Looking for Ideas on Where to Live in Retirement

Kansas City, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Springfield, Missouri

Housing is incredibly reasonable. Medical care is top notch in all three. Definitely get a change of seasons, and gardens do grow.
 
SumDay said:
Kansas City, Missouri population 488K, metro area population 2100K
Columbia, Missouri pop 108K, metro 178K
Springfield, Missouri pop 159K, metro 462K

Housing is incredibly reasonable. Medical care is top notch in all three. Definitely get a change of seasons, and gardens do grow.
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Not sure if those would meet the OP’s “low population area” criteria, but maybe?
 
Put areas around Longview and Ridgefield Washington on your look-at list. No sales tax in Washington. Property and home values vary. Keep in mind the fact that the wood products industry has shed jobs like crazy so the Longview area may offer better values (a lumber town). One advantage of both is that they have access to excellent medical facilities (Kaiser serves both and there are major hospitals in Portland, including a VA hospital). Not far off I-5, PDX is about 45 minutes drive away.

Where ever you land look for a home with a septic tank, be sure to have the well tested.
 
MoneyChic said:
Looking for ideas and suggestions on places to live in retirement in the US.

Criteria:
United States (but not Hawaii)

Low population area
Low property/income taxes
Low or Average home/property prices
Trees

Enough average rainfall to sustain a vegetable garden without having to water more than once a week for the most part. (I like to garden, but don't want to attempt it in the desert.)

We have no interest in going to Florida. We like to have snow in the winter. Zero interest in being near a big city - we'd much prefer small towns. We'd like to have a decent amount of land (10+ acres) if possible.

Anyone living in an area that could fit this description?

Thanks in advance!
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The area where I live has a population-density around 10 people per square-mile. So it is fairly rural.

My pension is not taxed. My perception of taxes here in Maine is that they are pretty low over-all. Though for business owners I hear that taxes are very high.

Maine is NOT drought-prone, as is most of the nation. Gardens do fine. We know many people who have huge gardens and are vendors in Farmer's Markets. It is possible here to earn a living and support a family from your gardening efforts.

We commonly see homes listed for sale in the $30k to $40k range.

Our house is fairly new [built in 2007], 2400 sq ft inside with a total footprint of 4800 sq ft, on 150 acres of forest land with 1/4 mile of river frontage. Our property taxes are around $800/year.

Maine is over 92% forest.

We are the oldest state, with the highest percentage of retirees.

Rural, plenty of groundwater, over 3500 miles of ocean frontage, hundreds of rivers, thousands of freshwater lakes and ponds, over 16,000 miles of groomed sled trails link every town in the state.
 
If you don't mind long winters, where I live (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) would meet your criteria. Taxes here are not bad, and you can buy a house on 10 acres for quite a bit less than in many other parts of the country. We definitely get snow, and the winters are long. You can grow a nice vegetable garden here if you know what you are doing, and select short-season varieties of things like tomatoes and squash. I've been growing a big vegetable garden here most of my life, and I get plenty of fresh veggies. There are no big cities up here, and the towns are small (many are less than 5000 people). We have one stop light in the town where I live. Nice friendly people here, for the most part. LOTS of trees (we have two National Forests here, each over a million acres, and also lots of State Forest Land). Lots of lakes here too, and the water quality is generally good.

I love it here from about early May through late October. I even enjoyed the winters here for a long time, but as I got older, I did not enjoy them as much anymore. So now we head south for 2 1/2 months every winter, and I could actually stay down there longer. But if you can handle the long winters, you might really like it here.
 
imoldernu said:
When we moved from Lisle, near Naperville, (High COL) we figure we saved about $5K to $7K in cost of living Gas, food, insurance, entertainment and general shopping.

When we moved to the Chicago area, many years ago, we thought we'd hate it. Peru, isn't like Chicago... for us it's perfect. :)
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Interesting...


Some threads give the impression that "everyone" is flocking out of IL to escape the politics and related financial mismanagement. The state seems to rank near or even at the bottom financially. Is this something to worry about for younger retiree? Maybe if you are old enough, then the "long term" is less of a worry... :facepalm:


How do you get through the winter? Do you snowbird?
 
Central Pennsylvania. Property tax isn’t bad here, unlike Philly. We get some snow, if you’re far enough east to avoid lake effect snow. The county just north of us got it’s first traffic light a few years ago. Sales tax is 6%, and food is excluded. State income tax 3.07%, but nearly all retirement income is exempt. The downside: we have an inheritance tax.

Other upside: it’s not too far from the big cities and airports. I’ve taken day trips to NYC, Baltimore, DC, and Philadelphia. Not was cold as the upper Midwest either. I haven’t watered my yard in years.
 
EastWest Gal said:
... The downside: we have an inheritance tax.
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Isn't an inheritance tax something that only happens for estates over $2Million?

When each of my grandparents died, the topic came up each time, but as it turned out. Their estates were never big enough to be taxed.

My sister-in-law died 2 years ago. Her estate was around $800k and it was not hit with an inheritance tax.
 
RAE said:
If you don't mind long winters, where I live (the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) would meet your criteria. Taxes here are not bad, and you can buy a house on 10 acres for quite a bit less than in many other parts of the country. We definitely get snow, and the winters are long. You can grow a nice vegetable garden here if you know what you are doing, and select short-season varieties of things like tomatoes and squash. I've been growing a big vegetable garden here most of my life, and I get plenty of fresh veggies. There are no big cities up here, and the towns are small (many are less than 5000 people). We have one stop light in the town where I live. Nice friendly people here, for the most part. LOTS of trees (we have two National Forests here, each over a million acres, and also lots of State Forest Land). Lots of lakes here too, and the water quality is generally good.

I love it here from about early May through late October. I even enjoyed the winters here for a long time, but as I got older, I did not enjoy them as much anymore. So now we head south for 2 1/2 months every winter, and I could actually stay down there longer. But if you can handle the long winters, you might really like it here.
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Yep--agree 100%. I was going to suggest Marquette as an option. While we retired to Sault St Marie, we gave some very serious thought to Marquette as it is probably the most "progressive" part of the UP we had lived in the Soo before, so that made the choice.

In addition to what Rae mentioned in general, Marquette has Northern Michigan University(15K students I think) which has a good rep for engineering program. I firmly believe that a local university is a plus because of the many activites/events a university provide. Also the local hospital is somehow a part of the Duke Hospital system.

Some of the most beautiful weather you will ever experience is in May through October up here. It makes up for the harsher winter. Dressed propberly even the winter affords outdoor opportunities.
 
kcowan said:
Shh. The UP is a best kept secret. Most people don't even know about it.
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Yeah, I know. But the UP population has been declining in recent decades, so I think there may be room for a couple more people now.:blush: I know that our long winters deter a whole lot of retirees from considering moving here, so I'm not expecting a big wave of retirees to arrive anytime soon. DW and I shorten our winter weather experience by snowbirding to a southern locale for the coldest part of the winter now, so it works out great for us.
 
COcheesehead said:
Summers last like what, 4 days?
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Actually, we had a fair amount of warm, humid weather this past summer.......too much for many of the long-time locals (including me!), who were complaining about it. Even as late as mid-September it was around 80 for a week or so. Things changed shortly after that, of course. 24 degrees here this morning, with a couple inches of snow on the ground......
 
RAE said:
Actually, we had a fair amount of warm, humid weather this past summer.......too much for many of the long-time locals (including me!), who were complaining about it. Even as late as mid-September it was around 80 for a week or so. Things changed shortly after that, of course. 24 degrees here this morning, with a couple inches of snow on the ground......
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Growing up in Wisconsin I spent a lot of time in the UP, hey.
X country skied Crystal Falls, hiked Lake of the Clouds, Copper Harbor and the Porcupines. Had fun in Marquette, Ironwood, Mackinaw Island and spent quiet time in a canoe on one of the many lakes. Gorgeous part of the country, but we also saw the snow totals in winter. Not sure I would want to be looking for something to do on a cold, dark Saturday night in January. *Shivers* :)
 
Like snow? Marquette, Mich. The area is stunningly beautiful. Population is sparse. Marquette is a college town and regional medical hub. The airport has nonstop service to Detroit, Minneapolis and Chicago.
 
We drove around the entire country in a RV and came back to Washington state because it is the best (have not tried Alaska yet though!).

North Eastern Washington fits most of what you want and is amazingly cheap. Like dirt cheap, which is weird since it has firs and larches unlike the scrub desert of central Washington and it actually gets rain (but still a lot of sun, just not the 300 days of sun that Moses Lake gets).

We pay $500 for a 1 bedroom apartment in town, across from the library and a few blocks from a Safeway. It is so cheap that I joke we will just keep it as climate controlled storage while we are sailing. Oh yeah...even though you are in the mountains here, you are only 6 hours from the coast and ocean.

We bought 2017 Ski-doo expedition sport snowmobiles and we have a blast here in the winter. I hope to be doing that in my 80's like the granny we saw a few seasons back (she was 87 on a Polaris with a chainsaw strapped to her back to cut down trees).

No state income tax and the state sales tax in this county is the lowest in Washington at 7.5%.
 

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MoneyChic said:
Looking for ideas and suggestions on places to live in retirement in the US.



Criteria:


United States (but not Hawaii)

Low population area
Low property/income taxes
Low or Average home/property prices
Trees

Enough average rainfall to sustain a vegetable garden without having to water more than once a week for the most part. (I like to garden, but don't want to attempt it in the desert.)



We have no interest in going to Florida. We like to have snow in the winter. Zero interest in being near a big city - we'd much prefer small towns. We'd like to have a decent amount of land (10+ acres) if possible.



Anyone living in an area that could fit this description?



Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Mississippi. You can live like a King there.
 
COcheesehead said:
Summers last like what, 4 days?
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Nah, I was up there in June of this year for two full weeks and it was spectacular. We were building a small boat in Cedarville at the Great Lakes Shipbuilding School.

I'd move to the U.P. in a heartbeat but DW won't leave Texas. :LOL:
 
Another fan of the UP here (at least in the summer). I love hiking in the Porkies, and there are plenty of great spots for fly fishing. I spend a week or so there at least every couple of years.
 
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