@jorisw

My girlfriend and I are Canadian nomads looking to spend 6 months (ideally) in the US this winter. We’re trying to figure out the best place to do so! The goal is to live somewhere nice and build up more savings and income.

Since we’re in Montreal and sick of the brutal winters, we want somewhere warm. And since we’re nomading, we’re looking to stay as cheap as possible, but also comfortable. We’d like to do a short-term (furnished) rental as opposed to a hotel or room rental since we’re a couple.

We also want to live somewhere nice enough, not in a dangerous area or anything like that. We like parks, shopping, farmer’s markets, etc. Not too big on night life.

Ideally, we’d like somewhere in California, but I’m not sure how realistic that is for our budget ($1500/month rent at the max).

As of now we’ve also looked at Las Vegas, which seems on the more affordable end of the spectrum. Austin was also on our radar, but again, not sure how realistic that is for our budget.

The biggest problem we have is actually finding available rentals online! We need something furnished! Doing anything through Craigslist online is out, and I know most people will suggest AirBNB, but it seems rather inflated in price. Other than that, there seems to be only private websites that are just as difficult (or untrustworthy looking) as Craigslist.

Can anyone point us in the right direction? Where would you guys suggest in our situation? Anyone from Vegas/California/Austin that could point us in the right direction for furnished short-term housing?

This seems like a really great community! I hope someone out there can help us out!