and live here, even better. The only problem there
is you gotta worry about the occasional hurricane blowing through and taking your house away. Who should move to a
place like North Carolina? Anyone. You're retired and you
wanna live some place in North Carolina? Plenty of places to choose from that are all affordable. If you're young, want to start a family, again, North Carolina is
a great place to do that. (chiptune music) Number eight, Wisconsin. Wisconsin in my opinion, is the best state to raise a family. This is very much a
family orientated state. Normally, you can pull
that off in a small town. Maybe even a city, but this entire state
is just family friendly. Milwaukee is about the only
place that has some crime and they're not as bad as they were, let's say, five years
ago, three years ago. They've gotten so much better and it's becoming a great
place to live again. We got Madison. The Eau Claire area. Oshkosh isn't bad and either is Appleton. Milwaukee has some great
suburbs and neighborhoods that you could find to live
there that are excellent. Elm Grove is one of them. Whitefish Bay, Greendale Wisconsin, these are all great places
to live and raise a family. You could find tons of
small towns in this state just waiting for you to
raise a family and live. Now, yeah like any place up in this area, it's gonna get cold in the winter, and that's their biggest knock. There's not a lot wrong with Wisconsin, once you get past the winter. If you're like me, you
look forward to winter, so this doesn't bother me at all. When you start looking at
the numbers for Wisconsin, they have a great economy. So they have jobs for everyone. They don't have a ton of poverty. When it comes to opportunity, they're ranked 9th in the nation and their education is ranked 8th. Other than some of the cities, their cost of living is pretty low here, as is their housing. So who should move to Wisconsin. I would say people that are
looking to start a family or buy a home, settle down. That's the type of place Wisconsin is. (chiptune music) Number seven, New Hampshire and Vermont. That's right, you get
a two-fer on this one. These states are very similar and whenever I'm doing
any kind of rankings they're usually right next to each other. Their stats are always
always really close. New Hampshire's crime rate, they're the best in the nation and Vermont is the 3rd best in the nation. In case you're wondering,
Maine is number two. that whole area, nobody commits much crime up there, Vermont, New Hampshire
are always in the top 10 for natural environment, their economies aren't the best, I mean, one's ranked 15th and
the other one's ranked 19th. But still, that's better than
three quarters of the country, their biggest knock is
the can get expensive, both of them their housing
puzzle, tad bit higher than you'd probably want to see. But they're not terrible. Where they both shine,
though, are the small towns dotted all across both the states, they're just great small towns. In most cases, it's not hard to find
one that'll suit you. So who should move here, I wouldn't say they're
the best for families. There's better states for that. But if you're like a digital nomad that makes a good amount of money and is looking for a small
town with a great outdoors, either Vermont or New Hampshire
would be best for you. Again, rough winters beautiful summers. (chiptune music) Number six, Nebraska. You could probably lump Kansas
and Iowa into this one too. But I think out of the
three, Nebraska is the best. They have a really low cost living their crime isn't terrible, and their housing prices are affordable, and they got plenty to choose from. This is another state where
you could move to the big city of Lincoln, which isn't that big, but it's not terrible Omaha again, it's big. It's got some problems, but
not compared to other states. Where they shine though is the rural areas in the small towns. They've got a ton of great ones. Nebraska is another state
that's always in the top 10 When it comes to education
and natural environment. You put those two together and it tells you it's a
great place to raise a family some good cities and small
towns you could look at to move to Nebraska, Beatrice. That's good. That's south of Lincoln and between that and the Kansas border. Hastings is excellent. So is Columbus, Nebraska. You talk to anyone from Nebraska, the small towns are big thing to them. What's funny about the place
is even Lincoln and Omaha they kind of have that small
town vibe in a lot of ways. I grew up with a girl in
Redondo Beach, California and she moved to Sidney,
Nebraska with her husband many years ago, probably 20 years ago. She watches my videos all the time and while back on Facebook, she said I should look at where she lives. Sidney, Nebraska. This is a great small town. I mean, statistically speaking, I go off her experience
and what she told me I've never been there but
statistically speaking this is a great place to live cost of living is low houses are low schools are
great employment is okay. I mean it's a small town, but they do have some jobs. There is a ton of places
like that to choose from in Nebraska. Nebraska is another state
where anyone should move there. I mean, it's cheap, cheap housing. If you got your own job
and you bring it with you and you work with the
computer even better, but they do have some jobs here also, if you have a problem with being bored, you know you want a
little crazy night life. Don't move to Nebraska, you won't find it. You'll just be wondering why
you ever moved to Nebraska. Now if you're a person that's not looking for crazy nightlife Nebraska is for you because they don't have one. You won't have to have
that awkward conversation with your Tinder date about going to the club and dancing and have to admit you can't dance because you lack any form of rhythm. That's me by the way. That's why I married my wife. She hates dancing. I hate dancing, because I can't if I try and dance I look like a guy with epilepsy that's touching an electric fence. (chiptune music) Number five, South Carolina
over the last couple years I've sort of fallen in
love with South Carolina, especially the Low Country. It's actually one of those
places I've been thrown around in my head to maybe retire there. Definitely in the Low Country
like Bluffton or Charleston, If I moved to Charleston. I'm gonna have to call my
favorite real estate agent slash superhero, Natasha, the pulse. - Okay, Briggs. While I may not be an actual superhero, I would love to help your fans and show them why
Charleston is so special. If they find themselves in town. - [Briggs] South Carolina
has some great places to live around Charleston, you got Hanahan and then you also have Mount Pleasant. Up North you got Simpsonville and Mauldin but if it were me, I would stay in the Charleston area maybe even go down to Bluffton. Now What's strange about South Carolina is I think they shine when it
comes to a lot of their cities Charleston like I'd said Hilton Head area. Greenville, Columbia has some nice places. These are great suburbs and
nice cities around there. A lot of their small towns kind of suck. So this a little bit different
from most other states. But I really like their cities. And a lot of it has to
do with the people too people of South Carolina
are just extremely friendly and good people. For the most part. They also have a pretty strong economy in South Carolina right now. (chiptune music) Number four, Idaho. Idaho is another state that's been popular for a very long time pretty much since
California started to suck. Idaho became very popular. People have been flooding
up there for a long time sort of slowed down in the last few years. But it's been consistent these days it's not just Californians, you got some Oregon's moving into Idaho. And some of the Southern
states that you know, people just decided they've had enough of I don't know the crime and
poverty in the Southern states like Mississippi, Alabama,
Louisiana, Arkansas, they're heading to Idaho. Idaho has a great economy. They're actually ranked third
in the nation right now. And the economic stability or
fiscal stability of the State is number four. So they're doing good natural environment here is a big one, especially if you like things
like fishing and camping, move to Idaho, you'll fall in love, just visit and you'll start
making plans to live there. Every one of my friends
that moved to Idaho, they absolutely love the state. There's a few in Coeur d'Alene, two in Pocatello. One in Twin Falls, and then one of my best
friends and his wife lives in Moscow or Moscow. The spelling tells you Moscow
the locals tell you MOSS-koe sort of like really close to where I live, it's spelt Aloha, but the locals call it
a-LOW-ah here in Oregon. If you're thinking about moving to Idaho, there's a lot of really
good places to choose from. I'd look at Hayden Eagle is
really good Garden City, Idaho is pretty good Post Falls and Boise for a bigger city is a really nice place to live. (chiptune music) Number three, Utah, the Beehive State is
probably the only state I think statistically is a
better place to raise a family. But what I find strange about this state is it hasn't had that big rush like let's say Idaho,
Colorado has in the past Texas is having right now, Utah has always been a
great place to move to but it really just never caught on. I think a lot of that
has to do with the aura of the religion thing there. That aura helps with a
lot of different things. It's got low crime, good schools, pleasant neighborhoods, even though most of the state would be considered a desert state. I mean, they beautiful
mountains and things like that. But it's not like this lush green place like I like even though it's not the
type of climate or terrain I'd want to live in. I still recognize this
as one of the best states to live in right now. If you've ever thought
about moving to Utah, you're gonna probably
look at any place along Interstate 15. Because any place worth living in is going to be really near that Interstate from St. George to Ogden. Fruit Heights is great, Pleasant Grove, Bountiful, South Ogden, Provo American Fork, Spanish
Fork for that matter. These are all great places
to start your search for where you want to live. If you want to move to Utah one that doesn't have the best stats but I've been to and I really like it is Brigham City, very low key mellow place to live when it comes to stats
that kind of prove why it's good place to live the economy they are number one in the economy when it comes to the fiscal stability, you're how things are working. They're ranked number five, when it comes to their crime. They're the eighth best in the nation. They do pretty good when it
comes to health care as well. They're in the top 10. As is the education system of Utah, Utah's a great place,
no matter who you are, if you want to retire there great raise a family there great digital nomad, perfect. Utah has a perfect place
for anyone to move to. Unless you're looking to
live on a tropical island like Hawaii, then it's not perfect for you. (chiptune music) Number two, Virginia, the Northern section of Virginia
has always been popular, not really by anything
that was going on there. I mean, it is nice, but it's not like the economy
was really, really good houses were really low in price. It's a nice place to live. But really, its popularity comes from being so
close to Washington DC, right across the Potomac
River from Washington DC. Places like Alexandria and Arlington are just filled with people
that work for the government. But places like Richmond and Norfolk, they've all been gaining popularity, and they've always been a little popular. These days, more and more
people are heading that way. I got an email from a guy in Virginia that said Lynchburg is just blowing up and people are moving there all the time. I haven't seen any real
data that support that. I mean, people are moving there. It's not blowing up by any
stretch of the imagination. Other places that are gaining
popularity are Newport News, and Hampton, Virginia. If I were going to move
to Virginia right now, I like Manchester, which
is down by Richmond and the area around Covington, Virginia, which is really close to
the West Virginia border out in the George
Washington National Forest. Actually, it's not just George
Washington's National Forest, they threw Thomas Jefferson in there too. If you started looking at the stats that people really are concerned with, like natural environment,
crime corrections, health care, education, economy, things like that almost everything in those
categories Virginia has in the top 10 or really close
the top 10 like number 15 to number 13, something like that. So from a stat point of view, Virginia is a solid place to move. Alright, before we get to number one, don't forget we have another
channel called On This Day, we'd love it if you went
over there and subscribe, watch some videos, things like that. Also, at the end of this video, I'm going to list some of the places that didn't make the list that you probably thought should have. Alright, on to number one. (chiptune music) And number one, Washington State Washington has gained an
incredible amount of popularity in recent years. It has all the things people
are looking for statistically, you look at the poll numbers, depending on what
company did the research. Washington is always there
in like the top five normally education number four, economy number four fiscal
stability, they're number six, infrastructure they're number three, their healthcare is number eight, the worst thing they have is opportunity. That's the one for you know, how are things looking
for minorities, women and disabled Americans. They're ranked number 25. They're still middle of the pack, nothing in Washington sucks. They got a homeless situation in Seattle, and it rains a little too much. It's a beautiful state. It's not too far from where I live. I go there all the time. I'm always up in Seattle always in, you know, the Southern
section of Washington. On top of all that goodness, they don't have state income tax. Here's the thing about Washington if you want to move to a state like that, and you don't want to have
to deal with all the rain, you move to the Eastern
section of the state which has all the nice things, not as many trees and
not nearly as much rain. If anyone ever asks me which
states I should move to Washington usually is good for everyone. If you work in tech, even more so if I was looking to Washington
there's a few places I'd move to. Point Roberts is the first one I've wanted to move there forever. Bellingham is nice Mill Creek Mercer Island,
very expensive to live there, but it's a nice place to live. Camas down in the
southern section is good. And of course Ridgefield which is down near Vancouver,
Washington, and Portland. Alright, so let's talk about states that didn't make the list and why I didn't add them California. Okay, California has been popular forever. Everyone loved California
for the longest time. They just have far too
much stuff going on there that's negative, it kind of overshadows the great weather, the great economy, things like that out of control,
homelessness, cost of living and cost of housing is
gone through the roof. It's really not worth it now. That's why so many people are leaving, they still have more people going in not nearly what they used to but you know what I mean? Another one is Oregon. My home state Oregon is probably one of the
most beautiful states we have. The downside is we have
a lot of problems here with cost living going through the roof cost housings raising too high. And of course, our ever
present homeless situation in Portland Salem, and
now even Bend Oregon is having an issue with
a lot of homeless people. I'm not ragging on the homeless people. They're in a bad situation, whether it's bad luck, mental
defect, addiction issues, whatever the problem is, they're on the street and they need help. It's just really bad when
you're trying to live a life in Portland or run a business and there's tents out in
front of your business or your condo. The other one missing is Texas, Texas has become very popular
in the last decade or so people from all over the country have been flooding there because they had jobs, good economy relatively safe in most areas and housing prices were really reasonable. But here's the problem
like California and Oregon, their popularity I
think in the near future is gonna start to work against them. This is why more people means more fire
departments, hospitals, police, things like that more
public services basically more public services means more taxes. As population density rises
in cities like Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, whatever, you're going to start seeing more crime and a bunch of other issues. It's what happened to Portland, Oregon, their victim of their own
success and popularity. (upbeat music) All right, that's today's video. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Hope you got some information out of it. Now go out. Have a great day. Be nice to each other
