Advice on where (city or state) to apply?

[vijayash01]

Hello All,
Hope everyone is doing good. My wife is in her 2nd year of Family Medicine Residency. Currently, we live in Michigan with our 3 year old son. She will soon start applying for jobs. Wanted to ask if anyone has any suggestions as to where (city or state) we can apply or consider:

Our Criteria:
1. Need to move some place warm or where the winter is mild (not too cold like Minnesota, Illinois, South/North Dakota, Iowa, NY/NJ).
2. Need to move where overall package (Salary, bonus, payment per patient, etc.) is good/competitive.
3. We are thinking to apply in Texas, Indiana (Evansville), Kentucky (Owensboro), Virginia, Georgia (Atlanta), Carolina. Please see below why we are considering those places.
4. Place where real estate is somewhat reasonable/cheap so we can buy and rent it out. I want to get into real estate investing once she has a proper job and leave my IT job.
5. We don't mind living in a small town.
5. Not important but international airport close by would be a plus.

Evansville and Owensboro -> thinking about it only because my wife did rotations there. Small town, weather is nice but it is middle of nowhere (closest airport is 3-4 hours away and not too many places to visit/see nearby at least by car).

Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Carolina -> thinking about it only because of the weather.

Anything else we should consider from your experience would be highly appreciated.

Thank you and sorry about the long post.

Thanks,
Vijay

[CM]

I believe Indiana is a very physician-friendly state regarding malpractice legislation.

Physician salaries are higher in small towns (and real estate is cheaper), especially in Midwest and South, but you'll usually be 2 hours from a major airport. That's my situation, but I consider it a favorable trade.

Property taxes are high in Texas.

I believe Kamban can tell you about Carolina.

In the past, several forum members have reported that bugs are large, nasty, and plentiful in Texas. For example, scorpions, fire ants, and man-eating mosquitoes.

[billy]

Id suggest using Air bnb and visiting those places you are considering before applying to jobs in any of them.

[wideopenspaces]

I'm from TX, it's certainly warm and real estate is relatively inexpensive. If you were looking there I'd consider college towns and buying fourplexes to rent to college kids. Baylor, A&M, Tech are all nice size towns. It's physician friendly there from a malpractice standpoint. In state tuition for college is very reasonable. But the mosquitoes are no joke, definitely buggy there. And the politics are pretty intense, if you are republican it'll probably be a good fit. If not you might want to stick closer to the big cities but it'll be more expensive. I personally have no plans to return to TX but lots of people love it. I can't comment on any of your other options. Good luck in your search!

[PedsCCM]

Agree with billy. Please spend some time in those areas. Areas of similar size and distance form major cities can be wildly different. Huntsville, AL (I assume hatton is from there) is a little bigger than Evansville, IN but similar in size. Both are 2 hours from decent sized cities. The feel of the cities is wildly different. Huntsville has a TON of cool aerospace engineering industry including an amazing NASA space camp. Super well educated population with all the scientists employed in those areas. Good schools. Good hospitals. Evansville is a little different. There are city finder websites that can let you search by size, levels of education, median income, house prices, etc, etc. Take a look at those because I bet you'll find some great places given your requirements.

[HikingDO]

You considering Arizona? Definitely warm here, and plenty of need for family medicine physicians. Feel free to message me if you have any questions, I’ve been practicing FM in Arizona for 21 years.

[Tim]

Id suggest using Air bnb and visiting those places you are considering before applying to jobs in any of them.

https://datausa.io/profile/geo/washington-dc/?compare=dallas-tx

Make a list! Do your research. The population and demographics and cost of living calculators are available.

Travel: The airport situation is based on the airline hub and spoke system of the airlines. True international departures/arrivals are extremely limited. The connecting flights maybe more inconvenient than the drive if you are close to a hub or a short connecting flight might be better. You would need to see what works as if you were living there.

The danger if the AirBNB route is you won’t be able to visit all of them and your impressions will be so limited by time you choose to visit. I would save those as second trips to the locations AFTER you have potential jobs identified.

To me, picking 5 different locations and 5 potential jobs is step 1. Site visits/interviews give you the impression. The follow up trip is where you dig in to the “what it is like to live there”, looking for places to rent etc. For that trip, a realtor can actually save a bunch of time and educate you on the details. You need more than one visit. Use those to make rankings on preference.

[hebel]

Based on your wish list, with my experience living there before, I would take Virginia off your list.

Also, although this may be a little over cautious, with climate change I would be hesitant to live too far south or in places large cities really shouldn't exist (e.g. large cities in southwest deserts).

[vijayash01]

Thank you all for your comments. I really appreciate all of you for your suggestions/insights. Sorry for the late response. Wifey was doing 24 hours shift and I was looking after my 3 yo old. You know it is :-)

We are very flexible. I will look into Hunstville, AL as well.

If you think of any city that would be good for FM physician please do share.