Where to find a ER Home?

[Teacher Terry]

W2R, we were in your town for 3 days in February and it was 75-80!everyday and humid. I got overheated and sick twice. That doesn’t happen in the cold.

 

[W2R]

W2R, we were in your town for 3 days in February and it was 75-80!everyday and humid. I got overheated and sick twice. That doesn’t happen in the cold.

My favorite temperatures!!! Seriously, when I hear the temperatures are going to be in the upper 70's, I CHEER... Guess that just goes to show that people have different ideal temperatures.

 

[RunningBum]

I always figure you can add layers to combat cold, but there's only so much you can do about the heat. Snow and ice is a different thing, and I can understand people never wanting anything to do with that. If I didn't ski I'd probably be the same way.

If you mostly stay inside, you can control your environment pretty much to whatever you want if you can afford it. If you can't, I still say you can add layers and get under blankets to make up for it being cold, but if you don't have A/C, a hot muggy day is miserable to me.

 

[MRG]

I always figure you can add layers to combat cold, but there's only so much you can do about the heat. Snow and ice is a different thing, and I can understand people never wanting anything to do with that. If I didn't ski I'd probably be the same way.

If you mostly stay inside, you can control your environment pretty much to whatever you want if you can afford it. If you can't, I still say you can add layers and get under blankets to make up for it being cold, but if you don't have A/C, a hot muggy day is miserable to me.

+1

I remember an older guy telling me how he slept in Swope Park in KC as a child in the 1940s. You wouldn't sleep there today! He claimed many families did to escape the heat prior to AC becoming common.

Today's clothing is so much superior to what we had in the past. Staying warm is fairly easy, cooling down not so much. We used to use the AC 24×7 in the midwest, now I turn it on once a year.

Snow isn't a huge problem but ice is a bad thing. I don't miss ice storms at all. This winter is pretty long. I really need to power wash the garage floor but the hose is under 6 feet of snow. The snow may still be there in May. [emoji23]

 

[Kim451]

I'm on the search for a new home too (with your 'warm' requirements!). But taxes are also a big consideration for me, so although I like California and Laguna Woods sounds like a fabulous retirement community, I just can't bring myself to move there. Hawaii has low property taxes and doesn't tax my pension or govt 401k so at least there is some offset to the HCOL.
There are some good tax comparison charts out there, like wallethub dot com/edu/best-worst-states-to-be-a-taxpayer/2416/

 

[imoldernu]

Reflecting on the subject...

What Midpack said... City-Data
If you haven't been there to check out your choice... maybe you should.

 

[meridiver]

NW Phoenix. Anthem, New River, Cave Creek.

It's a dry heat. No where near the humid heat of Texas and Florida.

This cracks me up every time someone says it. I've lived in both Florida and AZ. To me, dry or wet, heat is heat. If you are in the mountains, like in Sedona or Prescott, it's better/cooler but they are towns, not cities and are 2 solid hours from Phoenix.

On the original topic, a friend moved to Chattanooga, TN 2 years ago and really likes it. Chattanooga is a small city, around 200K people, I think, and may be too small for you. In that case, Nashville might be worth a look. It does get hot in the summer, but they get rain and cooler spells, not solid heat, and in the winter, again, a few cold/gray stretches and a little snow, but nicer weather in between to break it up. I know they are a low overall tax state, and my friend finds plenty to do in Chat. and even more in Nashville.

 

[Safe Harbour]

Try the Asheville to Greenville corridor.

You have two great small cities of National note for retirement. You have nice year around temperatures from cooler at the Asheville end to warmer at the Greenville end. Prices are low (was 30% below national average when we moved here) and taxes are low. Property taxes are about 0.4% of home value. Like temperature political leanings follow a gradient from Asheville liberal to Greenville conservative.

 

[isisdave]

Northern Nevada such as Reno and Carson City. MCOL, mild 4 seasons, Lake Tahoe, lots of outdoor activities and tons of stuff to do everyday.

I was going to say the same. There's snow occasionally, but not much. There's some 90-degree in the summer, but not much. Everything else is pretty much what you asked for.

Or Bellingham WA if you don't mind overcast. Usually no snow, not too cold, and definitely not hot. Good health care, university town. Not so walkable, though, as it's hilly, although you can live in the flat part. Not so affordable as Reno.

Cedar City, Utah. Definitely some snow, check out the climate. Otherwise great.

 

[Stonewalker]

Interesting. A child of ours has worked in Austin, TX, and in Chandler, AZ. Both locations in parts of the spring and summer. Much prefers Austin's weather. Now, Houston is a different story.

I've been in Houston since 1980, and now I'm retired for four years. Still cannot find a way to escape...

I thought I'd move here and play tennis all year. Weather in the winter is too wet, summer too hot - melting streets hot. There are four nice weeks of weather or so - two in the spring and two in the fall.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Housing prices have went up quickly the past 2 years.

 

[Canoeboy]

Was in similar situation as the OP

We escaped the upper Midwest (Minneapolis HCOL) last year and ended up on the Middle Peninsula of Virginia where we ERed in January. While not known as a retirement haven we are starting to appreciate that it is fairly retirement friendly. As others have noted, no one location is likely to be perfect. So far we are thinking the area hits most of our wants/needs which sounded similar to those stated by the OP. 1) State income, county personal property and RE taxes are < half of what we had in MN. No tax on SS income and first 12k of pension income. 2) Winter was very mild being near the Chesapeake with only a handful of days staying below freezing. Last summer was more humid than ideal for me typically with highs in the 90’s - reason to head a few hours west to the mountains with the camper. So far our experience is that 60% of the year is Fall/Spring like weather which we find ideal. 3) one hour drive to several regional airports and Amtrack stations. 4) Decent size local hospital nearby with several large trauma hospitals 40 minutes away. 5) lots of local eateries, a few brew pubs and bushels of local oysters, crabs, seafood to be had. 6) wide price points on housing from 150k into the millions for an executive estate on the Bay/River. 300k will get you a newer house in a nice community, 500k (and up) will get you decent house with deep water dock on the River/Bay. 230k will get you a condo with deep water dock slip. 7) low crime, nice people, outdoor activities. 8) one the downside, poor walkability and bicycling unless you live in town.

 

[meleana]

We are not ER's but I did stop working last Sept at age 62 and hubby is still working- he will be 65 this year and will try to hang in there until next spring, when we will be putting our house up for sale. It is in a rural area of NY with a lot of land and secluded and isolated and not good to age in as we have no friends or family in the immediate area.


Our only child lives in New Hampshire. We always vacationed there and in Vermont- our favorite. I would have loved to retire there but they tax your SS and retirement income. So- we figured it would be New Hampshire. At least we have a connection there- our son, of course, and plus we are familiar with it. We like the seasons, though not winter as much, but we can deal with it if someone else does the shoveling.


Our dilemma is we so far have not seen much available there - like a 55+ community with activities and so on. And other things we see the homes are crappy or the nice ones are too expensive.



We are considering a CCRC- have our financial planner looking into that possibility.


Worse comes to worse, we might have to look to move elsewhere. We thought of Reno, Nevada, or Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, but don't want to be so far away from our son. Plus, not crazy about severe heat or desert. I have a thing about water.


I really love New England. But not easy to find the right place for us. We love our house, but we need to get a new life- and soon! We just hope the house even sells! If it doesn't it will be a sad day. We love the house, but it will become our tomb.

 

[Scuba]

Clearly different people have different tolerance for heat vs cold. I absolutely hate being cold, and would never choose to live in a cold climate again. To me, Southern CA with its Mediterranean climate is a bit too chilly. Winters can have stretches of weeks where the temperature isn’t above 65, and with the Pacific breezes, it feels really cold. And the ocean never gets much warmer than 68. Beautiful to look at, but not fun to swim in and there aren’t many days that it’s comfortable to be on the beach in a swimsuit.

DH and I would both prefer somewhere warmer, where we can wear swimsuits or shorts most or all of the year, and where we can dive or snorkel or swim in the ocean comfortably all year. Unfortunately places that offer this also have hurricanes.

 

[meleana]

Clearly different people have different tolerance for heat vs cold. I absolutely hate being cold, and would never choose to live in a cold climate again. To me, Southern CA with its Mediterranean climate is a bit too chilly. Winters can have stretches of weeks where the temperature isn’t above 65, and with the Pacific breezes, it feels really cold. And the ocean never gets much warmer than 68. Beautiful to look at, but not fun to swim in and there aren’t many days that it’s comfortable to be on the beach in a swimsuit.

DH and I would both prefer somewhere warmer, where we can wear swimsuits or shorts most or all of the year, and where we can dive or snorkel or swim in the ocean comfortably all year. Unfortunately places that offer this also have hurricanes.

True. To me, that sounds perfect! I love 50-70 degree temps. When in New Hampshire or Vermont in the summer, I take my floaty with me and go into the ice cold mountain lakes, my body partially submerged with the sun beating down on me and surrounded by awesome scenery. Me and the ducks just love it!



If it gets over 75 degrees, I start feeling really hot. If it get humid- forget about it!