How to evaluate places to live?

[Boose]

Hi all, DH and I are planning a fall road trip to visit an aunt and also rule out/include small cities (mostly 80K population or less) to move to in the next 5 years. We haven't ever visited these cities. Once we winnow down the list from this trip, we would return for a many-week stay to really be sure (or even rent) before buying a home. I know how to research statistics for cities on the Internet, but I'm not sure how long to stay in each city on this initial trip in order to get an accurate view of them. How long would you give yourself to rule out a future home? One day and night, or more?

 

[pacergal]

In order to evaluate for living there, I would want to be there for at least a couple weeks, during several different times of the year (summer/winter especially), and stay in different areas.
Evaluate weather, traffic, shopping, neighborhood vibes, etc.
Yes, that can be accomplished by google search, but actual experiencing it works better for me.

 

[ivinsfan]

How many towns are on the list?



I'd be more inclined to winnow a little bit before the trip and stay longer at each place.


Can you give a little more info?

 

[Music Lover]

I would always rent first as I doubt that I can gather enough information in a few days/weeks to be confident enough to buy. Even if I like the area and was certain that I wanted to live there I'd still probably want to investigate some of the individual neighborhoods before buying.

I'd also want to visit during periods of good and bad weather. What if you hate winter but then find out that 6 months of high heat and humidity isn't much better?

 

[Koolau]

Probably valuable to check out the differences day to night (noise, illicit activity, police presence, etc.) YMMV

 

[MRG]

I'd plan on 3-5 days for your initial visit depending on size of the city and your interest in the area especially when you are there for a bit. I'd second the suggestion that about multiple seasons as we were disappointed by "juniper season" somewhere we liked.

 

[Out of Steam]

In a past thread here, someone recommended being sure to visit supermarkets and retail stores such as Target/Walmart to get the feel of a neighborhood.

 

[Boose]

How many towns are on the list?

Right now we've got 5 possible places to check out,, and on top of that, a couple of days with DH's aunt in suburban Phila. and 3 days in D.C. for museums. I'm thinking maybe we're trying to make this trip do too much. The advice about experiencing night vs.day is sound.

 

[braumeister]

I'd also want to visit during periods of good and bad weather. What if you hate winter but then find out that 6 months of high heat and humidity isn't much better?

+1
For any location in a temperate climate zone (and it sounds like that's what you're looking at) I couldn't possibly imagine trying to evaluate a place to live without experiencing it at very different times of the year. I would want to know what it's like summer/winter, tourist season (if applicable)/calm season, night/day, rush hour/midday, etc.

So for me, a quick pass like you're planning would only serve to eliminate a city at the most basic level. That's fine, if it's all you need now, but to select (as opposed to eliminate) one would need a lot more effort.

 

[walkinwood]

We had a small list of cities/areas that we wanted to consider, so we took our vacations there - a week or so at each location. None of the cities in that list worked for us, but the exercise allowed us to "know" what we wanted.

We spent 3 days in Denver and knew that it was the one. We spent another few months researching online (house affordability and availability of pre-ACA health insurance were top of mind). We moved 6 months after our trip & rented for the first year before buying. We love it here, but the city has changed a lot in the 10 years that we have been here. That was not something we anticipated - or even knew how to anticipate/quantify.

I think as you get through the first couple of locations, you may be able to narrow down your list very quickly.

A good exercise - that we didn't do explicitly - is make a list of what you like (and why) at your current place, the things you don't like and the things that you would like to have in your new home town.

 

[ivinsfan]

Right now we've got 5 possible places to check out,, and on top of that, a couple of days with DH's aunt in suburban Phila. and 3 days in D.C. for museums. I'm thinking maybe we're trying to make this trip do too much. The advice about experiencing night vs.day is sound.

I don't know the route involved but would suggest a 24 hour stop in each place might lead to the elimination of a couple places.



I mean we've been wintering in St George UT for over 20 years and still find things we like and don't like on every single trip.


Just consider it a nice driving vacation and see what you think after you have stopped in every contender...I wouldn't be a bit surprised if you ended up in a place not even on your list.

 

[Dtail]

Try to visit the cities in their theoretically worst weather time.

 

[38Chevy454]

Even a week is still like being on vacation. To really get the feel I think you need to stay longer and at different times of the year. Except for so-cal area, most of the country has 2-3 months where the weather is not so good. Be sure to check out during those times. Might be cold of winter of heat of summer. Also depends on what you like, some prefer hotter and others like the colder.

 

[Music Lover]

I'd also suggest to be open to places that might not be what you consider ideal 100% of the time. That's rare and likely comes at a high cost. If you can find a place that checks off most of your wish list at a decent price then you can enjoy that for most of the year and then rent somewhere else for a couple months. You might even find the variety to be enjoyable.

 

[steady saver]

I'd plan on 3-5 days for your initial visit depending on size of the city and your interest in the area especially when you are there for a bit. I'd second the suggestion that about multiple seasons as we were disappointed by "juniper season" somewhere we liked.

I agree. Even 2-3 days to get a "feel" will help you decide if you want to explore more or if it may be a hard "no." I doubt that one day/night anywhere is going to do that. If you're trying to get several stops in on this trip, I'd plan on at least 2 overnights with 2 1/2 to 3 days at each stop.

 

[Mark1]

Ruling out locations is much easier and faster than going through the final short list. We visited our final destination yearly for the 5 years prior to retirement to make sure it was where we wanted to retire.

P.S. sometimes I think folks (particularly on this forum) get too caught up in the COL of retirement locations. If you can afford a location and it is your favorite, then BTD and make it your pick regardless of COL. Remember we only have one life.

 

[Ronstar]

I can rule out a place in an hour or 2. Ruling one in takes a lot more time - several days.

And I can generally rule a place out just by online research. But I have to stay at a place to rule it in.

 

[Koolau]

Ruling out locations is much easier and faster than going through the final short list. We visited our final destination yearly for the 5 years prior to retirement to make sure it was where we wanted to retire.

P.S. sometimes I think folks (particularly on this forum) get too caught up in the COL of retirement locations. If you can afford a location and it is your favorite, then BTD and make it your pick regardless of COL. Remember we only have one life.

Also, remember that we were smart enough to retire early. With that in mind, we can probably figure out how to live in a high COL area.

 

[W2R]

I can rule out a place in an hour or 2. Ruling one in takes a lot more time - several days.

+1

We did a lot of online research for years, and narrowed our list down to three towns which we then visited. We found that while the statistics for the three towns were very similar, one of them just didn't "feel right" to us for some reason. I think it was the town layout. Anyway we just never wanted to go back there to give it a second chance; we were able to eliminate that town in just one afternoon.

Another felt just like home, and had we moved it would have been to that town and we would have started by renting a house there for a while. However we decided instead to stay here in New Orleans.

 

[kgtest]

Hi all, DH and I are planning a fall road trip to visit an aunt and also rule out/include small cities (mostly 80K population or less) to move to in the next 5 years. We haven't ever visited these cities. Once we winnow down the list from this trip, we would return for a many-week stay to really be sure (or even rent) before buying a home. I know how to research statistics for cities on the Internet, but I'm not sure how long to stay in each city on this initial trip in order to get an accurate view of them. How long would you give yourself to rule out a future home? One day and night, or more?

I think you nailed down an important factor immediately with the fact you know you want to live somewhere with 80k or less population...but initially when I started with that criteria, I didn't realize that if you went to an island with only 80k... that's it. no surrounding other cities of random 40k, 55k, 29k etc that the suburbs and exurbs of say the top 20 most populous cities in America.

I would really focus on how far away you also want to be from these said large city centers...1hr, 4hrs...that will limit you.

Culture for us wasn't a biggie, we just wanted different culture than we were used to, and totally got that with Maui no ko oi love.

Is sports important, not all places have equal sports teams. Didn't bother me though I've lived in states with no pro teams. It's fine.

How far will you be from friends and loved ones, and especially those not doing so well that you might want to spend a bit more time with?

Any furry pals coming? Some cities are WAY and i mean WAY more friendly with certain species than others.

Pollution, air quality, and weather. Traffic. Food sourcing. Entertainment. College town?

Good hospitals, specialties specific to your needs?

How does price per sq ft compare to your current locale? Shop the online grocer ads for the city/town you target to get a feel for egg/milk/bread prices etc.

And good of you for asking for help! Moving is a big deal. When we left Minnesota to move to Maui I think I ended up with the #1 read blog about Maui on City-Data...I may still hold that record. That forum was super helpful, but not as well moderated as this.

 

[Boose]

Thank you all for your feedback and helpful hints. We're allocating at least 2 nights at each stop so we can do some of the activities we would do on a normal day: morning walk, library visit, coffeeshop, brief grocery or department store errands.

We love it here [Denver], but the city has changed a lot in the 10 years that we have been here. That was not something we anticipated - or even knew how to anticipate/quantify.

This is exactly what happened to us in San Diego. Having believed that our former SD condo was "the place where we'll grow old," I'm no longer so sanguine. Our needs and wants changed, and the city changed as well. That said, ya gotta live somewhere. We'll be using different criteria than we used to evaluate SD.

 

[Koolau]

Thank you all for your feedback and helpful hints. We're allocating at least 2 nights at each stop so we can do some of the activities we would do on a normal day: morning walk, library visit, coffeeshop, brief grocery or department store errands.


This is exactly what happened to us in San Diego. Having believed that our former SD condo was "the place where we'll grow old," I'm no longer so sanguine. Our needs and wants changed, and the city changed as well. That said, ya gotta live somewhere. We'll be using different criteria than we used to evaluate SD.

It seems much has changed everywhere we have lived. Had we not returned to the old homestead yearly since moving away, we would not know it. I marvel when I see that buildings I watched being built years ago are now GONE. The city is 4 or 5 times larger in area than when I grew up there. I recall first being a tourist in my now adopted home city. That was 45 years ago. Many of the "landmark" hotels and attractions are now replaced with "bigger and better." Of course, natural wonders are still mostly the same - thank goodness. Crime (primarily due to illicit drugs) has made certain areas "off limits" for us - especially outside of mid-day. Traffic is crazy, though we have learned to adjust our schedules accordingly. I guess the saying "you can never go back" has elements of truth in it. YMMV