Snow's fantastic. You just make sure you have food and booze. Most (keyword most) employment is accommodating. Apart from that you make sure the heater vent is clear, if it's a real fun one you might need to shovel the roof, but you prep to not go anywhere. OR the even MORE fun part is walking to the local bar.

That's for relatively warm lake effect. That all goes out the window if it's a truly brutal blizzard. Buffalo specifically had an ugly cold christmas a few years back that was absolutely brutal. People freezing to death leaving there cars looking for a house with someone home. Suspended emergency services. That was not the "fun" kind of snow storm.

Bay area, and same. I miss four seasons (Virginia is closest I've been so mild winters). The housing market, politics, and long term climate prospects of the northeast make it pretty damn appealing.

Just pic a place to live north of downtown.

Seems just south Buffalo has been getting hit bad. And the southtowns.

I'm in the Western Basin, and there os honestly no where i would rather be. Lake Erie may be a trash lake, but it's a beautiful trash lake that makes me appreciate life. There's a beauty here that speaks to me in a way only other Great Lakers can really understand.

It being snowy where you want to go is a ... Detriment?