Researching a Move to Another State--What Resources are Avaliable?

[Qs Laptop]

Researching a Move to Another State--What Resources are Available?

I'm just starting out with the planning of my retirement. One thing I know right now--I want to get out of Minnesota. (It snowed on Sunday, about an inch.)

I'd like to use the internet to winnow down some choices before I actually visit potential areas. I've found some resources to use that have been helpful but I figure I should ask this group for anything they found useful when they were looking to move out of state.

So far, I've found:

Sperlings Best Places to Live
https://www.bestplaces.net/
Research and compare communities for a variety of factors.

City Data
City-Data.com - Stats about all US cities - real estate, relocation info, crime, house prices, cost of living, races, home value estimator, recent sales, income, photos, schools, maps, weather, neighborhoods, and more
Research and compare communities for a variety of factors.

Numbeo
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

State Tax Guide for Retirees
https://www.kiplinger.com/tool/reti...by-state-guide-to-taxes-on-retirees/index.php

What other resources did you find to be helpful if/when you planned your move?

 

[Bamaman]

I see such websites from time to time, and I most always disagree with rankings of livable cities. There's just no substitution for boots on the ground--traveling to different cities and regions.

When working, I traveled far and wide weekly. Florida 5 weeks per year, California 3-4 trips per year, Seattle, Connecticut. Once, my work territory was Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama and of all places, Louisiana.

You just need to figure out what you consider desirable for your retirement years. I found my MegaCorp changing and consolidating offices, so I went ahead and moved 5 years before I retired. Our priorities are 4 seasons with moderate weather, great recreational lakes (and fishing), a great music scene (culture) and a location within one days' drive of both mountains and saltwater. Oh, yea--an ultra LCOL with low property taxes helps. Thankfully I found what I was looking for in my parents' ancestral home city.

I suggest prioritizing what exactly you're looking for in a retirement city and then start looking. There are just so many great places to live in this country.

 

[braumeister]

The biggest problem with those lists (apart from most of them being blatant clickbait) is that in order to rank a city on any criterion you have to assign a value based on averaging out the whole city. That is frequently very misleading because cities are by their nature diverse. One section is completely different from another.

I agree with Bamaman that your own travel experience will be far more valuable than spending much time on those comparison websites. Simply picking your top five areas to visit will tell you a lot about what your priorities are.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I see such websites from time to time, and I most always disagree with rankings of livable cities. There's just no substitution for boots on the ground--traveling to different cities and regions.

Yes, I learned that when Minneapolis was ranked in the top ten cities to retire to. Actually #2 on Sperling's. The climate is terrible. The taxes are high. The cost of living in moderately high. These are some of the main things I want to escape.

I suggest prioritizing what exactly you're looking for in a retirement city and then start looking. There are just so many great places to live in this country.

Number one for me is climate. I need sunny days. No snow, or very little snow. Moderate to low humidity. This criteria cuts down a lot of territory.

Number two would be low to moderate cost of living. That eliminates another big chunk. (California.)

Closely related to number two would be low taxation. That gets rid of another bunch of states.

But, when I put these criteria into the databases I get places like Oklahoma City, Arkansas, and parts of Texas. I just never considered places like that when I think about retiring.

If money were no object I would move to Santa Barbara, CA.

 

[RunningBum]

I wouldn't rule out a bunch of states based on taxes, assuming you are just looking at state income tax. Look at overall cost of living. Even if you just look at taxes, income tax is only part of it, and IMO not that big of a deal for retirees with lower income. Property and sales tax are also part of the picture. And if the cost of living is otherwise low, a bit higher taxes might be acceptable.

I wonder how you'll feel about 100+ degrees with some of the places you are looking at. And this just popped up on a Texas friend's FB page:

 

[Teacher Terry]

Having moved a lot think about what type of people you enjoy. I can’t be happy somewhere that is conservative and republican. It looks like maybe you should look at some of the western states. Reno has much of what you mentioned except that housing and rent prices are high. Parts of Oregon, Washington and Boise might work too.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I wouldn't rule out a bunch of states based on taxes, assuming you are just looking at state income tax. Look at overall cost of living.
And if the cost of living is otherwise low, a bit higher taxes might be acceptable.

I am ruling out any state in the top 10 or 15 for highest taxes. Property and income combined.

I wonder how you'll feel about 100+ degrees with some of the places you are looking at.

I'm OK with it if it weren't months at a time.

And this just popped up on a Texas friend's FB page:

We get something like that at times here in Minnesota, but not THAT extreme. It was 94 degrees here one day in mid-September and two days later it was 65. There are many times here in spring where the furnace is flipped over to AC and back to the furnace again, sometimes on the same day. In the fall it goes from AC to furnace to AC and back to furnace.

There is about six weeks of beautiful weather here in Minnesota. The first part of June and the first part of September. Is it too much to ask that I be able to BBQ outside in my shorts and a tee shirt in October? April? Can't do that here in Mpls.

 

[Lewis Clark]

Number one for me is climate. I need sunny days. No snow, or very little snow. Moderate to low humidity. This criteria cuts down a lot of territory.

You may find this web site for the National Climate Data Center useful.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information

 

[jetpack]

Just ranked best place to retire https://realestate.usnews.com/places/pennsylvania/lancaster

it's pretty nice all around, but still gets all seasons. Close to big cities.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Having moved a lot think about what type of people you enjoy. I can’t be happy somewhere that is conservative and republican. It looks like maybe you should look at some of the western states. Reno has much of what you mentioned except that housing and rent prices are high. Parts of Oregon, Washington and Boise might work too.

It's interesting to hear what some people's priorities are. My sister is retiring next year. Her first cut was to look at a map of the US that listed areas where palm trees grow.

Yes, it's looking more and more like western states, or SW states. Some of the higher elevations in Arizona and New Mexico have my kind of climate, but cost of housing is high. I will look at Reno. Right off, I'm wondering about crime rate.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Just ranked best place to retire https://realestate.usnews.com/places/pennsylvania/lancaster

it's pretty nice all around, but still gets all seasons. Close to big cities.

My sister has friends in Lancaster PA and she likes it when she visits there. (BTW, it's always referred to as Lancaster Pee Aye, never simply Lancaster, when she talks about it.)

However, it fails my climate criteria.

 

[Mango1956]

My sister retired to Albuquerque New Mexico and is very happy with her choice. Not too big a city, lots to do, low humidity, scenic beauty if you enjoy a high desert environment.

 

[DeborahB]

I am from RI but had lived in Kansas City for 30 years. I moved back to RI after I retired. It doesn’t meet any of the normal criteria for a retirement location. But what I was looking for was someplace close to the ocean and also near to some relatives and my brother. He lives in Rhode Island. I really didn’t like living in the Midwest, although many people do. I decided that the pluses of family and the ocean outweighed the taxes and cost-of-living issues. I’m very happy that I moved back. I also don’t feel that the taxes are too bad but they are high. It’s not like California. And the weather is variable. Today is absolutely gorgeous!

Other expenses here seem to be about what I was paying in Kansas City. Food is about the same. Restaurants are less expensive. I don’t drive enough to worry about the cost of gas. You just have to figure out what your most important things are. I’d be concerned about moving to a city where I knew no one.

 

[ivinsfan]

Are you a single person and are you able/willing to sell off your house and rent for awhile?

I notice you don't mention availably of public services and/or political climate of the new area? Is this at all important to you? I'm in MN too and we do have higher taxes but great public services and programs. I can tell you right off that many low tax states can't hold a candle to our programs. In NM ranks at the bottom of public services for a lot of areas.

 

[REWahoo]

My sister retired to Albuquerque New Mexico and is very happy with her choice. Not too big a city, lots to do, low humidity, scenic beauty if you enjoy a high desert environment.

ABQ is a great place if you aren't concerned about crime.

5-yr. violent crime rate change: +36.1%
2011 violent crime rate: 662.0 per 100,000 (total: 5,938)
2016 violent crime rate: 901.0 per 100,000 (total: 8,173)

With a violent crime rate of 901 documented incidents per 100,000 residents, Albuquerque, New Mexico, is one of the most dangerous metro areas in the United States. The metro area is also a far more dangerous place than it was five years ago. Since 2011, the incidence of violent crime in New Mexico’s largest metro area climbed by 36.1%, one of the steepest increases in the country.

 

[MRG]

Good luck. DW and I started looking 10 years before finding a place. We actually gave up and planned on traveling around.

You'll get some ideas from the sites you mentioned and other folks thoughts. What matters is what you think and what attracts you to the area. In our case we moved from a LCOL state to a higher one, but saved money on our unique tax situation.

One of the real estate apps was handy, perhaps Zillow, allows you to fly over areas looking at different places quickly. That was very useful to me.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Placerville, California is a great place too. Just got home from spending 5 days there. Nevada taxes are low but not as many services as other places. Reno is 45 minutes from Lake Tahoe with forests, hiking, skiing, etc. If it snows in Reno it usually melts by noon because they get a ton of sunny days.

 

[haha]

Number one for me is climate. I need sunny days. No snow, or very little snow. Moderate to low humidity. This criteria cuts down a lot of territory.

Number two would be low to moderate cost of living. That eliminates another big chunk. (California.)

So which city in Nevada or Arizona do you want to live in? New Mexico and southern Utah might also work. The US has only a few possibilities for warm, low humidity, and low to moderate cost of living.

No sense in making a lot of work and confusion when the real possibilities are staring you in the face.

Ha

 

[Qs Laptop]

So which city in Nevada or Arizona do you want to live in? New Mexico and southern Utah might also work. The US has only a few possibilities for warm, low humidity, and low to moderate cost of living.

No sense in making a lot of work and confusion when the real possibilities are staring you in the face.

Ha

I'm looking at Prescott AZ, or Prescott Valley, AZ (very close to each other). Flagstaff AZ is intriguing but they get a lot of snow. I don't know how long it sits on the ground, though. I'd like to be within an hour and a half or less from a major metro area.

Sparks NV is a suburb of Reno. Might be a candidate. Otherwise NV is just too dang hot.

I'd look at Santa Fe, NM or areas around it. Same thing with suburban Albuquerque or areas around it (Rio Rancho, for example).

Utah should be a candidate but I can't find a happy median between snow to the north and desert to the south.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Are you a single person and are you able/willing to sell off your house and rent for awhile?

Married. I wouldn't want to rent.

I notice you don't mention availably of public services and/or political climate of the new area? Is this at all important to you? I'm in MN too and we do have higher taxes but great public services and programs. I can tell you right off that many low tax states can't hold a candle to our programs. In NM ranks at the bottom of public services for a lot of areas.

I'm politically conservative, but not wild-eyed about it. I've voted for a couple Democrats over the years. Minnesota is becoming a bit too left for me. I'm not much for "great social services", except for safety net programs and equal opportunity. In my mind "great social services" equals social justice programs and leftist utopian dreams.

A good example of this is what they've done to the streets of Minneapolis. There is one entire lane on most heavily traveled streets devoted to a bike lane. Never mind that it's snowing and cold here for five months out of the year or that perhaps less than 5% of the population actually use bikes as a primary mode of transportation. Gotta have those bike lanes, and they wreak havoc with motorized traffic.

The other thing is high density living, or vertical cities. They want all to live in high rises. There is some ideal utopian world where everybody walks everywhere. Everybody walks to work, then on the way home from work they stop at the local mom and pop grocery store and buy their organic food for the night and next morning. Repeat next day. Automobiles are evil. So are attached garages.

Anyway, I don't want to get political in this thread, except to say that I could live just about anywhere except where extreme leftist social engineering occurs. I'm looking at you San Francisco CA, Portland OR, and other places.

 

[ivinsfan]

Married. I wouldn't want to rent.



I'm politically conservative, but not wild-eyed about it. I've voted for a couple Democrats over the years. Minnesota is becoming a bit too left for me. I'm not much for "great social services", except for safety net programs and equal opportunity. In my mind "great social services" equals social justice programs and leftist utopian dreams.

A good example of this is what they've done to the streets of Minneapolis. There is one entire lane on most heavily traveled streets devoted to a bike lane. Never mind that it's snowing and cold here for five months out of the year or that perhaps less than 5% of the population actually use bikes as a primary mode of transportation. Gotta have those bike lanes, and they wreak havoc with motorized traffic.

The other thing is high density living, or vertical cities. They want all to live in high rises. There is some ideal utopian world where everybody walks everywhere. Everybody walks to work, then on the way home from work they stop at the local mom and pop grocery store and buy their organic food for the night and next morning. Repeat next day. Automobiles are evil. So are attached garages.

Anyway, I don't want to get political in this thread, except to say that I could live just about anywhere except where extreme leftist social engineering occurs. I'm looking at you San Francisco CA, Portland OR, and other places.

Are you and your spouse in agreement on the criteria? One more question do you enjoy outdoor activities? I'm now pitching for my favorite getaway place in the lower 48. St George Utah.. it's a very conservative area which turns some people off. You long term posters knew I was going here didn't you.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Are you and your spouse in agreement on the criteria?

Yes.

One more question do you enjoy outdoor activities?

Fishing. Walking/hiking. Sitting at the ballpark.

I'm now pitching for my favorite getaway place in the lower 48. St George Utah.. it's a very conservative area which turns some people off. You long term posters knew I was going here didn't you.

Too hot.

Provo, UT has a more moderate climate. It gets some snow, but it must melt right away. Wonder what it would be like to live in an area of one dominant religion, though.

 

[Red Badger]

The biggest problem with those lists (apart from most of them being blatant clickbait) is that in order to rank a city on any criterion you have to assign a value based on averaging out the whole city. That is frequently very misleading because cities are by their nature diverse. One section is completely different from another.

I agree with Bamaman that your own travel experience will be far more valuable than spending much time on those comparison websites. Simply picking your top five areas to visit will tell you a lot about what your priorities are.

We fell in love with the SE region and NC in particular. Short, tolerable winter. Moderate tax rate and COL. Jaw dropping scenery in the mountains and on the coast. It was on a weekend road trip that we made the decision to just Get Here. And yes, you'll be well served by investing in travel, and not those ranking sites, etc.

PS - the south isn't a bunch of redneck racists that we get portrayed as by our darling media. I grew up in the Midwest as well and don't miss it. We go up and visit sibs during the summer. They're down here in the winter.

 

[Midpack]

Those are the best sites in the OP that I know of. I also use https://www.walkscore.com/ and https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ which may be of interest to you or others. And though there's a ton of data on city-data, once you've narrowed down places of greatest interest, the forums are even more valuable IME. Happy hunting.

 

[TwoByFour]

If money were no object I would move to Santa Barbara, CA.

My cousin retired to Santa Barbara and she is definitely not wealthy, in fact I think they do a lot of scrimping to make it work. But they seem to be very happy. They retired there, from Texas, 20 years ago. They went to UCSB and always wanted to return.