Final retirement area

[Hyper]

How did you chose your final area to retire to? It was the mountains which brought us where we are now. Really disgusted about where we live now. Thought it was going to be where we stayed for the rest of our lives. Moved here about 7 yrs ago. Remodeled one home but wasn't happy with it so built a new home and happy with the home. Fought continuously local entities that wanted complete control of the work we did. Happy with the area as far as the activities we enjoy. Weather is tougher with longer than normal winters. Biggest problem is the people! Most are horrible. Half the community is retired and snowbirds. The retirees are good to get along with. Majority of retirees don't get involved with local anything and just pay whatever. Those that run all the local entities/utilities have always had a free reign and walk (try to) all over people. Very few stand up to the local authorities. Enter me and I don't take this well at all. Seriously considering leaving/possibly traveling the country full time hoping to find a better place/people. We are hermits and keep well to ourselves but still have a heck of a time. How do others chose a final area?

[Bir48die]

Never had a major thought of moving from an aesthetic standpoint as we have ocean and mountain equal distance from where I live. Had some thought to move due to us being the center of the Antifa movement. I'm trying not to become one of those who avoids their own downtown.

I did think about moving East to either Boise (now one of the hottest markets), Utah or Tahoe/Reno area. However we like the coast too much and would be a lot to give up.

We are not on the best list of places to live for retirees due to our income tax and decently high property taxes. However there is always a price to pay for beauty.

[Red Badger]

Mid-career, I took a job here so we could move here. That was over a dozen years ago. Working well for our retirement digs. Four seasons with a long, hot summer. Less than two hours to the mountains and a little over three hours to the ocean. Taxes are high for the SE and there is a lot of traffic congestion at times.

We love it here and will stay until we age out. While we are only ~20 minutes from Charlotte, we aint much for the big city and rarely go there. All the shopping, medical support, etc is local.

We keep to ourselves and our friends. We live in the burbs, but have a very secluded back yard on a very quiet street.

The issues OP lists, I think, are rather universal. No location is perfect. Most always, you'll find the "in your business" crowd, the dysfunctional HOA, the zoning nazis, etc. We just tune them out and get on with life. It helps to remind ourselves that we're usually not the ones with the problem.

[imoldernu]

You won't want to read the whole thread, but the first five or six posts, kind of outlines how we got to where we are today.
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ent-62251.html

Since we're getting a little bit older, it may not seem too attractive, but however it happened, 15 years ago we moved to the happiest place we've ever lived. We were 68 at the time, but knowing what we do today, we could have moved in at age 60, and been just as happy. Many of the newer residents in our Villas, are in their late 50's or low 60's. A carefree happy life in a nice town with nice people, and every possible convenience within a 2 1/2 mile drive. A HOA that works for us, and for the most part just plans the parties.
Nicest part is no fear for the future, as all possible care facilities are within 2 minutes walk.
You wouldn't move here, but there are many equally wonderful similar communities around the country. Search "Liberty Village, Peru, Il." or "Simply the Finest".

[COcheesehead]

We thought we would stay in the "big city" after we retired. Easy access to an international airport. We had friends. Knew the area well. We were comfortable. Then things changed. The city grew, a lot, traffic got worse. RE was starting to get to a point of being ridiculous. Even the winters, which are mild, started to stretch into Spring almost every year.

So we started thinking, you know we don't have to stay here, but where would we go?

We created a priority list and started bumping that off of a number of prospects. We whittled it down to 2 or 3 places and we started making trips to those towns. Spending 4 or 5 days at a time.

We eventually picked a new town, bought a house and moved. That is all easy to say now, but it was almost a year and half long process. We are happy we did it. We've made friends already. The weather is better. Everything is new which to us is exciting. So much to do and explore. Do we miss our old town? Not really. We still see friends. We don't miss the traffic or the poorer air quality. The big bonus is our old house appreciated so much, we flipped our equity into a very nice, but a little smaller house that we were able to pay cash for and did it tax free. So all in all, we are very happy that we decided to be a rolling stone and not gather any moss.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper How did you chose your final area to retire to?

We were going to sell our houses and move when we retired, simply because we could. We each spent about $10K fixing up our homes and put them on the market as soon as we retired.

But while we were waiting for them to sell, we realized that part of the motivation to move was to put space between us and our workplaces. And somehow that no longer seemed as necessary as it did when we were still working. Another reason for moving was to get away from the Katrina devastation and live like normal humans in a nice place that didn't constantly remind us of that nightmare. However it had been five years and while things were still a mess here, still we thought maybe New Orleans was at least slowly beginning to return to normal. Or maybe we were just getting used to it. We weren't quite sure.

We wanted to live away from hurricanes, but then we had already gotten through Katrina and how much worse could it get? We wanted to live in an area with lower crime, but low crime locations are fewer than one might think, and either are too costly for us, too rural for me, or else way far north in the midst of extreme snow and/or ice that we do not especially relish.

So anyway, F was the first of us to get an offer on his house, and he completely had cold feet and not only did not respond to the (lowball) offer, but also took his house off the market and announced to me that he wasn't going to move after all. I was stunned, since he had never previously expressed the slightest doubt about moving, but his decisions are always good ones so I took my house off the market too. After all, I wasn't going to move without him.

It turned out to be a good decision for us, because we have been very happy here. So that is how we decided on our final retirement area.

[timo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Red Badger The issues OP lists, I think, are rather universal. No location is perfect. Most always, you'll find the "in your business" crowd, the dysfunctional HOA, the zoning nazis, etc. We just tune them out and get on with life. It helps to remind ourselves that we're usually not the ones with the problem.

+1

We chose our area through a negotiation years ago. DW was fine with the 25+ moves if she got to pick the retirement area. She chose where she lived as a child. so here we are!

For the OP, based upon only this one post of yours, there are many places in the inter-mountain west where you would fit right in. I know because most of my 25+ places were in those areas. The caveat to those areas is they don't like it when a new person comes in and tries to make their new environment like their old environment.

[Katsmeow]

We moved last year and decided based upon two main criteria.

1. Most important - I wanted a house close to amenities and would be a good place to live for many, many years. I had seen how difficult my mother had it during her later life (she died at 94) mostly because it was hard for her to get around and no one really delivered to her house. She lived in a big city but not an area where she could get stuff like grocery delivery. I wanted to have a house that 20 years from now, if driving was difficult, I could get everything I needed easily. I also wanted a place that I knew would not become a declining area in 20 years. While there is also uncertainty in life I think we made a choice that will not be in danger of becoming a non-desirable area.

2. While we were open to moving away from others that we knew (kids were scattered so we couldn't be close to everyone or even a majority of people), I preferred to move to an area where I did know at least some people. To my surprise we ended up moving to the area where I grew up (and where I had left over 40 years ago).

[joeea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper How do others chose a final area?

We bought a second home and lived here on weekends and vacations for seven years.

Then we sold our primary residence earlier this year and moved here full time.

We aren't hermits. We learned to love the area and the people before we made our final decision.

[Teacher Terry]

I moved here 22 years ago for a job and met my husband who is a native. I have lived in many places but here is the best. A mild 4 seasons with tons of stuff to do.

[Alan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper How did you chose your final area to retire to?

We visited a few times then spent 7 months there as a trial run.

[Souschef]

My DW found it. She lived in Ventura all her life, and when her husband died, she could not afford the house payments and put it up for sale.
She did not want an apartment or condo, so she looked at senior MHP's all around the area. The ones near her were very expensive, so she expanded her search and found our new home.
It was just being put on the property, and filled the bill. The climate is moderate,and we are near enough to Ventura if we cannot find something locally.
I had lived in the San Fernando Vally, with2.9 million people, and our town has about 29,000, which is nice. There is a lot of agriculture here, and everything is green, instead of concrete..

[Dtail]

We knew we wanted to live somewhere in Florida. Checked out different areas and decided on Tampa on the West Central side.
Lucked out a bit, as we love it here, but only spent 1 month on the decision and visited Tampa twice in that time.

[RobbieB]

I just stayed in the same house I've lived in for 30 years. I've always liked the place and the location so why move?

[FIREd]

I went back to the place where I was born and raised. I still love it here.

[HI Bill]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper How did you chose your final area to retire to?

Since I don't know my expiration date, this question can't be answered directly, at least for me. My current multi-phase plan:

Phase I: Move to Japan for 3-4 years, diving/travelling a lot (54-57)
Phase II: Possibly move to Florida (West Palm Beach?), rent for 2 years of diving/travelling (57-59), or buy a camper van and travel the US and Canadian National parks.
Phase III: Move to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Buy the 'dream house', or if we're still into spending 3-5 months a year travelling, by a condo (59-67).
Phase IV: If I didn't buy the 'dream house' in Phase III, buy one when the travel desire has waned (67-70).
Phase V: Move to a nice condo in Honolulu, or Waikiki, with full amenities (80), where we can walk to restaurants and shopping.
Phase VI: Not really planning to go here, but an AL facility (never hopefully).

[CardsFan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bir48die .....we have ocean and mountain equal distance from where I live.....

Same here. But that would be the Gulf of Mexico, about 750 miles south and the Rocky Mountains, about 750 miles to the west.

To the OP's question, we downsized and moved closer to amenities, friends and family a few years before retirement. It is a townhouse condo, so lock and leave is pretty easy. I don't see us making a move to a different part of the country, but being a snowbird is real possibility.

[bmcgonig]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HNL Bill Since I don't know my expiration date, this question can't be answered directly, at least for me. My current multi-phase plan: Phase I: Move to Japan for 3-4 years, diving/travelling a lot (54-57) Phase II: Possibly move to Florida (West Palm Beach?), rent for 2 years of diving/travelling (57-59), or buy a camper van and travel the US and Canadian National parks. Phase III: Move to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Buy the 'dream house', or if we're still into spending 3-5 months a year travelling, by a condo (59-67). Phase IV: If I didn't buy the 'dream house' in Phase III, buy one when the travel desire has waned (67-70). Phase V: Move to a nice condo in Honolulu, or Waikiki, with full amenities (80), where we can walk to restaurants and shopping. Phase VI: Not really planning to go here, but an AL facility (never hopefully).

I like the way you've thought that out! Nice.

My impression was that specialist health care wasn't abundantly available in the big island? Does that concern you at all?

[Ronstar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hyper How did you chose your final area to retire to?

Easy - choose an area that best fits my hobbies and the weather that I like. I like hiking, biking and being outdoors. With some mountains. Hot is ok, Cold is not. So Arizona is the destination. Had a part time condo there for the past 17 years. Just haven't got there full time yet.

[NYEXPAT]

I guess it is wherever I end up (don't care much where I am) Been retired for 30+ years with 1/2 in NYC and 1/2 Lima,Peru. Will be spending the next 5 years in Florida (Wife goes to college) and then we are thinking of the coast of Turkey or Maybe Spain. Life is too much of an adventure, than to grow old in one place!