10 affordable places to retire

Interesting. The two I know are San Antonio and South Bend. San Antonio has an incredibly low cost of living and plenty to offer, but you'd better be prepared for serious hot weather and not just during the official Summer months. South Bend would be great if you're a Notre Dame alum/fan and cost of living is low (but not as cheap as San Antonio). But if you're not, it's another run down post-industrial town with bitterly cold winters and plenty of snow. Chicago is a little too far to be accessible, although Lake Michigan is close (and wonderful IMO). But I can't imagine wanting to live there, and I live within 90 miles of there now.
 
None of these would likely work for me. I'm very picky. I won't detail my objections. Don't want to insult anyone who lives in these fine towns. But South Bend, Indiana:confused::confused:? I guess if you were a Notre Dame alumnus, you might think you'd gone to heaven. I don't know what critieria they were using for this list.

Why didn't they just add Joplin, MO? Trucking and religion are the main industries, so there's probably never going to be a recession there. And you can get a charming vintage home in the best part of town (which overlooks the sewage treatment facility) for around $75k.
 
Oldbabe said:
None of these would likely work for me. I'm very picky. I won't detail my objections. .
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I agree with you and CuppaJoe.

I think I'll stick with my much-less-affordable location!
 
Affordable place to retire

I live in a county adjacent to Pittsburgh. It is great! Lovely in the summer, great hospitals and universities, world class symphony, museums, theater, skiing in winter. Very affordable housing. However....I think I will be retiring in California despite all the economic problems in the state(at least at the present time). I can't get the Monterey Peninsula out of my mind. COL be damned! It is perfect there.
 
WhoDaresWins said:
I live in a county adjacent to Pittsburgh. It is great! Lovely in the summer, great hospitals and universities, world class symphony, museums, theater, skiing in winter. Very affordable housing. However....I think I will be retiring in California despite all the economic problems in the state(at least at the present time). I can't get the Monterey Peninsula out of my mind. COL be damned! It is perfect there.
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Yeah it is great. Just all depends where you want to spend your bucks.
 
Motto: Never live north of the signs that read "BRIDGE FREEZES BEFORE ROADWAY".
 
WhoDaresWins said:
I live in a county adjacent to Pittsburgh. It is great! Lovely in the summer, great hospitals and universities, world class symphony, museums, theater, skiing in winter. Very affordable housing. However....I think I will be retiring in California despite all the economic problems in the state(at least at the present time). I can't get the Monterey Peninsula out of my mind. COL be damned! It is perfect there.
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Welcome to the forum, WhoDaresWins. But have you been warned about Northern Calif.'s fog, sharks, fire ants.... :LOL:

When will you be retiring?
 
retirement places, affordable and otherwise

I hope to retire in 4 or 5 years, thank you for asking. I lived in Monterey for 5 years in the late 80's and early 90's. I do recall the fog, never went in the water(too cold), and don't recall the fire ants. Have been back a couple of times to visit friends. I did neglect to mention our high taxes in Pennsylvania (mentioned by a previous contributor and she is correct).
Pittsburgh (Allegheny Co.) has high taxes indeed, and ours are not far behind. And she is also correct about the utilities and the roads. We are all battening the hatches here in preparation for another summer of detours and traffic jams due to road closures to fix the potholes and expand the number of lanes feeding through the perpetual bottleneck of tunnels and bridges into the city. However, our economy here is pretty good. We haven't had the big peaks and valleys of other areas, and unemployment in our county is well below the national average. This winter was pretty cold at times but we did not have a lot of snow.
 
Retirement site??

South Bend?? Are you guys kidding?? Affordable it is, but, aside from beautiful Notre Dame, there is nothing there to attract retirees -- and I can say that because I was born and raised there!! It is flat and unattractive, weather is hot and humid/cold and very snowy. It does, however, have lots of shopping if you love big box stores!! Lots of small lakes in surrounding areas, but really, not a place to retire!!
 
Dean said:
South Bend?? Are you guys kidding?? Affordable it is, but, aside from beautiful Notre Dame, there is nothing there to attract retirees -- and I can say that because I was born and raised there!! It is flat and unattractive, weather is hot and humid/cold and very snowy. It does, however, have lots of shopping if you love big box stores!! Lots of small lakes in surrounding areas, but really, not a place to retire!!
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Can't be much worse than Dayton Ohio.
 
haha said:
You guys must work for the Chamber of Commerce. :)

ha
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And they don’t even need to bring out the “C” word (chiggers). That suburb of Mishawaka is very well located near the dunes as I recall. Fun place, lots of sand. Did they film Lawrence of Arabia there?
 
Some of these cities are in high-high tax States. Who makes these lists anyway?
 
I'm voting for the Spokane area....just bought a house there so I can't hardly vote against it. Wish the winters were just a hair shorter but it does keep the "soft" folks away. Too bad I can't golf during the winter. No state tax and but I should be in a real low tax bracket anyway. Winter is what they make beer and mandolins for.
 
F4mandolin said:
I'm voting for the Spokane area....just bought a house there so I can't hardly vote against it. Wish the winters were just a hair shorter but it does keep the "soft" folks away. Too bad I can't golf during the winter. No state tax and but I should be in a real low tax bracket anyway. Winter is what they make beer and mandolins for.
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I lived near Spokane in one of the coldest winters of the 20th century. It was great. So many nice outdoor things, basically dry air even when cold. Overall I think you should enjoy it.

Ha
 
That wasn't about 1979-80 was it? I remember graduating from Central in Eburg the summer of 79 and having some temps down around -40 or so that next winter.
 
Retirement Havens

The town of Mishawaka, which is adjacent to South Bend, is a little better - my husband grew up there and his sister and family still live there, but it isn't really close to the Indiana Dunes -- it is a good 45 minutes or so-- in any case, there are worse places, but I'd still never choose to retire around there.....:nonono:
 
REWahoo said:
Omaha? Montgomery? San Antonio? Roswell?

Obvious the folks who write these articles focused on the stats and haven't lived in these places...
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I passed through Roswell not too long ago. It looked as if the town was dying. Even the Alien museum wasn't doing too well.
 
It seems that the people who make these lists don't do any field work. If you want a fine place to live, I humbly suggest my fair state of Connecticut. I live in a picturesque old New England town (you know, with the big white church on the maple-lined village green), on Long Island Sound and a relatively short train ride to the big city (NYC) for excitement. It is, however, far from cheap.
 
Gumby said:
It is, however, far from cheap.
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Which immediately eliminates it from 95% of the "best places to retire" lists, because cost of living almost always carries a very high weighting.

Especially since many of us want to retire *early*, and we'd have to w*rk an extra 10-15 years in order to have a chance of living our last few years there...
 
Gumby said:
It seems that the people who make these lists don't do any field work. If you want a fine place to live, I humbly suggest my fair state of Connecticut. I live in a picturesque old New England town (you know, with the big white church on the maple-lined village green), on Long Island Sound and a relatively short train ride to the big city (NYC) for excitement. It is, however, far from cheap.
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I spent 4 years in Southern Conn, loved it, and it's one of the few places that I've lived that I would happily return to. The other 2 are San Francisco and Venice Beach.

I think it would be better to go somewhere you were happy and run out of money if need be, than isolate yourself in South Bend Indiana for example. If you get poor enough you can usually get senior subsidized housing.

I met an old gal who lives in Bellingham on almost no money. She is in a high rise subsidized senior housing project overlooking Bellingham Bay. All the rest is covered by her SS, and a little savings. So she has a very nice life walking around going to coffee houses in Fairhaven, entertaining the old hippies with her stories of jazz musicians that she slept with when she was young back in New York (according to her anyway) and generally enjoying life mostly on someone else’s dime.

Connecticut isn’t that expensive anyway, outside of Greenwich and the billionaires’ haunts. At least when compared to Seattle.

Ha
 
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