You don’t wanna live in Rockford. High crime rate, and I’d wager too close to Chicago. Taxes are stupidly high, property especially.
I’m not far from there. It’s like telling someone to go check out Detroit, but without the low property taxes.
Avoid Illinois. The rural places here are nice, as my sister in law just bought in Gilman for a very reasonable price (about 3 hours from Chicago), but this state is on the downfall. Stay away. It’s corrupt AF.
I’m also looking to get out, but need to complete EMT courses before I do. Mostly because I need to save up and get some job experience.
I dated a girl originally from Rockford. She later moved out to Missouri and her parents fled Illinois to Georgia.
Illinois is a hot dung mess. What a sad thing for the state of Lincoln and Reagan.
Far Southern IL has lots of lightly used great spots for outdoor recreation (hiking, picnicking, fishing(!), hunting, and you can put up a sign stating “Pritzker Sucks!” and likely not have it torn down. Housing prices are not too bad, living costs are generally low, and property taxes are crazy high, but if you are gonna be in a very modest abode, maybe tolerable. Retirement income is generally not taxed. Access to state parks is free. Cost of living is generally low.
However, other taxes are generally high, and worse, “upstate” and “Springfield” (state gov’t) are corrupt as hell; their economic policies make Kamala look like a genius. IL is gonna crash and burn someday, and probably unfortunately will take Southern IL with it. My guess is that is likely over 10 years away unless some prolonged downturn nationally occurs. (If Kamala wins, move that up.)
I mostly (mostly!) like KY despite the Dem gov., and very good friends of mine are moving to East TN, about an hour away from Johnson City. Nice area. I don’t know about housing costs where they are at, though (they are building a place themselves, with a contractor doing the basic frame, roofing, etc.)