Where to find a ER Home?

[Prague]

I am 48, DH is 54 and we are retiring in a few months! We have been talking about buying a home more suitable for ER after we stop working but we cannot agree on a specific location and would like the collective wisdom of this forum to help us with recommendations/advice on a few places we should be looking into.

And here is the information related to our current situation on this topic (if there are other factors/info we should provide, please let me know):
- We currently live in a HCOL city and the property tax keeps increasing in double digits and we have low confidence that it will be under control any time soon. The Trump tax change of 10K limit on state/local taxes has made our tax situation worse after we just have finished our 2018 taxes;
- The current place is too cold for me during winter time.
- While temp and high taxes (or uncontrollable increasing future taxes) are our main concern, we like the cultural, walkability and easy access to healthcare aspects of our city

What we are looking for in our new location/home:
- Moderate temperature year round. DH hates heat and I hate cold ;
- Moderate property tax with fiscally responsible local government;
- Good walkability so that you are not rely on autos to get to everywhere (although we have found that this is difficult for the US, unless you are in big cities);
- Have access to good/reasonable healthcare as we age;
- Within reasonable distance of some major airports as we plan to do a fairly amount of international travel in the next 10-15 years;
- Ideally have colleges around so that there is sufficient cultural events/activities in town.

We have had many conversations about this but
- It seems to be difficult to have a place with all above attributes, esp. in the US
- We also discussed two-home options, but we are simply not the kind of people who like the hassle of maintaining two homes.
- Interesting enough, several international places seem to have popped up through conversations (ChiangMai, Thailand; Cuenca, Ecuador; Lisbon, Portugal) more than US locations. While we are not opposed to these international locations and the cultural aspect of it probably tempts us, so we will probably fly to these places to check them out in the next couple of years. However, we are just interested in building a base in the US.

So any locations that fit the above criteria (US and international) that you can suggest, would be greatly appreciated. Also, I am sure we are not the only couple who face such dilemma, I am interested in hearing about your experiences and how you resolved it with your DH or DW.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Bamaman]

For your desired weather, move to the South.
For culture, look for a middle size city with a university town. They will have sufficient healthcare for most anyone.
The cheapest for property taxes is probably Alabama. Sales taxes on boats/cars/trucks are a low 2 1/2%.

Huntsville is one of the smartest cities--anywhere, and it has everything on your list. Springfield, MO is another great medium size college city. Oxford, Mississippi is popular. I also love NW SC around Clemson with a great university, mountains and lakes. Outside of Knoxville, Tennessee would also be nice with The Smokies and the incredible Tennessee River. Asheville, NC is another favorite city for many.

 

[EarlyBirdly]

This is essentially everything that I have learned about Cuenca in my previous research:

"- Moderate temperature year round.
- Moderate property tax with fiscally responsible local government
- Good walkability so that you are not rely on autos to get to everywhere
- Have access to good/reasonable healthcare as we age
- Within reasonable distance of some major airports as we plan to do a fairly amount of international travel in the next 10-15 years
- Ideally have colleges around so that there is sufficient cultural events/activities in town."

VERY inexpensive, excellent healthcare, steady climate (somewhat cool), excellent access to transportation and a city of 400k to suit whatever cultural needs you may have. There is also a large ex-pat community and the U.S. dollar is the currency.

 

[mh]

For your desired weather, move to the South.
For culture, look for a middle size city with a university town. They will have sufficient healthcare for most anyone.
The cheapest for property taxes is probably Alabama. Sales taxes on boats/cars/trucks are a low 2 1/2%.

Huntsville is one of the smartest cities--anywhere, and it has everything on your list. Springfield, MO is another great medium size college city. Oxford, Mississippi is popular. I also love NW SC around Clemson with a great university, mountains and lakes. Outside of Knoxville, Tennessee would also be nice with The Smokies and the incredible Tennessee River. Asheville, NC is another favorite city for many.

My sister lives in Springfield . It’s ok has a nice downtown area next to the college and has a good airport on the outskirts of town . Not enough culture for me, but I live in LA/Malibu area so I am somewhat spoiled . It is very easy to fly in/out of though.

 

[Lewis Clark]

When you narrow the search down to a city or a few cities, use this website to help evaluate the walkability of particular properties you may be considering,

https://www.walkscore.com/

 

[Col. Klink]

For your desired weather, move to the South.
For culture, look for a middle size city with a university town. They will have sufficient healthcare for most anyone.
The cheapest for property taxes is probably Alabama. Sales taxes on boats/cars/trucks are a low 2 1/2%.

Huntsville is one of the smartest cities--anywhere, and it has everything on your list. Springfield, MO is another great medium size college city. Oxford, Mississippi is popular. I also love NW SC around Clemson with a great university, mountains and lakes. Outside of Knoxville, Tennessee would also be nice with The Smokies and the incredible Tennessee River. Asheville, NC is another favorite city for many.

I pretty much agree with Bamaman. A university town may be the ticket for you. We thought about moving to Gainesville when we came to Florida. However, after a visit there and some time with a Realtor, we moved an hour to the Southwest. The traffic in Gainesville was a pain and prices were higher for homes than areas nearby because of folks well paid by the university, the hospitals, etc. We still go over to Gainesville for SEC sports, shopping, dining, a few times a year.

Point being is that I suggest you take a road trip. You need to spend time at various locations and eventually you will connect with one. One other area that you might find agreeable is the NC research triangle area (Raleigh / Durham). It is a little cooler there in the summer and a bit more.... refined than some of the other college towns of the South.

Good luck!

 

[ivinsfan]

That's a long list and you pretty much are looking for nirvana IMO.

If I were you, I'd probably start ranking some of your wants in the order of importance. This might speed up the process. For example if you are taking longish trips, it might not be a big deal to drive a little longer to an airport and do a park and fly. If you were flying for work, distance from an airport might be a deal breaker.

 

[Midpack]

It’s really a personal decision but there are lots of lists out there, just do a search using your criteria. Here’s one of many https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/slideshows/the-best-places-to-retire

Narrow the list and then look further into what remains using:

https://www.bestplaces.net
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
https://www.walkscore.com
https://www.areavibes.com

Then go visit the 2-3 that best fit your criteria, maybe more than once.

That’s exactly how we found our perfect place. But some of your criteria are in conflict, and there is no perfect place - if there was, it would be so crowded and expensive you wouldn’t want to live there.

 

[ivinsfan]

It’s really a personal decision but there are lots of lists out there, just do a search using your criteria. Here’s one of many https://money.usnews.com/money/retirement/slideshows/the-best-places-to-retire

Narrow the list and then look further into what remains using:

https://www.bestplaces.net
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
https://www.walkscore.com
https://www.areavibes.com

Then go visit the 2-3 that best fit your criteria, maybe more than once.

That’s exactly how we found our perfect place. But some of your criteria are in conflict, and there is no perfect place - if there was, it would be so crowded and expensive you wouldn’t want to live there.

I've seen conflict in the lists almost every poster has for the perfect ER spot.A lot of the time two people are making the lists.. you'd be like a dog chasing it's tail using the lists some people make.

 

[Teacher Terry]

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.

 

[MRG]

My sister lives in Springfield . It’s ok has a nice downtown area next to the college and has a good airport on the outskirts of town . Not enough culture for me, but I live in LA/Malibu area so I am somewhat spoiled . It is very easy to fly in/out of though.

Springfield is nice till you learn about ice storms. We lost power one year in an all electric house for a week. Thankfully a wood stove kept it 50° indoors.

 

[Chuckanut]

Personally, I think answering that question is a great reason to spend the first 3-5 years of your retirement doing a lot of traveling. I would start with Arkansas and work down to lesser places. No, I'm not kidding.

 

[W2R]

That's a long list and you pretty much are looking for nirvana IMO.

If I were you, I'd probably start ranking some of your wants in the order of importance. This might speed up the process. For example if you are taking longish trips, it might not be a big deal to drive a little longer to an airport and do a park and fly. If you were flying for work, distance from an airport might be a deal breaker.

+1

I don't think anybody is going to find your perfect place for you. It's the sort of thing you have to do yourself. Luckily, it's fun to look on the internet and dream about where you might want to end up.

In my opinion, it might be worth waiting until you have been retired for a year or two before you buy a place or think about moving. You may find that your needs and wants change pretty radically due to being retired.

At least, we found that they did for us, even though we did not expect that to happen. Thank goodness we did not buy real estate in Springfield before we retired, even though we were sure we wanted to move there. After we had been retired for a year we realized that we were better off where we are and decided to stay put.

 

[COcheesehead]

I second using city-data.com. Tons on info there and a forum to ask questions. Great site for zeroing in on places to live.

 

[Cassius King]

The first city that came to mind was Austin, TX.

 

[MRG]

Search this forum. We have this discussion a few times yearly.

Took us 10+ years to figure it out for us. We didn't figure it out until we gave up.

 

[imoldernu]

We like where we live... In Peru, IL
The website for our CCRC. (we bought our regular home "Villa" here in 2004, and have access to all of the other facilities as needed. See the "contact" link to see the other locations for the corporation.)

https://simplythefinest.net/

The website has some less than obvious links, so if you're interested in the complete offerings, click the headings. The video in the Villa section, at the bottom left of the main page, is our home. but not us.
https://libertyvillageofperu.com/villas.htm

Not saying this is where you'd want to live, but to realize that there is more to a CCRC, than a nursing home. We did the snowbird thing from 1989 when we retired at age 53, until 2012, when we decided to stay north.

 

[Koolau]

If Paradise doesn't work out for us, we have thought seriously about the Nashville area. Probably a neighboring town like Murfreesboro or similar. We like the area. It's not ridiculously expensive - heh, heh, especially coming from HON. A bit chilly in winter and maybe a bit warm in the summer, but not like Mich or FL on either count. We hear taxes aren't too bad in total (though, as retirees, in HON, we are in a sweet spot, tax wise.)

Best advice is to visit, then rent, THEN consider buying. YMMV

 

[RunningBum]

The first city that came to mind was Austin, TX.

You read "Moderate temperature, DH hates heat" and thought of Austin? LOL.

I don't think anything in the I-35 corridor fits. San Antonio/Austin/Dallas get way too hot, Twin Cities/Duluth way too cold, and everything in between gets both to some degree. The midwest does not have moderate temperatures year round.

 

[Huston55]

OP-

Visit downtown Knoxville, TN. It has everything on your list except “major” airport. It has a decent regional airport (TYS) & ATL is ~2.5 hrs. DW & I lived there & thought it was wonderful. Plus, no state income tax and, the %/dvd tax is being phased out. I would also say that outside SF (where we now live) Knoxville has the best quality health care of the 16 places we lived during our working years.

 

[HarveyS]

Denver, Charlotte or Atlanta. Find a quiet neighborhood. Should meet all the needs including major airport.

 

[Ronstar]

OP - maybe Nashville fits your criteria. That’s a tough list of things to meet. Hopefully you find a place that your DH approves of. I know that those are 2 big hurdles - finding an ideal place, and then gaining spousal approval. I have a few options picked out for us - none of which is DW approved. Let us know how this journey turns out for you.

 

[bloom2708]

NW Phoenix. Anthem, New River, Cave Creek.

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

 

[Midpack]

OP - maybe Nashville fits your criteria. That’s a tough list of things to meet. Hopefully you find a place that your DH approves of. I know that those are 2 big hurdles - finding an ideal place, and then gaining spousal approval. I have a few options picked out for us - none of which is DW approved. Let us know how this journey turns out for you.

And once you get on the same page re: where to move to, then you get to find out if you're both on the same page re: exactly what house-location-neighborhood you agree on. I think we're coming together now, but it's taken some compromise. Agreeing on what city has turned out to be easier than picking THE house to buy.

 

[jimandthom]

When I read the desired traits, a song popped into my head.

So wherever Paradise is, you will want to get there before the parking lot goes up.

Good luck on your search. We were fortunate and knew years ago, where our retirement area would be if health etc. allowed.