Saving money by moving to a "HCOL" area?

[Souschef]

We lived in SoCAL for 13 years and loved it. We were near Laguna Beach. We left to go live for a few years in the Caribbean on a Sailboat. Unfortunately housing is cost prohibitive.


With the exception of Housing and Vehicle licensing we found SoCAL very economical to live, access to everything and near perfect weather. If property was not so expensive we would move back in a Heartbeat. Till then we will continue to live in the next best area.

Come up to our area in Ventura.We are in a +55 MHP, and brand new homes are going for 200-250K.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Come up to our area in Ventura.We are in a +55 MHP, and brand new homes are going for 200-250K.

We really are not keen on living in MHPs. But thanks for the recommendation.

 

[gretah]

OP - Financial Samurai agrees with you. He says that if you can easily afford the housing in a HCOL, those places can otherwise be quite affordable to live in.

I'm looking at two HCOL cities. One is my dream city to live in. Very HCOL housing. The other has lots of what I like but much lower housing costs.

Dream city has tons of art museums and a couple of ballet companies: my favorite things to do. Going to museums is cheap, especially if you get a membership. Ballet tickets are expensive but not too bad.

Second city has some good art museums. I would have to travel for ballet.

I'm running the numbers and leaning toward living the dream city while I'm still fully mobile and it's not hard to move. Buying a home in dream city means allocating more of my assets to real estate but I would still be fine financially.

This thread is making me think Dream City: here I come!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

OP - Financial Samurai agrees with you. He says that if you can easily afford the housing in a HCOL, those places can otherwise be quite affordable to live in.

I'm looking at two HCOL cities. One is my dream city to live in. Very HCOL housing. The other has lots of what I like but much lower housing costs.

Dream city has tons of art museums and a couple of ballet companies: my favorite things to do. Going to museums is cheap, especially if you get a membership. Ballet tickets are expensive but not too bad.

Second city has some good art museums. I would have to travel for ballet.

I'm running the numbers and leaning toward living the dream city while I'm still fully mobile and it's not hard to move. Buying a home in dream city means allocating more of my assets to real estate but I would still be fine financially.

This thread is making me think Dream City: here I come!

You may want to check out Goldstar and seat filler memberships for your dream city. We often get ballet tickets for under $20, sometimes even free. There are competing ballet companies in our area (maybe around 30) so the volume of performances tends to push the price down, especially around the holidays. Some of the companies also have free performances from time to time.

 

[Dtail]

We have lived in HCOL and MCOL environments (We now avoid LCOL). What we found is the HCOL area offer more amenities and better services (Fire, Police, Recreation, infrastructure (While Still not the best), Transportation, access to healthcare, etc.) well above LCOL areas. From personal Experience we Much prefer MCOL and HCOL areas.

MCOL for me. I am aware where you approximately live and it is a great area. There are LCOL places in FLA where one gets what they pay for. (Parts of West Pasco county for example - 10 minutes from the beach - 2 BR homes for 60k - couldn't pay me to live there).

 

[ShokWaveRider]

MCOL for me. I am aware where you approximately live and it is a great area. There are LCOL places in FLA where one gets what they pay for. (Parts of West Pasco county for example - 10 minutes from the beach - 2 BR homes for 60k - couldn't pay me to live there).

Where we are by far the best parts are (In order):

1) The non compromising access too top notch health care, ACA plans are plentiful and well priced.
2) Beach Access (Walking distance), beach quality is superb
3) Everything one needs is within a 5 mile radius
4) A big city within 40 mins for the big stuff

Home prices (in the good areas) are a little on the high side but not as bad a southern California, RE taxes are reasonable. ~$400k - $800k gets you a reasonable ~2800 - 3500 sqft home in a great area. If you want to go a little inland into the sauna you can get a nice place ~$300 - $600k.

 

[Dtail]

Where we are by far the best parts are (In order):

1) The non compromising access too top notch health care, ACA plans are plentiful and well priced.
2) Beach Access (Walking distance), beach quality is superb
3) Everything one needs is within a 5 mile radius
4) A big city within 40 mins for the big stuff

Home prices (in the good areas) are a little on the high side but not as bad a southern California, RE taxes are reasonable. ~$400k - $800k gets you a reasonable ~2800 - 3500 sqft home in a great area. If you want to go a little inland into the sauna you can get a nice place ~$300 - $600k.

My area in Tampa matches #1,3,4 on your list. Since we are 1 hour from the beach, the prices are more in line with the 300-600k, but in our specific area there is a breeze much of the time, just not from the ocean.

 

[Scuba]

We lived in SoCAL for 13 years and loved it. We were near Laguna Beach. We left to go live for a few years in the Caribbean on a Sailboat. Unfortunately housing is cost prohibitive.





With the exception of Housing and Vehicle licensing we found SoCAL very economical to live, access to everything and near perfect weather. If property was not so expensive we would move back in a Heartbeat. Till then we will continue to live in the next best area.

If we ever leave So CA, we will keep our real estate here and rent it out. It’s hard to come back if you’ve been out of the RE market here for a while, as we realized 15 years ago. We sold a place in 2002, moved back in 2003 and paid $250K more for a smaller place! Luckily we could manage it and we learned to never sell again. We could rent it out for a slightly positive cash flow while we tried other places if we ever thought about leaving.

 

[gretah]

You may want to check out Goldstar and seat filler memberships for your dream city. We often get ballet tickets for under $20, sometimes even free. There are competing ballet companies in our area (maybe around 30) so the volume of performances tends to push the price down, especially around the holidays. Some of the companies also have free performances from time to time.

Thank you, DayLate! I'll register on Goldstar today!

 

[Fedup]

Thank you, DayLate! I'll register on Goldstar today!

+1, this caught my eye, so I signed up and something I’ve been wanting to go would have cost me $19 in person, but only cost $14 through Goldstar. A 25% savings. However, I’m not buying yet, until the day I go.

 

[gooddog]

You found the secret to cheap living in retirement - love where you live. It is probably the single most important factor in living an inexpensive lifestyle in retirement. Congrats.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I traded one HCOL city for another one in a different country and saved and made alot of money in the process!

 

[NYEXPAT]

Where we are by far the best parts are (In order):

1) The non compromising access too top notch health care, ACA plans are plentiful and well priced.
2) Beach Access (Walking distance), beach quality is superb
3) Everything one needs is within a 5 mile radius
4) A big city within 40 mins for the big stuff

Home prices (in the good areas) are a little on the high side but not as bad a southern California, RE taxes are reasonable. ~$400k - $800k gets you a reasonable ~2800 - 3500 sqft home in a great area. If you want to go a little inland into the sauna you can get a nice place ~$300 - $600k.

1. check ,no need for aca.
2. check, although it is a surfing beach and if sharks swim in schools, I am pretty sure I saw a school of them today while I was eating lunch out on the Palisades.
3.Check , only everything here is within 16 blocks.
4. check, with 10 million people , we are the big city!

 

[cb7010]

We did the exact same thing! Wonder if we're in the same town?

The high cost of real estate here means we don't live in our dream house; but, millions of acres of open space and trails, snow capped mountains, fresh air, free events, top notch amenities, healthy living, and a beach vacation once or twice a year make living in the CO mountains an easy decision!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Our prior residence was in a prairie city - no forests, no ocean, no views, few lakes, parks and trees with not great weather most of the year. In summer it as too hot to go out much. We went out to eat often but overall we were really bored on the weekends and cooped up inside quite a bit. For our next move we picked a location mainly based on weather, scenery, hiking and things to do. We just decided that for us we would rather have a lot to do and be surrounded by natural beauty even if it meant not having as big or new of a house as we could elsewhere.

 

[Freedom56]

We have a property in both Southern California and Palm Beach County Florida (as well as one in Europe). If you own your property free and clear and you have had your home for a while, Southern California can be pretty an inexpensive place to live. Only 18% of homeowners in Los Angeles County own their homes free and clear, which may explain why people complain how expensive it is to live in California. You don't have the run-away property tax increases that other states like Florida has. Proposition-13 protects you from that.

In 1995 our property tax in California was $3300 per year. We were re-assessed a few times due to the addition of the pool and other improvements but after 23 years our property tax is $5700. The value of our home is 4.6 times higher than in it was in 1995.

Contrast that with Florida. When we purchased our intra-coastal condo in 2011 in an all cash transaction, the taxes were $1872 per year and last year it was $4500 per year and it's going up to $4700 this year. The valuation has increased by 3.7 since 2011. A home with the same valuation as ours in California would be taxed at over $21K in Florida. Home insurance costs are extremely expensive in Florida. Finding coverage in coastal areas is difficult if you have a home.

At the moment our fixed non-discretionary expenses for our condo in Florida are more than our home in Southern California.

In addition to amenities and entertainment, the other consideration is travel. Los Angeles is a popular travel hub where you can get good airline ticket prices to Europe or Asia or most major cities in the US and Canada.

As far as health care facilities, Cedar Sinai and UCLA are much better healthcare facilities that I have seen in South East Florida which is much better than other parts of Florida. We pray that we don't need serious medical attention in Florida. Many of the doctors that live in our building in Florida are in worst shape than many of their patients. Oddly enough a lot of people in South East Florida are transplants from New York and New Jersey.

We were looking into changing our residence to Florida for income tax purpose, but after considering property taxes, insurance, healthcare, we are going to stay put for now and use our condo in Florida as our hub to the Caribbean.

 

[pdxgal]

YMMV, for sure

Interesting discussion, and good food for thought. I tend to agree with the poster who referenced "Cost of Living Is Really All About Housing", including property taxes and insurance. The latter hadn't occurred to me as property insurance has never been too high for me, so it's been enlightening to read about the high costs in FL, etc.

Ironically, it would probably be cheaper for me to move back to HCOL Bay Area for retirement, as I already have housing (condo that's currently rented out) and the property taxes are 1/3 of what I pay in Oregon (where my house is worth 1/3 less). Other expenses are about the same or less (utilities, for example). I'd lose the rental income, but could make it up with either a housemate or short-term rental while I travel.

But...I'd hate the traffic, congestion and collective stress I feel there, and would miss the four seasons, readily accessible outdoor recreation and generally good quality of life of my current MCOL city. So I'll stay in place, for now anyway.

 

[Willers]

You found the secret to cheap living in retirement - love where you live. It is probably the single most important factor in living an inexpensive lifestyle in retirement. Congrats.

I agree completely. We just don’t need to spend to make us happy here. Just looking at the view everyday reminds us how blessed we are. Now it needs to stops raining and start snowing!

 

[Willers]

Saving money by moving to a "HCOL" area?

We did the exact same thing! Wonder if we're in the same town?



The high cost of real estate here means we don't live in our dream house; but, millions of acres of open space and trails, snow capped mountains, fresh air, free events, top notch amenities, healthy living, and a beach vacation once or twice a year make living in the CO mountains an easy decision!

Maybe...[emoji3][emoji961][emoji467]

Housing was definitely our biggest challenge, but we’ve always lived by the “worst house in the best location motto” and it served us well again. We found a house that had been a short term rental for ten years. Was definitely a diamond in the rough that wasn’t selling because it was just filthy.

Once we found it we knew this was going to work out great.

Like you, loving CO life!

 

[daylatedollarshort]

Thank you, DayLate! I'll register on Goldstar today!

I hope you find some good deals. Facebook is another great source. I sign up for feeds for all the local theater groups, parks events, our favorite bands, tourist boards, etc. and usually at least one or two fun events pop up every day. Today I just bought half price tickets for a theatrical version of Rocky Horror Picture show on a one day Facebook deal.

 

[Teacher Terry]

If we ever left northern Nevada we couldn’t afford to come back unless prices crashed again and I don’t think that will happen. They are crazy high for here