Maybe Prescott, AZ area
Quiet, trying to get the wife to move up there from Oro Valley
Love Prescott. We’ve spent several weeks during the winter for three straight years. Our last one, we got 8” of snow. Good friend lives there and bought a house on a mountain outside of Prescott because it rarely gets over 90.
Prescott has become very expensive. Tons of Californians have moved there and driven up real estate prices dramatically.
Escaping Californians have run up the cost of Real Estate in and around Prescott. You’d be better served heading out farther east along the Mogollon Rim. Beautiful, rugged piñon pine country with four real seasons, open carry... been out around Show Low, which is historic, but you’ve gotta love the dry Southwest or it won’t suit you.
Friends of mine who’ve been around the country recommend Eastern Tennessee; Johnson City, specifically.
I did some looking a couple of years ago and Kiplinger’s put TN and SC in the top ranks because the one state takes only 1/2% Income Tax on retirement account distributions, while the other takes NONE.
You’d need to research whether those are still accurate numbers, but they were as of 2024.
I got out to the Atlantic Coast for the first time back in 2022, and really fell in love with it. Ran up the coast from Myrtle Beach to Kitty Hawk — beautiful. Wouldn’t buy within maybe a hundred miles of the shore because the weather can get untolerably ugly, but I did have in mind to stay within a half day’s drive of the beach.
It’s a big leap for a CA Native to transplant so far, so I don’t yet know whether I’ll do it, but economics sure argue strongly in favor.
All the best in your quest for The Right Place.