Cities or towns a trucker might consider living in and building a life?

I had planned to buy a house in Melbourne area and was looking, then prices skyrocketed due to so many people moving there.

 

ducnut makes some really solid points up in post #15 above.

With that said -- the reasons I mentioned Valdosta, GA...or maybe Tifton, GA....is that a lot of CDL carriers don't like hiring out of FL. To a certain extent, you paint yourself into something of a corner by moving into FL as a truck driver....with respect to future opportunities (depending on what you might like to do, later). The overall co$t of living is much le$$ up there than in central FL, as well.

Also: getting homeowner's insurance in FL is something of a real nightmare (especially if you want it at anything even vaguely resembling reasonable cost).

Also: central FL can be something of a hurricane "playground" (hence the nasty insurance rates for homes).

Add to that: sinkholes, gators, snowbirds who can't drive, idiot spring-breakers, over-priced (& still climbing) real estate valuations (as mentioned above), everybody (seemingly) is moving to FL who can, vermin year-round, & UNBELIEVEABLE humidity levels (do not buy a car in FL -- or the southeast -- without a really mean air conditioner).

My point here is...be careful what you ask for -- YOU JUST MIGHT GET IT.

Back up in GA -- at least most of the above problems go away.

-- L

 

Nashville, Tennessee is a great place to live for truckers.
The city is crisscrossed by I-65, I-24, I-40.

 

My corner of NW iowa I would say has all those things you want and if you can't find a job around here you aren't looking very hard

 

Detroit

why?

why not?

 

A truck driver can’t afford to live there, anymore. Same problem as FL, with so many moving there.

However, Manchester/Shelbyville, TN, just down I-24, are an option. Walmart and DOT Foods DC’s are there.

 

Melbourne was one of the hardest hit areas in 2008 housing crash. Housing prices are now farther out of synch with incomes than in 2008 so if you buy when prices crash soon you may be in great shape, other than homeowners insurance for homes in FL. Melbourne used to be a secret in FL, but now it's a bedroom community for Orlando because of the Beeline Expressway to Orlando.

 

How often do you want to be home, and where are your main running lanes?

 

A while back I was in a similar mental state.

What I ended up doing was grabbing a US map cause I was pretty sure I wanted to stay in the U.S.

Then drew red blocks around places I didn't want to live because of weather/natural disasters and yellow around the areas that were marginal.

As an example from my west coast perspective, Red was about halfway between I80 and I90 from the Rockies eastward, cause I was not comfortable living where there is real winter. Anything along the east coast that gets hit with hurricanes was Red. Red line on the south was between I40 and I10 because I do not like the heat or humid. And a big red box over tornado ally and the new Madrigal fault area. From there put on some more boxes based on politics.

I could then focus on researching areas that might be of interest.