Moving to Bloomington, Illinois

After my wife Beth died in September 2024, my daughter Leigh Ann and I decided we should live closer together. I lived in Bradenton, Florida, and Leigh Ann lived in Seattle. She was living in a small condo, and wanted to buy a single family home, but these are far too costly in Seattle.

We looked at numerous communities and developed a spreadsheet evaluating the communities. Housing in Florida and Washington State was expensive. Our original home of Illinois was much more affordable.

Macomb, Illinois had the lowest cost housing of the communities we considered, but it was smaller than Bloomington, which offered more job opportunities. Craig liked Peoria since he had lived there before. The Bloomington Normal metro area also had two Universities which figured into our decision. Illinois State University and Illinois Weslyan are located in the metro area. And Leigh Ann was a graduate of Illinois State University.

We liked the idea of a smaller metro area - large enough to have services but small to keep traffic low.

In the end we chose the metro area of Bloomington, Illinois. Leigh Ann bought a small single family home, and Craig purchased a small condo in a rehabbed building in Downtown Bloomington. We are very satifisfied with our decision.

Town	Rank	Population	Cost of Living	Ave Home	Property Tax	Sales Tax	Median Income	Unemployment
Bloomington, IL		78,372.00	82.1	$ 208,600.00	$ 23.60	8.8%	$ 69,003.00	5.5%
Bradenton, FL		54,918.00	104.6	$ 368,200.00	$ 7.80	7.0%	$ 50,084.00	4.7%
Cedar Rapids, IA		136,512.00	81.8	$ 184,900.00	$ 18.60	7.0%	$ 63,170.00	5.9%
Champaign, IL		88,343.00	81.1	$ 190,400.00	$ 24.00	9.0%	$ 52,687.00	4.9%
East Lansing, MI		47,427.00	83.6	$ 264,100.00	$ 23.90	6.0%	$ 41,177.00	3.7%
Lafayette, IN		70,928.00	83.5	$ 198,500.00	$ 6.90	7.0%	$ 47,690.00	4.9%
Macomb, IL		15,681.00	68.6	$ 94,100.00	$ 21.50	9.0%	$ 22,588.00	5.3%
Madison, WI		265,447.00	103.4	$ 337,500.00	$ 20.60	5.5%	$ 70,466.00	3.3%
Mishawaka, IN		50,823.00	79.0	$ 164,200.00	$ 10.70	7.0%	$ 48,695.00	4.6%
Peoria, IL		113,672.00	75.6	$ 130,300.00	$ 26.60	9.0%	$ 53,568.00	9.0%
Port Angeles, WA		19,888.00	102	$ 415,900.00	$ 8.80	7.4%	$ 53,690.00	7.4%
Seattle, WA		726,054.00	158.1	$ 823,900.00	$ 8.00	4.8%	$ 105,391.00	4.8%
Sioux Falls, SD		189,258.00	90.7	$ 308,600.00	$ 13.10	6.5%	$ 66,761.00	3.2%
United States		n/a	100	$ 338,100.00	$ 11.00	6.2%	$ 69,021.00	6.0%

Click for the full spreadsheet.