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Old 12-19-2017, 05:00 PM   #41
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I grew up in Kenosha and go back frequently to visit. There is nothing to do there. You end up driving to Milwaukee or Chicago to do things. I think it has about 100k/population. If I was relocating back to the area I would definitely live in Milwaukee. It is a big city with a smaller town feel because of how friendly the people are.
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Old 12-25-2017, 10:33 AM   #42
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Weather is a big factor for us. Here is one person's map of pleasant weather across the 48 states:
https://kellegous.com/j/2014/02/03/pleasant-places/
Thanks for posting this. Most interesting info. Wife and I are trying to figure out where to retire in 3 years. We had the same type of curiosity on best weather in US. Neither of us have any desire to live in Cali, but not surprised with how they ranked using his criteria.
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Old 12-25-2017, 11:34 AM   #43
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Kind of funny , we were talking to some retired friends of ours last week . They bought a condo in southern France . They stay there during the hot Houston summer and enjoy our mild winters in Houston . They said they only paid 45000 EU and 20,000 EU in improvements . They said they were only 80 miles from Barcelona . And no property taxes !
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Old 12-25-2017, 01:03 PM   #44
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Kind of funny , we were talking to some retired friends of ours last week . They bought a condo in southern France . They stay there during the hot Houston summer and enjoy our mild winters in Houston . They said they only paid 45000 EU and 20,000 EU in improvements . They said they were only 80 miles from Barcelona . And no property taxes !
That seems like a cool idea. We used to watch the international house hunting shows and were kind of amazed at the housing prices in places like France and Spain compared to the Bay Area.
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Old 12-25-2017, 04:44 PM   #45
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I haven't been following this thread, but ran into this link from Clark Howard...10 places to retire on the cheap. 10 places to retire abroad for less than $2,000 a month | Clark Howard
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Old 12-26-2017, 06:45 AM   #46
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I grew up in Kenosha and go back frequently to visit. There is nothing to do there. You end up driving to Milwaukee or Chicago to do things. I think it has about 100k/population. If I was relocating back to the area I would definitely live in Milwaukee. It is a big city with a smaller town feel because of how friendly the people are.
Kenosha? Can't you go out to the mall on the Interstate? Oops.. it is closed. How about the Brat Stop? Maybe go down to the lakefront and reminisce about the old American Motor's plant?
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Old 12-27-2017, 09:06 AM   #47
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Life is just better down here on the Emerald Coast ... ya'll
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Old 12-27-2017, 10:31 AM   #48
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The Brat Stop is still there. I always go there for good food and a brew. The Lakefront is pretty now that they redid it. The downtown is pathetic.
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Old 12-27-2017, 12:05 PM   #49
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I traveled with a co-worker that lived in Kenosha. She had an old 30's craftsman house-1100 square feet on a 45 ft wide tiny lot. Her property taxes were $5,500 per year. No thanks!

A!l of our Wisconsin employees in home office lived down in Illinois, North of Chicago. Winter driving to work was worse than difficult.

We had one office close in Texas, and our naive company thought half the 50 employees would transfer to Racine. One employee took the transfer for 6 weeks until he passed his 30th year anniversary and could retire.

Although our office was in a lovely waterfront marina on Lake Michigan, my co-workers hated working in Wisconsin and living in Chicagoland. There are just so many other great places to live with cheaper taxation and a higher quality of life.
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Old 12-27-2017, 12:45 PM   #50
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Many people that lived and worked in Chicago moved to WI in the 80's but made the commute everyday. Some commuted by train. Property taxes are high but you get a lot of services if you need them. It was a good place to raise our kids but now I want to live somewhere that there is stuff to do and I don't want to deal with the weather.
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Old 01-29-2018, 12:40 PM   #51
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Bumping this thread because we DID survive the missile attack and just made it back to the mainland. This may be long, sorry.

Thanks again to everyone for the comments - they really helped to shape the way that I looked at things when I was on the Big Island.

There is no doubt that this location remains on our list of possible relocation destinations. Most importantly for DW, she absolutely LOVES the weather. Her sweet spot for comfortable outdoor temps is about 82-85 degrees.

Reviewing some things after the stay.
1) Hobbies - no doubt that this is a #1 destination for the astronomy hobby. Golf looks like it would be adequate (played with a men's group twice and there was a good contingent of walkers) and the music situation is also OK. We visited with a singing group and talked to people briefly about the Early Music group in Hawaii. Although not quite the environment we have in DC, we didn't expect it to be.
2) Housing - Single family homes were somewhat more expensive than we expected, although not out of sight. We would definitely reconsider the possibility of condo living. That seems to be much more reasonably priced. Real Estate taxes are low compared to the East Coast so that's a positive although HOA fees range from reasonable to "You've got to be kidding!"
3) COL (excluding housing) - Yes, everything is expensive, but looking at the impact on our budget it's just not a big deal. It looks like groceries would be about 25% higher (so, for us, that's an extra $100/month) and gas is essentially a buck a gallon more expensive. But even if I double the number of miles we drive in a year, that only amounts to about $500 per year extra. Eating out was the biggest surprise - it's really difficult to find a reasonably priced place. But I don't like eating out anyway and, again, the maximum impact would likely be a couple hundred per month. Although housing is expensive, there would still be a reduction in housing costs that would more than offset these expenses. Also, Hawaii has a good tax environment for retirees.
4) Access issues - DW no longer drives and we would need to choose our location carefully to make sure that she had walking access to recreational activities. There are possibilities on this front, but the right location would be vital.

We had several great discussions during the trip. No conclusions reached, but several interesting thoughts emerged. DW realized that perhaps being located in a city with MLB might not be as important as she thought and I am thinking that optimizing golf might not be as essential as optimizing my other two main hobbies. DW also was strongly inclined to think of Hawaii as the primary residence (maybe 10 months/year) with "travel" during the summer instead of maintaining two homes. She also clearly has started to think more seriously about what transitioning into retirement might look like for her. We are both agreed that, despite how attractive Hawaii is, we need to look at some other locations to help us see things a little more critically.

Anyway, thanks again to everyone. I'm sure that you will raise questions and make comments that remind me of other things that I wanted to share.
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Old 01-29-2018, 12:45 PM   #52
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When we were in Hawaii the tour guide told us that most people that move there end up moving back to the mainland within 2-3 years. He said the reason is that the weather is mostly the same and people get tired of living in such a confined space. You can only drive so far on an island. Just thought I would share what he said.
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Old 01-29-2018, 01:12 PM   #53
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Has anyone retired to (or at least visited), the Athens GA or Aiken SC areas ? I have repeatedly ready very good things about both these locations
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Old 01-29-2018, 01:25 PM   #54
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When we were in Hawaii the tour guide told us that most people that move there end up moving back to the mainland within 2-3 years. He said the reason is that the weather is mostly the same and people get tired of living in such a confined space. You can only drive so far on an island. Just thought I would share what he said.
We have had that discussion with many folks on the island. From what we can tell it seems to be a bigger problem on Maui and Kauai, both much smaller than the Big Island. For DW, I compared it to when we lived in Iowa. The Big Island is about the size of 8 Iowa counties. Maui is about the size of 2 counties. That helped us visualize the physical reality. Plus, the Big Island packs an incredible variety of ecosystems into that space. You do have a valid point, but I think that it depends on what you do with your time. If you need external sources of stimulation (especially things like shopping and restaurants) then I can see that you might get island fever. The most often cited reason for leaving in our conversations with people is that they don't think through how much they will miss family. One guy budgeted 4 trips per year back to the mainland for his wife to see their children - he goes twice.
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Old 01-29-2018, 01:30 PM   #55
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I haven't been to the big island and only to Maui. I can see if you have kids and /or grandkids where it would get to be a big issue. My Mom loved Hawaii and always said she would have loved to live there. However, we bought the house next door to them so she was used to seeing her grandkids everyday)
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Old 01-29-2018, 01:34 PM   #56
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Has anyone retired to (or at least visited), the Athens GA or Aiken SC areas ? I have repeatedly ready very good things about both these locations
Have not personally lived in either of this cities but, have friends who have and loved them both. I heartily recommend that part of the country (Southeast); there’s a lot of geographic variety, it’s inexpensive, mild 4-season climate, and more diversity (cultural, political, etc.) than you might expect if you’re in a university town. Other locations you might want to check out are: Knoxville, TN; Nashville, TN; Greenville, SC; Asheville, NC.

I listed only ‘inland’ places but, there are also lots of great locations on/near the ocean in that area, if that appeals.
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Old 01-29-2018, 09:03 PM   #57
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If you like astronomy there are many astronomy groups in the Bay Area and they often have interesting speakers from places like Stanford, UC Berkeley and NASA Ames. This is a list I get in email every week:

https://www.sfaa-astronomy.org/bay-a...2-2-2-2-2-2-2/

At Chabot Space and Science Center, volunteers can train to operate the big telescopes with a members only viewing night every month plus a meeting with a guest speaker. UC Berkeley has an astronomy night once a month when school is in session plus an assortment of other astronomy lectures open to the public throughout the school year.
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Old 01-29-2018, 09:30 PM   #58
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4) Access issues - DW no longer drives and we would need to choose our location carefully to make sure that she had walking access to recreational activities. There are possibilities on this front, but the right location would be vital.
I'd think this might be the hardest to meet. I guess what recreational activities she'd want to be close to is key. Were you looking Kona side or Hilo side? I've only been to the Big Island once, for two weeks - and I don't remember many walkable neighborhoods close to stores, etc. Maybe more on the Hilo side.
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Old 01-30-2018, 07:04 AM   #59
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If you like astronomy there are many astronomy groups in the Bay Area and they often have interesting speakers from places like Stanford, UC Berkeley and NASA Ames. This is a list I get in email every week:

https://www.sfaa-astronomy.org/bay-a...2-2-2-2-2-2-2/

At Chabot Space and Science Center, volunteers can train to operate the big telescopes with a members only viewing night every month plus a meeting with a guest speaker. UC Berkeley has an astronomy night once a month when school is in session plus an assortment of other astronomy lectures open to the public throughout the school year.
The Bay area has so much to offer! If money were no object, it would be on our short list. It is one of two major centers for Baroque music in the US, it has incredibly strong universities, SF is a beautiful city, I could go on and on about the things I like. However, it is one of a very small handful of places in the US that I can't see the numbers working out. I would love to hear that there is reasonably priced (even DC metro reasonable) real estate within range of the Bay, but I'm still looking for that info.

Oh, and DW is not convinced of the weather - she likes warm and sunny.
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Old 01-30-2018, 07:08 AM   #60
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I'd think this might be the hardest to meet. I guess what recreational activities she'd want to be close to is key. Were you looking Kona side or Hilo side? I've only been to the Big Island once, for two weeks - and I don't remember many walkable neighborhoods close to stores, etc. Maybe more on the Hilo side.
Stores aren't the issue. Social connections are. There are a few communities on the Kona side that are compact with active social groups. The one that we are attracted to is Waikoloa Village. I agree that Hilo might be better in this regard - it is larger and has a little less focus on tourism so the structure of the community is more residential .
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