usvi-on-line
Good Places to Retire
Good Places to Retire
OK, you're a few years from retirement. You want to move someplace on the continental US that has pretty views, reasonable weather, is not natural disaster prone, has good shopping and health care, the taxes are not outrageous.
Where IS this place?
Where IS this place?
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cypressgirl
- Posts: 2178
- Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 2:42 pm
- Location: houston
The Gulf Coast gets hurricanes, so I'm not sure if that is up her alley. Calif. has a host of problems, but maybe somewhere around Hilton Head or some place like that. Every place has it's negatives, but I'd stay away from places with high state income taxes and really scary weather like earthquakes. I can't wait to see what others have to say.
hmmmmm south carolina--but the natural disaster thing up and down the east coast.........
for me, i would summer in Maine and winter in the islands.....either the abacos or st John (but not so affordable in those places)
Arizona is supposed to be nice.......
for me, i would summer in Maine and winter in the islands.....either the abacos or st John (but not so affordable in those places)
Arizona is supposed to be nice.......
< leaving on the 22nd of march...but too lame to figure out the ticker thing again!>
Ideal would be somewhere in Arizona October thru May, then the Oregon or Maine coast June thru Sept.
I've always been intriged by the high desert of New Mexico as a possible retirement location after traveling there.
Weather is pretty nice year round – tons of winter sunshine, cool nights in the summer, pretty vibrant art, culture, and food scene in Taos/Santa Fe, cost of living is low in NM, but I don’t know if I could live year round somewhere that far from the ocean.
I've always been intriged by the high desert of New Mexico as a possible retirement location after traveling there.
Weather is pretty nice year round – tons of winter sunshine, cool nights in the summer, pretty vibrant art, culture, and food scene in Taos/Santa Fe, cost of living is low in NM, but I don’t know if I could live year round somewhere that far from the ocean.
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
The only bad things that happen here in Vermont are snow and cold. No hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes or volcanoes here....just snow. We have the most beautiful 2.5 months of summer in the country! It's just the rest of the year....I joke.
I'd take winter here before the plains states. We have some mountains to break the wind...and dump the snow.
I'd take winter here before the plains states. We have some mountains to break the wind...and dump the snow.
Central NC seems to be nice. The summers are hot, but the winters are mild. Beached 2-3 hours away on one side and mountains on the other. World-class healthcare in the Triangle area.
The hurricane thing is there, but they only seem to get one here in Raleigh about every 10 years or so.
If you can deal with the bad drivers and horrific sprawl, it's a nice place.
The hurricane thing is there, but they only seem to get one here in Raleigh about every 10 years or so.
If you can deal with the bad drivers and horrific sprawl, it's a nice place.
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piscesgirl0314
- Posts: 598
- Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:31 pm
- Location: Chesapeake, VA
I currenlty live in VA and am a LONG way off of retirement...but my husbands family is from NC and we LOVE LOVE LOVE it...the hurricane issue is there...but it is on the VA Coast where we live too...we are contemplating moving to the Moyock area and driving to work in VA because we love Carolina so much....pipanale wrote:Central NC seems to be nice. The summers are hot, but the winters are mild. Beached 2-3 hours away on one side and mountains on the other. World-class healthcare in the Triangle area.
The hurricane thing is there, but they only seem to get one here in Raleigh about every 10 years or so.
If you can deal with the bad drivers and horrific sprawl, it's a nice place.
Something else to consider is access to other places/things you like to do.
Is there an airport reasonably close that can get you, without multiple stops/long layovers/carrier switches to places you're likely to want/need to travel to?
Florida is great if you like to cruise in the caribbean since you can leave out of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Cape Canaveral, and Tampa, but to fly to STT I have to either drive three hours to Miami, or fly to Atlanta to get on a non-stop.
We also have hurricanes, but I've come to the conclusion that there's nowhere in the world, let alone the continenal US that you can go to to avoid weather disasters completely - and at least you generally get fair warning ahead of a killer tropical cyclone - and you learn what you need to do to mitigate the situation.
We have water everywhere - Atlantic, Gulf, lakes, rivers, retention ponds!
We also have long stretches of the year with high heat and humidity - we look pretty good on the TV in February when you're watching from an igloo on the Tundra, but we transistion pretty quickly to full time A/C weather while some of you folks are still wearing long sleeves.
Like bugs? Snakes? Armadillo? Come on down - we've got 'em in droves.
Think the drivers are bad where you live? What do you think happens when they descend on Theme Park Central with the bad drivers from all over the rest of the country and the world?
I guess the bottom line is home is what you make it. Be sure to check out the best and the worst of any place you're considering. I don't mind walking out into a blast furnace when I go out at lunchtime, but I know a lot of people that have moved away from here because they could never get used to it.
Is there an airport reasonably close that can get you, without multiple stops/long layovers/carrier switches to places you're likely to want/need to travel to?
Florida is great if you like to cruise in the caribbean since you can leave out of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Cape Canaveral, and Tampa, but to fly to STT I have to either drive three hours to Miami, or fly to Atlanta to get on a non-stop.
We also have hurricanes, but I've come to the conclusion that there's nowhere in the world, let alone the continenal US that you can go to to avoid weather disasters completely - and at least you generally get fair warning ahead of a killer tropical cyclone - and you learn what you need to do to mitigate the situation.
We have water everywhere - Atlantic, Gulf, lakes, rivers, retention ponds!
We also have long stretches of the year with high heat and humidity - we look pretty good on the TV in February when you're watching from an igloo on the Tundra, but we transistion pretty quickly to full time A/C weather while some of you folks are still wearing long sleeves.
Like bugs? Snakes? Armadillo? Come on down - we've got 'em in droves.
Think the drivers are bad where you live? What do you think happens when they descend on Theme Park Central with the bad drivers from all over the rest of the country and the world?
I guess the bottom line is home is what you make it. Be sure to check out the best and the worst of any place you're considering. I don't mind walking out into a blast furnace when I go out at lunchtime, but I know a lot of people that have moved away from here because they could never get used to it.
Come see us!
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Marcia (Mrs. Pete)
- Posts: 1576
- Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:40 pm
- Location: Madison Area, Wisconsin
...totally agree with Augie's comments on living in Florida...
health care facilities, arts, sports and exercise, shopping, traffic, peace and quiet, natural areas...all important considerations...some more important to some folks than to others...there is always a trade off
We are in the center of the northern third of the peninsula; we usually get freezing temps about five times a winter so see a little seasonal change...have seen snow here once in 28 years... no longer miss it.
Hurricanes have rarely brought more than heavy rain to our area except in 2004 we experienced two only three weeks apart but with much less damage than to coastal areas.
The airport question is a good one...currently we have to fly north to Atlanta or Charlotte to get anywhere from here by air.
Life in a smaller university town but within a two or three hour drive of three larger cities meets most of our needs very well...the beach/ocean is the major "need" missing just outside my window.
Most likely we'll be staying right where we are, and we do have a retreat in the mountains of West Virginia that we'll be keeping for a while.
Other than Texas, we have always lived in the East and mostly in the South; we have visited major cities in all four corners and in the middle of the country with many places that we've enjoyed and liked but the Southeast is just a better fit for us now.
Other places we might consider are:
Charlottesville VA
Urbanna VA...a very small town on a river, about twenty miles from the Chesapeake Bay
Lewisburg WV...small town near our retreat (Oprah bought a spot in the area!)
Southport NC
Asheville NC
Santa Fe NM...if she were on the East Coast
...questions on this forum often make me consider what I really think about the subject...thus is so now...please forgive my wordiness!
health care facilities, arts, sports and exercise, shopping, traffic, peace and quiet, natural areas...all important considerations...some more important to some folks than to others...there is always a trade off
We are in the center of the northern third of the peninsula; we usually get freezing temps about five times a winter so see a little seasonal change...have seen snow here once in 28 years... no longer miss it.
Hurricanes have rarely brought more than heavy rain to our area except in 2004 we experienced two only three weeks apart but with much less damage than to coastal areas.
The airport question is a good one...currently we have to fly north to Atlanta or Charlotte to get anywhere from here by air.
Life in a smaller university town but within a two or three hour drive of three larger cities meets most of our needs very well...the beach/ocean is the major "need" missing just outside my window.
Most likely we'll be staying right where we are, and we do have a retreat in the mountains of West Virginia that we'll be keeping for a while.
Other than Texas, we have always lived in the East and mostly in the South; we have visited major cities in all four corners and in the middle of the country with many places that we've enjoyed and liked but the Southeast is just a better fit for us now.
Other places we might consider are:
Charlottesville VA
Urbanna VA...a very small town on a river, about twenty miles from the Chesapeake Bay
Lewisburg WV...small town near our retreat (Oprah bought a spot in the area!)
Southport NC
Asheville NC
Santa Fe NM...if she were on the East Coast
...questions on this forum often make me consider what I really think about the subject...thus is so now...please forgive my wordiness!
... no longer a stranger to paradise
We live in NW Arkansas. There are a lot of retirees here. Why? The climate is mild. Winter is not too cold and a 4-inch snowfall happens about once a year. A 12-inch accumulation is very unusual. Summers are warm but not as hot as Texas. We get several 100-degree days a year on the average. Last year I don't think we broke 100 at all. The spring and fall are outstanding. We do have severe weather in the spring and fall but (knock on wood) we've not had a good deal of tornado problems.
Taxes and other costs of living are fairly low. We dropped our car insurance bill by a half when we moved here from Dallas. One can still buy a home in the unincorporated county and avoid city property taxes. Housing prices have taken a hit, but not nearly what other regions have seen.
I travel as a part of my work and our airport is a great place to do that. They keep changing the destinations due to the airline chaos. The last time I looked we had non-stop flights to LGA, EWR, CVG, DFW, ORD (2 airlines), STL, CLT, ATL, MSP, DTW, MEM, IAH, LAS, & LAX. Over the last year we lost our routes to IAD, BNA, SLC and Am Air's LAX and MIA. I look for some of them to be restored when things get better in the travel industry. We fly to STT with one stop through ATL. We could go through CLT but we generally don't fly on US Air. The connections through other cities like EWR don't work because our feeder flight gets in too late to catch the non-stop on the EWR-STT route. I can get to most places on one or two segments.
Shopping here is good but not great yet. We are a two hour drive from Tulsa and about 3 1/2 hours from Kansas City and Little Rock. Dallas is a 5 hour drive or a 45 minute flight.
Lakes, rivers, national forests and parks provide lots of outdoor recreational opportunities. Scuba diving is not too good without a long drive or a flight.
Health care is very good too. Most specialists are available here. There are three hospitals that have buildings less than 10 years old. There is not a lack of technology here. The medical school is opening a hospital here this year. That will mean that more doctors will come here to learn and fall in love with the area. They will want to stay here when they finish.
As a comparison, Fayetteville is very similar to Asheville, NC and Charlottesville, VA. The university presents opprtunities here that would not normally be available is similar small towns. We get speakers and concerts that other towns would not see.
JIM
Taxes and other costs of living are fairly low. We dropped our car insurance bill by a half when we moved here from Dallas. One can still buy a home in the unincorporated county and avoid city property taxes. Housing prices have taken a hit, but not nearly what other regions have seen.
I travel as a part of my work and our airport is a great place to do that. They keep changing the destinations due to the airline chaos. The last time I looked we had non-stop flights to LGA, EWR, CVG, DFW, ORD (2 airlines), STL, CLT, ATL, MSP, DTW, MEM, IAH, LAS, & LAX. Over the last year we lost our routes to IAD, BNA, SLC and Am Air's LAX and MIA. I look for some of them to be restored when things get better in the travel industry. We fly to STT with one stop through ATL. We could go through CLT but we generally don't fly on US Air. The connections through other cities like EWR don't work because our feeder flight gets in too late to catch the non-stop on the EWR-STT route. I can get to most places on one or two segments.
Shopping here is good but not great yet. We are a two hour drive from Tulsa and about 3 1/2 hours from Kansas City and Little Rock. Dallas is a 5 hour drive or a 45 minute flight.
Lakes, rivers, national forests and parks provide lots of outdoor recreational opportunities. Scuba diving is not too good without a long drive or a flight.
Health care is very good too. Most specialists are available here. There are three hospitals that have buildings less than 10 years old. There is not a lack of technology here. The medical school is opening a hospital here this year. That will mean that more doctors will come here to learn and fall in love with the area. They will want to stay here when they finish.
As a comparison, Fayetteville is very similar to Asheville, NC and Charlottesville, VA. The university presents opprtunities here that would not normally be available is similar small towns. We get speakers and concerts that other towns would not see.
JIM
Man it's like some dream we live down here....
