OT: I want to relocate from Rankin County

Okay, I've been in Rankin County for the past 12 years.  I need a change.  I never wanted to live in the 'big city' and moved here to follow my then-boyfriend, now husband (we've been married 10 years).   The increase in crime in the area really has me frightened..and having a 4 year old, I don't even feel safe taking him to the park! Can anyone out there offer me any suggestions?   Definitely need fast-access internet (husband's work from home) but other than that I'm rather flexible.  I don't know how to start with researching.  It isn't like we'll move in the next few months (we paid for son's private school for this coming school year) but I'd really like to move next summer. I tried googling "mississippi small town" and such, but I'm not sure of a better way to find out info. I figured some of you live in some places you may recommend. :)  or not, as the case may be. thanks, mary

Consider Crystal Springs. It is about 25-30 minutes down the road from you. My husband and I moved back to CS after living in Byram for three yrears. He is orginally from here. Byram is growing too fast. We love it here. It is still close enough to Jackson.

do you have recommendations for researching your area?  like i said, this won't be foranother year or so.  just needs some ideas. :)

I guess my vote is for Philadelphia.  We are about 1 and half east-north-east of Jackson.  I moved here from Clinton about 6 years ago and my kids were 4 and 6, we have a lot of friends and I enjoy it.  I work at the reservation here.

my mom lives in Louisville--so i've been to Philadephia before.   how is the housing market there?

Historically it has been more expensive than it needed to be but lately the houses have not turned over the way they used to.   All that to say things are better here.  We have a lot of jobs available because of the reservation.  Typically you can get a job here pretty easily.  Please let me know if you have any other questions.

I think you need to move here to Petal.  We relocated here from Alabama 10 years ago, and we love it.  It is a small town with a wonderful, wonderful school system.  Where we lived before we had our son in private school but no need for that here.  The public school here is great.  

What I love is the fact that Petal is small and gives you that small town community feeling, but yet it is really close to Hattiesburg where we can find all kinds of things to do as a family.  Plus, we are near enough to the coast that we can go there for some fun.  Good luck to ya girl in finding a place to move to for a change. Melissa

I live in Florence now.  We have been here for 2 years.  I love it.  It is a small town but close to Jackson.  However, we moved here from PETAL.  Petal is my love.  My parents are originally from Petal and I have family still there.  It is a great place to live.  I actually taught in the school system.  It is A # 1.  You could not go wrong there.  Petal is growing and growing fast.  I was there last week and it has changed so much in 2 years.  Florence reminds me of the size Petal used to be.  Good luck.

I vote for Richland/Florence area.... having moved from Green Bay last year with two small children, I found florence to be small and easy to get any where with-in minutes and still close enough to jackson...Love the small town feel ...Only down fall is traffic on 49 during rush hour..Since I work graveyard shift this doesnt effect me....

thanks for the input.  it's still really scary to think about relocating--but i'm just not happy here.  not completely--or how i envision it *could* be.  we'll see.  we're stuck here at least another year, due to having paid for school this year, but we'll be making some trips i'm sure to look around. :) mary