We live in Oklahoma City now and just had a baby. I absolutely do not want to raise my daughter here there’s too much crime and nothing interesting to do. I don’t even feel safe taking her for walks here because of the crime. My husband and I are thinking of relocating, but we are not sure where would be perfect for us. We like to do stuff outdoors (fishing, biking, kayaking, etc). And our family lives in the midwest so it would be nice to be somewhat close, but not a necessity.
Google top 100 cities to live in the USA and then go from there looking at the crime rates and school districts. You can also look at master planned communities as well.
Redding, CA
Great Schools
Lakes
and Low crime
Iowa
anywhere in Montana!!!! the larger towns ( I hesitate to say cities, because even the largest locale, Billings, where i live, has only 100,000 people) have some crime, but so does everywhere in the world. the recreation options are almost limitless.
Despite the cold and sometimes harsh winters, the Midwest really is a nice place to live and raise a family. Most Midwestern states rank high in health care and education, which helps make them great places to live.
I would recommend to you Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. I am a little partial to Wisconsin having been born and raised there, but Iowa and Minnesota are also excellent states in terms of raising a family and things to do.
Out of those three states, Iowa is obviously the most rural. If you do like to have big-city attractions near by, I’d go for the area around Minneapolis-St. Paul, which is a very nice area. Suburban Milwaukee is also a great spot to raise a family in a more rural setting, but with the convenience of being close to the big city and not that terrible of traffic (compared to other cities, Milwaukee’s rush hour isn’t so bad).
Good luck, and I hope this helped. 🙂