Where to live?
 

I start BI soon and could not be more excited!

I live far, far away from any United domicile and will be commuting for the first 18 months or so to SFO (making an assumption as I haven't stated BI yet).

With all that being said, my family and I are looking for a place to move and settle down. I am willing to do a short, easy commute. I define short/easy as a flight 1 hour or less with multiple (6+) options a day year round.

The list of my families priorities are below in order of importance.

Thanks in advance for the advice!

1. Short commute
2. Low cost of living/low taxes
3. Decent public schools
4. Love seniority, so preferably near a junior or junior"ish" base

Thanks again!

Don’t think there is anything that fulfills all your criteria. LAS checks most, but not all, boxes.

Would also say RNO might check a few boxes, but again, not all. Same with Oregon.

One interesting option is Vancouver, WA. No state income tax, less costly housing. Drive across the bridge and shop in no-sales-tax-Oregon, commute out of PDX. Schools are an issue everywhere, unfortunately.

Forget anything in California.

Thanks Crownevic, forgot to mention we are willing to move anywhere.

If you’re willing to move anywhere...move to a domicile.

Move in base

Trying to check all your boxes and have a one hour, one leg commute with around six flights a day is very difficult.

We were in your shoes not long ago, planning our exodus from our beloved California. We loved BOI and wanted to live there, but the schools were a disaster, like so many other places these days.

Schools were my number one priority. Figured the wife and I could move and live wherever after the kids were educated and set on a proper course.

He’s planning SFO. Would not recommend he follow that advice.

Unless of course, he’s a trust-fund-kid and can afford that $1.8M dollar, 1200 sq. ft. tear-down in Palo Alto or Burlingame. Schools are fine there.

Nope. No trust fund. CA/NY are out of the question.

Hanover County, VA. Drive to work at Dulles, within short call reserve range but a bit tight. Good schools, affordable homes, reasonable taxes. Dulles isn’t really a junior base, but not bad.

I’m at Delta but a ton of United guys live in Yardley area of PA. We just moved here a week ago. Hour drive to Newark. Excellent schools. Reasonable taxes. Super quiet neighborhood. And the world would be your oyster based at EWR. PM me if you need more specific info.

Take IAD and live in Winchester VA... 1+15 drive to the lot.

“Reasonable.”

Enjoy dealing with the d-bag crowd at Mcafferys shopping for groceries, the tolls, traffic, people, taxes cost of living and the rest of the crap that comes with living up there. Bucks county is like the cleanest end of a chalky white dog turd.

Pro tip, use the Calhoun bridge to 29 then US-1 to ewr when it’s really icy/snowy. Trenton Makes the World Takes!

Aw man I dunno we love it up here so far. Like 5 if my squadron/airline buddies live within walking distance so maybe I have rose colored glasses. Also living in a junior base if I do one or two days of premium flying per month (which I couldn’t do if I commuted) negates the HCOL. Don’t scare him off I’m trying to increase my pilot yardley posse.

Having been born and raised in Texas, I was hesitant to move in base when I started at United (LAX).

(1) Now that I’ve been here for several years, I cannot believe I even considered commuting. My drive to work is 20 minutes.

(2) I made about 200k and paid about 11k in CA state income tax. It’s always amazing to me the feats that pilots will go through to avoid what ends up being such a small amount of money (living in a less desirable area, commuting in the day before/day after a trip, paying for crash pads, paying for hotels, putting miles on their cars, burning gas, spending less time at home, not being able to pick up more flying because they are busy commuting, etc....)

(4) It’s the best kept secret in the airline industry. Live in base in a more desirable base, hence more expensive, hence typically a junior base. Fly one extra day per month and it more than makes up for the extra cost of living in a more desirable base. In the end, you’ll actually spend less time away from home because you don’t have to put up with commuting every week. Or fly on a more senior airplane making more money because it’s more junior in a more desirable base. I take home more money than equivalent seniority pilots who are based DEN/ORD/IAH because I’m on a more senior airplane flying better trips. Choosing to value number 4 on your list (good seniority) more than takes care of number 2 on your list (low taxes).

Avoiding a more desirable base because of it’s higher cost of living reminds me of the people who drive around to save a few pennies on a gallon of gas. Sure it might save you $1 on your tank of gas, but you pay for it with the wear and tear on your car, not to mention the value of your time.

If California is off your list, I would suggest Vegas.

When you make what we make, a few thousand a year in extra cost of living doesn’t even register on my quality of life. Commuting, being away from home, flying less senior airplanes and trips, working weekends and holidays, etc... does. You only live once. Live where you want to live.

If you want to stay in SFO, Vegas is a surprisingly nice place, summer hot as hell but you get a lot of house for the money, no income tax and a short drive into Utah. If your into camping, hiking, off-roading Utah is absolutely amazing. Vegas is also an easy drive into Flagstaff and tons of other outdoor recreation. I know a lot of guys that live out in PA, but to me it seems a bit boring suburb like living, to each their own though. Denver is great to if your out a ways into the mountains.

And Denver is becoming “less” senior with each vacancy bid.

And more expensive for housing...

I'll add a plug for the areas west of Leesburg, VA on Rt 7 in Loudoun County. We moved here this Summer to Round Hill, VA on the eastern flank of the Blue Ridge mtns (6 minutes and I'm on the Appalachian Trail). Vineyards, breweries, and horse farms at every turn with gorgeous scenery and only 30-35 minutes to the IAD employee lot. Prices are not "low", as you'll pay a minimum of $700k for a nice 3-4,000 sq ft home on 1-3 acres....however Houston is our only UAL domicile where you can get below that anywhere close to the airport in a desirable neighborhood with strong public schools. Taxes are moderate here and so are the politics. Schools are very strong.

If you want a more conservative area with nice homes on large lots in the $500-600k range you can go south to Facquier Co (Warrenton) or continue west on Rt 7 over into the Shenandoah Valley to Clarke Co or preferably Frederick Co for the schools (Winchester)...all of these commutes are in the 45-60 minute range.

IAD has a TON of UAL growth potential (reference Scott Kirby comments this week) as we are clearly the dominant air carrier in N.Va, especially for the premium and business traveler. Loudoun is the wealthiest county per capita in the entire country by a long shot with Amazon, Google, etc all building up rapidly here in the next 10 years. Don't buy off on the moaning about much of the initial IAD growth being RJs...it's called connecting traffic and will lead to notable domestic (MAX) and international (A321 & 787) mainline growth next five years so long as we keep taking on new used/mainline jets.
Good luck!

...and yet you took the Guppy upgrade to EWR! Haha!

Hope the base trade happens quick for you BK!

(Just bustin your ball$ buddy!)

Good point Shaggy....I shouldn't spend more than Jun-Aug in Newark unless MAX stays grounded?!

Lehigh Valley or Bucks County PA. 1 to 1 1/2 drive to EWR. Tons of pilots live those areas from EWR. Can find most of your items on the your list and alot less pricey then CA or NY/NJ. Can sit short call anywhere in this area no problem. A lot of pilots also live in central and south Jersey.

Best of luck and welcome to United!

What about Salt Lake?

Exactly the input I was looking for! Thank you very much everyone.

Don’t commute.

Even a one hour commute sucks.

I’m writing this at 3:17am having just barely made the last flight out of LAX. Landed at 7:37pm at the end of a 4 day. Crammed in the back of a packed SWA guppy (thankful I wasn’t one of the 2 on jump seats up front and even more thankful I wasn’t left at the gate) after nervously waiting to see if I would even get on. Not worth the stress if you have a choice to move near a base.

Pick a base. Rent a place for a year to narrow down exactly where you want to live near that base, and then buy the house that makes sense after that. And then don’t move again.

It might be tight financially at first, but over time, you’ll be just fine, and your time will be your time and not wasted time stressing about an unnecessary commute.

Commuting for 25 years with no regrets, Ive seen to many base closures, displacements furloughs etc.... live where your happy to be on your days off!!

I just ran into a classmate who bought land to build by Reno, said its booming there. A lot of the Silicon Valley companies are leaving CA to escape the taxes. He said you can fly or drive to SFO, but the drive is a haul, he’s pretty senior and able to back things up and do two commutes a month.

Surprised nobody has mentioned PHX? Any reason why not to commute to SFO from PHX?

I’m amazed that you’ve already decided that you want a “short commute”? If you find a place that involves a commute and you absolutely have to live there, by all means do it. Don’t eschew any of our bases though. There are places to live and things to love about all our bases. Not commuting is the smartest career decision I ever made. My family complains that I’m home too much.

Also, earlier poster said SE PA is boring suburban living. Absolutely untrue. Bucks County in particular is rich with culture and things to do including world class outdoor activities. Easy train ride to Philadelphia and NYC. I was 20+ years military including living in 13 different places. SE PA is mine and my family’s favorite by a long shot.


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Could not agree more. We love Doylestown.


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Be nice if our upper level management could understand the QOL dilemma they offer us..after all we are trying to attract quality pilots here for the future.
I understand the focus on hubs and pilot domiciles but the technology exists to run this airline with more domicile options.
I know it’s an apples to oranges comparison but the FA’s are getting some nice QOL equity with all their new domicile choices. We make the most of what we are offered but our choices come down to commuting, living in a crappy place, or living in a place you can’t afford...
Pick your poison.
I know there are arguments that the costs associated with staffing and reserve coverage make satellite bases untenable... but what about the costs associated with shutting down a major portion of the operation when the EWR, IAH, ORD pilots can’t dig out of the snow or drive through another flood...
Sorry... rant over

We aren’t as classy as you living “in the borough” 😀 but we live just west of Dtown and love it.

We live just south of the borough. Best of both worlds. Cheaper taxes but 4 minute walk to the train and 10 minute walk to town. Best place we’ve ever lived.


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I wonder how all the infrastructure will get paid for.

Currently Nevada funds their state budget through tourism (gambling and hotel room tax). As the amount of Nevada residents increase (Nevada is the fastest growing state) relative to the number of tourists, there becomes less and less money to fund these projects. Look for Nevada to institute a state income tax within the next 10 years.

43 out of 50 states have state income tax, and the average rate is around 5%.

5 of the 7 have high property taxes that make up for it (Texas, Florida, etc...)
Alaska gets all its money from oil drilling.
Nevada gets all its money from gambling and hotel taxes.

Every state gets money one way or another.

I'm always curious about how folks quantify "good schools". Having been sent all over the US with the military, I still haven't cracked the code with three kids, aged 10-15. The only school we feel that was "bad" for our oldest was a middle school in Florida. He struggled and ultimately repeated 7th grade due to a number of reasons. Ironically, the elementary school in the same district was fantastic for our younger two. What metrics are you using to pick a school district? Word of mouth? Test scores? Ivy League acceptance rate? Class sizes? Greatschools.org rating? All of those could be arguably inaccurate. Am I missing something?

Everything you mentioned as well as the percentage of “free and reduced lunches”.
I think greatschools.org does a pretty good job of compiling a lot of data into a 1-10 scale. It’s not perfect but definitely a pause for concern if you’re sending your kids off to a “4” rated school vs. an “8” or “9”...
Some counties in Florida have traditionally had failing schools...The creation of magnet and fundamental programs as well as class size restrictions have made for vast improvements but the downside is the schools without those programs are not conducive to learning because all of the behavior issues end up there...
Of course the student, teachers, parents and administration all work into the mix as well so it’s not always one size fits all at a highly rated school.

An income tax in Nevada would take years to implement. It has to pass the house and senate in consecutive terms, two years apart, and then the entire state would have to vote on it and the Governor would have to sign it and he said he doesn’t support it. The current house and senate of Nevada is run by Democrats and they haven’t done it for this session, so it would have to wait until 2021, then it would have to pass in 2023, and then the voters would decide. There is almost no chance Nevada will get an income tax, and if it does, its going to take a long time. Nevada has always had population growth and nobody in the state is talking about it. Democrats in Nevada aren’t like in California.

Greatschools.org is very useful. I’d argue every metric and rating system has their own bias, so looking at multiple sources of information is probably beneficial.

I believe family income is the strongest correlate of whether a school is considered “good” or not.

Yeah because United's hub in SLC is really kicking!!!