I will add to my earlier comment about considering the proximity of kids and family you may want to visit, another consideration.
Don’t try to relocate anywhere where you have not spent a reasonable amount of time visiting. If you spend the money to relocate, you don’t want to turn around and do it all over again — you need to like your destination in reality, not just in theory.
Spot on, KC. Friends moved to the Hill Country of TX from CA to be close to their girls in Austin and Houston. They are very unhappy with the location (but like being by the kids and grandkids). They liked it in theory, but not reality as you put it.
Rule #1 — Always rent a year first in your new location, so if you hate it you can leave easily. NEVER buy property in your new location, where you are stuck if you hate it.
Sure, I will get responses from 1000 Freepers who loved the place where they bought in a new place. It happens too. But there is no downside to loving your new place. You would buy eventually anyway.
Ask anybody who regretted their new retirement location home a year or two later and had to completely unwind to move elsewhere.
If you rent the first year and hate it, you just drop the keys off with the landlord. Sure, you have store all your stuff for a year, but that is much cheaper than if you buy, hate it, and then have to sell again.