LibGuides: Careers and Professional Skills (Brandon Campus): Home, Sweet Home

Recommended Websites

In the United States

To help you find your perfect place to live—in the US, or a foreign country.

Sperling's BestPlaces
Comparison information—cost of living, health, housing, crime, climate, transportation—on thousands of U.S. cities. Includes profiles of neighborhoods, statistics on schools, and interactive tools to "display a ranking of the cities which best meet your criteria."
Cost of Living Wizard
See how relocating (or staying where you are) might affect your standard of living. You can compare living-cost indexes and salary differentials between your current and future locations.
CNN/Money.Com Find a Job
View current job listing nationwide. Use Advanced Job Search to find a specific job in a specific state. On the right, Search by Job Category—OR—below that—Search by Company Name.
Wages By Area and Occupation: State
Wages by Area & Occupation: Metropolitan Area
Outside the United States
Transitions Abroad
Comprehensive portal for working or studying abroad, cultural travel overseas and international living.
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The site provides job opportunities abroad and also tips on traveling abroad touching on topics such as cuisines, budgets and legal aspects. Also read articles from TAzine.
The University of Michigan International Center
Nationally-recognized site with a wealth of information about working, studying, or traveling abroad, plus FAQs and links to useful information such as hostel and scholarship sites.
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While the information regarding study-abroad opportunities is directed toward University of Michigan students, the rest of the site is useful to anyone interested in going abroad, not just to the Univerisity of Michigan community.

Home buying

Homefair
Real estate site with articles on buying and financing a home, along with interactive calculators.
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Includes a salary calculator for comparing the cost of living in different locales, calculators for moving costs and qualifying for a mortgage and a quizzer to help you understand some of the issues in buying your home and auto insurance among other resources.
Trulia

Zillow
Discover the prices of homes near you - or across the country.

Try This in Your Favorite Search Engine:

home buying site:gov <-- use site:gov at the end of your search terms to limit your search to government websites

How much does owning a home really cost?
An article from NOLO with reminders that home owners should plan for expenses beyond a mortgage payment such as property taxes, home owners insurance, utilities (water, trash, electricity), repairs, cable/internet, etc/

Where do you want to live?

Cost of living including cost of rentals, homes, etc. can have a big impact on how far your salary goes! What about other amentiies? What kind of lifestyle do you want? Moneycrashers suggests looking at affordability, taxes, employment opportunities, real estate value, crime rate and statistics, proximity to family and friends, climate, education system, culture, commute time and public transportation options, food options, town or city size, healthcare facilities, proximity to an airport. What other factors are important to you? How about sources of water?

Teleport: Move to your best place to live and work. Compare cities on quality of life, costs of living, salaries and more