Good States to Live in the United States

I've done a ton a research trying to figure out where I want to bring my family to settle down. I'm coming from New Hampshire, a place that I love but it's sadly too damn expensive these days. The housing market is just out of control for both renting and buying. Other knocks I have against NH are that the winters are a bit colder and longer then I want, and it's not a red state, it's really crawling with a lot of woke weirdo types. There's a lot of good people left, but the state went to Kamala in the 2024 election (and Hilary in 2016) which in my eyes is a major canary in the coal mine. I also don't like that NH is cut off from the rest of the country by its borders with NY and MA, 2 of the worst states in the country. It's actually surrounded by blue states in every direction.

The state I'm really focused on is Tennessee, specifically East Tennessee and the areas around Knoxville. Things I specifically like about it: it's a very red area in a solidly red part of the country, it's overwhelmingly white and one of the least black regions of the South, still an affordable housing situation compared to the northeast and other desirable parts of the county along with an overall lower cost of living, great laws in terms of taxes, guns and self defense, pushback against LGBT, good weather (I'm not afraid of the summer heat) still has the 4 season, a good growing season and environment, great outdoor opportunities with the abundance of forests and mountains, and overall it seems like a great place to raise a family with lots to do for families and young kids.

My runner up would be Idaho but its just very far from NH making the move or even the ability to do a road trip there to scope it out more difficult (Tennessee is a relatively short 14 hour drive while Idaho is 40 hours).

I like Idaho (specifically the northern panhandle/ CDA area) for exactly all of the same reasons I like Tennessee, with the added benefit that Idaho has truly epic opportunities to explore the outdoors and do whatever you desire. Idaho would have colder winters (I could live with it coming from NH), a worse tax situation, and a worse housing market (not as bad as NH, but much worse then the South East).

Anyways, just want to throw that out there. I'd love to hear from other guys going through a similar decision making process.
 
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