Big_Hitter
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
have you looked at idaho?
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.
have you looked at idaho?
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.
That's a good site, though I recommend https://weatherspark.com/ because it can present relevant climate data for several locations simultaneously in a concise graphical manner. The relevant data being things like typical temperature ranges every hour of the day for a year, average chance of clear skies during the year, average monthly snow and rainfall, and some other stats. The site is https://weatherspark.com/You may find this web site for the National Climate Data Center useful.
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/climate-information
I was born in St. Paul and spent the first 37 years of my life in the Twin Cities area. So I can relate some. Then moved to California (Folsom) and then in and around East SF Bay (Pleasanton), South SF Bay (San Jose,) and Monterey Bay (Aptos.) Spent about 9 years there. Moved to Eugene/Springfield area of Oregon and been here 12 years. We're planning to move yet again, now that we too are retired. Also looking for sun, minimal snow, not too hot, not too cold, and of course affordable. Will have to settle on less-than-perfect of course!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 already posted a climate comparison tool in an earlier post.I'd like to use the internet to winnow down some choices before I actually visit potential areas.
What other resources did you find to be helpful if/when you planned your move?
dude rapid city and cheyenne and he's looking to move somewhere with better weather
you win the internet today!
It's a dry cold.dude rapid city and cheyenne and he's looking to move somewhere with better weather
you win the internet today! [emoji23]
Hey man - Rapid City simply has a better climate than Minneapolis. Admittedly, he could head east, south, and west and find a better climate to live in than Minneapolis. It's the great thing about growing up there - most any place you move to is an improvement!
Hey man - Rapid City simply has a better climate than Minneapolis. Admittedly, he could head east, south, and west and find a better climate to live in than Minneapolis. It's the great thing about growing up there - most any place you move to is an improvement!
I really haven't. I will take a look. First reaction is it might be too cold in the winters.
Any interest in being a snowbird instead? Lots of Minnesota people come to Florida for the winter.
I was born in St. Paul and spent the first 37 years of my life in the Twin Cities area. So I can relate some. Then moved to California (Folsom) and then in and around East SF Bay (Pleasanton), South SF Bay (San Jose,) and Monterey Bay (Aptos.) Spent about 9 years there. Moved to Eugene/Springfield area of Oregon and been here 12 years. We're planning to move yet again, now that we too are retired. Also looking for sun, minimal snow, not too hot, not too cold, and of course affordable. Will have to settle on less-than-perfect of course!
I already posted a climate comparison tool in an earlier post.
"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."
Indeed - driest and sunniest areas of the country are west of about the 100th longitude and east of about 120th longitude. Given your preferences, in that area probably no farther north than Rapid City, SD and no farther south than, say, San Antonio TX (humidity may become an unpleasant factor much south of the Hill area of TX.)
Financial comparisons:
Since property taxes are set at the city and county level, it is surprising that that a single tool exists at all that seems to allow one to estimate them:
https://smartasset.com/taxes/property-taxes
Of course if you intend to own a home (or even rent) you'll need tools to compare the costs of the single largest non-liquid asset you are likely to own, so a site like https://www.zillow.com/home-values/ helps.
With respect to income taxes, sunny, dry, snow that doesn't stick around, and avoidance of high humidity (I personally have no issue with cold so long as there is plenty of sun) you may want to check out Rapid City, Cheyenne, and northern areas of Texas.
Wife and I took a driving tour from Oregon through Evanston WY, Cody, Sheridan, Casper, Cheyenne and Rapid City areas in June to see what we thought of them as places to move to. The only one that stayed on our list was Rapid City (the Black Hills act as a barrier to the prevailing winds that put Rapid City in a banana belt - i.e. averaging slightly warmer than places around them.) However, our elimination of WY places had more to do with limited scheduled air carrier access to hubs of future interest than anything else - Wyoming is a great place to find isolation. Other issue is winters last longer due to most of WY at a higher plain of existence (lapse rate and all that means.)
In August we flew from Oregon down to San Antonio, rented a car, and spent a couple weeks touring the "Hill" country of Texas. Stopped in at a few open houses of places meeting some of our preferences to get a feel for the housing market (otherwise too soon for us - we were up-front with the agents about our time frame.) Definitely warmer climes and housing prices were reasonable. Property taxes are definitely higher, though of course Texas has no income tax
Kerrville TX and Rapid City SD may not seem to have much in common, but at the moment they both are on our short list. But we're in no hurry and they both may vanish to be replaced with something else.
Come a little bit further south to Ventura County.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.
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.)
If money were no object I would move to Santa Barbara, CA.
OP-can you be more specific on your ideal temperature/humidity? When you dismiss a town as too hot are you considering the difference in humidity that may exist between MN and the new town? For example I’m in CA where humidity doesn’t really exist, so 80-85 is quite nice. My SIL in Michigan says 80 is horrible, but that’s due to the humidity. Just something to keep in mind.
Btw, the eastern parts of CA are more conservative and relatively lower COL than the coastal regions.
Ventura, Santa Paula, CamarilloY
Any suggested towns or cities?
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.
Any suggested towns or cities?
Yes, I am taking humidity into account. Actually, dewpoint is a better indicator of overall comfort at hotter temperatures.
Generally speaking I would like summers, June, July, August to be in the upper 80's, lower-mid 90's with humidity levels no more than 40%. I think this would be dewpoints in the 50's. I could stand temps around 100 for a week or two if it were not humid. Winters need to have very few days (or nights) that get below freezing (32 degrees F) I would like a change of season, even snow once in a while if it didn't stay on the ground.
Any suggested towns or cities?
One thing that made me move to Alabama is a lack of public services and programs. We have all we need without getting the state government involved in any "programs."
The low price of real estate has allowed me to have a 5200 square foot home in a luxury neighborhood (7000 to 10,500 square foot homes) for under $300K. We also have a lake house across town. The property taxes on our main residence are waived due to my wife being disabled. The property taxes on $400K for the lake house are $1,147 per year. We have 2 colleges in town bringing culture, and a very active music scene. Two Robert Trent Jones golf courses are down the street from us at the lake.
But there are many, many great places to live for different reasons. I especially like small to medium size cities with major universities for retirement. Like Oxford, MS, Columbia, MO, Springfield, MO, Clemson, SC Auburn, AL and many others.