Affordable (and Safe!) Historic Towns

[RachaelandtheGoose]

Anyone have recommendations for some great, LCOL historic towns? Prefer the Midwest, as it's close to family. Anyone know of any hidden gems? Current contenders:

Mineral Point, WI
Marshfield, WI
Galena, IL
Quincy, IL
Hannibal, MO

Looking for other potential places to go "scout" on long weekend getaways.

 

[Mulligan]

Anyone have recommendations for some great, LCOL historic towns? Prefer the Midwest, as it's close to family. Anyone know of any hidden gems? Current contenders:

Mineral Point, WI
Marshfield, WI
Galena, IL
Quincy, IL
Hannibal, MO

Looking for other potential places to go "scout" on long weekend getaways.

If you like wine, Herman, Mo is a cool little old rural town (like 3,000 people, so very safe) with 4-5 wineries and a wine tour bus to take you around to them. It has several nice places to stay the weekend at also.

 

[MRG]

Excelsior Springs MO. and a jaunt over to St. Joe.

I'll never stay in the historic Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs again ever. It's a fine place but I don't care for the spirits.

 

[Bamaman]

Not only is it too cold in the upper Midwest for many, but the weather is also pretty lousy for too many months. We lived in the "land of corn" and found cabin fever to bring on real depression

I prefer college towns for a high quality of life, often good restaurants, athletics and culture that comes out of the university.

 

[VanWinkle]

Galena is a great town, but if LCOL is your goal, Illinois may not fit the bill.

I live in Illinois retired less than 2 years and am looking at small towns in Tennessee for a lower cost of living. Property taxes are suffocating homeowners here in Illinois and a large public pension deficit is a weight that will shape the future for Illinois.

Morristown Tennessee and Dyersburg Tennessee are the towns that I have an interest in checking out for possible relocation.

 

[braumeister]

All the towns on your list have their charms, but I would also advise thinking carefully about the climate. You probably already understand what it's like in those areas, but have you thought about living there while retired?

There are so many great places with much better weather and low COL. I agree with Bamaman that starting with a list of college towns might be a better approach. Just a suggestion.

 

[brucethebroker]

Terre Haute, French Lick, Corydon and Madison Indiana. Muncie is a nice sized college town, and close to Indy if you like that aspect.
Housing and property taxes are low.

 

[cooch96]

Washington, MO has a bit of a monopoly on corn cob pipes. They grow their own heritage breed for the cobs. Pretty darn quaint, but also darn small. I wouldn’t want to live there.

 

[Germonico]

Nauvoo, Illinois

Population 1200

Historic small town on the banks of the Mississippi.

Hotel Nauvoo has the best buffet of home cooked food I've ever eaten.

Downside. It is in Illinois.

 

[OldShooter]

When IL and Chicago go into bankruptcy, IL is not going to be a very fun place to live.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

LaCrosse is quite scenic, is big enough to be interesting, has three or four colleges in the area, is reasonably close to Minneapolis-St. Paul and is home to the highly rated Gundersen Health System as well as satellite operations of the Mayo Clinic. It's 90 minutes from Mayo if you want to seek medical care there. The health care resources alone make it a pretty good option for a retirement base if you're a four-seasons kind of person.

If LaCrosse is too big, Red Wing, Mn is also a lovely river town that has health care infrastructure under the Mayo umbrella. And, it's an hour closer to the Twin Cities.

Stillwater Mn and Northfield (where the James brothers met their waterloo) are nice, historic towns that have become TC suburbs.

 

[Marita40]

For those of us who actually like winter, MN and WI small towns are great. Others have mentioned Stillwater and Red Wing. I'd suggest Pepin, Alma, Hayward, Lake Geneva, Bayport.

 

[Huston55]

Galena is a great town, but if LCOL is your goal, Illinois may not fit the bill.

I live in Illinois retired less than 2 years and am looking at small towns in Tennessee for a lower cost of living. Property taxes are suffocating homeowners here in Illinois and a large public pension deficit is a weight that will shape the future for Illinois.

Morristown Tennessee and Dyersburg Tennessee are the towns that I have an interest in checking out for possible relocation.

You will see from some of my past posts that I’m a big fan of the Knoxville, TN area; downtown Knoxville in particular, which I highly recommend if you want to live in a walkable urban (college town) environment.

If you want a smaller town/city, try Marysville, TN just south of Knoxville. It’s inexpensive, safe, has a small college in town, is at the foot of the Smoky Mountains, and is near lots of inland waterways. And, having lived in the ‘midwest’, I can tell you that eastern TN weather beats the cr@p out of midwestern weather.

 

[Bamaman]

You will see from some of my past posts that I’m a big fan of the Knoxville, TN area; downtown Knoxville in particular, which I highly recommend if you want to live in a walkable urban (college town) environment.

If you want a smaller town/city, try Marysville, TN just south of Knoxville. It’s inexpensive, safe, has a small college in town, is at the foot of the Smoky Mountains, and is near lots of inland waterways. And, having lived in the ‘midwest’, I can tell you that eastern TN weather beats the cr@p out of midwestern weather.

You are right about East Tennessee. Greeneville, Johnson City and Jonesborough are great societies. You can get to VA and PA easily from there and also OH and IN for those that left relatives behind Property taxes are low and there is no state income tax.

 

[Bamaman]

Another exceptional, high quality mid size city is Springfield, MO--in the southwest portion of the state. It is another university town that is not enough but not too large. They entertainment mecca, Branson, is just south of there with the magnificent Table Rock Lake.

 

[ncbill]

You are right about East Tennessee. Greeneville, Johnson City and Jonesborough are great societies. You can get to VA and PA easily from there and also OH and IN for those that left relatives behind Property taxes are low and there is no state income tax.

On wages.

But the state income tax on interest/dividends is phasing out over the next few years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_income_tax

And yes, East TN is amazing.

 

[Which Roger]

For those of us who actually like winter, MN and WI small towns are great. Others have mentioned Stillwater and Red Wing. I'd suggest Pepin, Alma, Hayward, Lake Geneva, Bayport.

Don't stop there! Houghton, MI up in da UP has about as much history as anywhere, and it's a college town to boot.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Don't stop there! Houghton, MI up in da UP has about as much history as anywhere, and it's a college town to boot.

Calumet also has a nice, historical feel. Dad's family came from the Marquette-Munising area, and I love both towns for their natural beauty. But you can't just like winter to live up there, eh? You have to be in love with snow, cuz you're going to see 100 inches or more every year. Plus, it's the better part of a day's drive to any sizable metropolitan area, unless you count Duluth (which is also a nice town as long as you pack your long underwear).

 

[Marita40]

I also love the Harbor Springs/Traverse area of Michigan. And Holland and Zeeland.

 

[RachaelandtheGoose]

Excelsior Springs MO. and a jaunt over to St. Joe.

I'll never stay in the historic Elms Hotel in Excelsior Springs again ever. It's a fine place but I don't care for the spirits.

Man, I was really into St. Joe as a possibility until I saw 1) the crime rate and 2) the ACA rates in that area. Do you have any first hand experience with the town? The architecture is truly amazing...

 

[RachaelandtheGoose]

Galena is a great town, but if LCOL is your goal, Illinois may not fit the bill.

I live in Illinois retired less than 2 years and am looking at small towns in Tennessee for a lower cost of living. Property taxes are suffocating homeowners here in Illinois and a large public pension deficit is a weight that will shape the future for Illinois.

Morristown Tennessee and Dyersburg Tennessee are the towns that I have an interest in checking out for possible relocation.

I hear that. We actually live in the far suburbs of Chicago now (born and raised). We're not looking in Illinois very heavily because, yeah, we want out. But I've seen some surprisingly affordable houses in Galena, so I was intrigued...

 

[RachaelandtheGoose]

All the towns on your list have their charms, but I would also advise thinking carefully about the climate. You probably already understand what it's like in those areas, but have you thought about living there while retired?

There are so many great places with much better weather and low COL. I agree with Bamaman that starting with a list of college towns might be a better approach. Just a suggestion.

I think the weather would be less of an issue when retired because the main thing that stinks about it right now (we live in northern Illinois) is commuting in it. Otherwise I love snow, rain, the change of seasons, all that good stuff. I do like the college towns idea, though!

 

[FrankiesGirl]

http://www.westernkentucky.worldweb.com/

Paducah, Owensboro, and Murray, Kentucky are all interesting towns that aren't too big but still have things like the theater and symphony, the National Quilt Museum, major historical stuff (American Indian, Lewis & Clark, Civil War, and LOTS more). HUGE arts scene in the area too and some small/medium sized college/university towns. Decent amount of shopping and restaurants.

Western Kentucky in general is just a beautiful area. Lots to do and see, and do check out the Land Between the Lakes resort area that has fishing, hunting, swimming, boating, camping.
https://www.landbetweenthelakes.us/



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga,_Tennessee

Chattanooga, Tennessee is also an lovely place. They may be becoming more expensive, but in general Tennessee is a low cost of living state with gorgeous nature/outdoors activities and a growing population of shopping/eating establishments. Great medical facilities, great historical sites (most of Kentucky and Tennessee are going to be chock full of stuff to do with outdoors and history).

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I hear that. We actually live in the far suburbs of Chicago now (born and raised). We're not looking in Illinois very heavily because, yeah, we want out. But I've seen some surprisingly affordable houses in Galena, so I was intrigued...

If you like Galena, you should check out Dubuque.

 

[CRLLS]

Illinois is not as bad as some might let on. Staying away from the Chicago area and it's collar counties puts RE taxes more inline with other areas. For retirees, where Pensions, SS, IRA and 401K distributions are not taxed, it can be a good thing. How much longer will it stay untaxed? Who has a crystal ball? Historic small towns are quaint. I'm not sure how long that quaint will last for retirees with a limited group of social contacts with similar interests. YMMV. I think being close to good medical would be more important to DW and I.