Happy new year my lovelies!

I was wondering if I could get some input from you ladies about living in the coast. My husband is a merchant marine by trade from Nigeria and he was hoping to continue that here. We currently live in North Dakota and are planning to move sometime in July/August. I know the move will be stressful but that's not what in worried about. I am going to school but I don't mind tranfering because I can really start a career anywhere with a communications degree and work on my education from there.

I wanted to ask you ladies about cost of living, education, shopping, weather, traffic, neighborhoods, honestly anything that you can tell me about living in either of these two states or anywhere on a cost really. I know I can do research until I'm blue in the face, but I'd rather talk to people who live first hand in these places. 

Do you enjoy the coast? How much do you pay for rent/mortgage if you don't mind sharing? How do you commute? What do you do for work right now? How much is daycare? Those are just some base questions to work off of but feel free to be as honest as you can be because moving across the country is a big deal and I want to be as ready as I can be without losing my head.