Posted on 09/19/2013 8:39:04 AM PDT by ottbmare
For nearly 35 years I've lived in Montgomery County, MD, about 25 miles outside of DC. It's a beautiful place and in some ways I will always love it, but as most Freepers know, Maryland has been dominated by Democrats and has become almost uninhabitably liberal and expensive. Taxes, regulation, overzealous penetration into one's private life, crime, crowding, and traffic have made life here very difficult for a conservative.
For many years I have told myself that as soon as my children were grown and I was free to do so, I'd sell my suburban house and move to rural central Virginia, where I have some ancestral roots. I could buy a shack on five acres and have chickens and a horse. Its charms need no additional description; to a Marylander, it seems like paradise. I have no kin there anymore but I know the area an suspect I could get a job.
Now the kids really are out the door, and to be honest I have to get out of here ASAP before I get foreclosed on. The house is going on the market next week at a price that should make it sell fast. I need to decide where to go very soon.
Issue: my conservative daughter now lives in southern Delaware. She loves the rural life there and the warm normal attitude of the people. She's urging me strongly to move out there instead of to beautiful VA. We are very close and despite my good physical condition she is concerned about me living alone since I am pushing sixty. She does not want to have to drive 4+ hours to see me or to bring any future grandchildren to see me.
What is the sense of my fellow Freepers on Delaware? I would love to live near my daughter but I know nothing about life in Delaware. I have a Southern lady's sensibilities: I love hunting, trucks, guns, and tools but am a cultured person too, which means I fit in in Virginia, but will this attitude fly in DE? How can a state that elected the Bidens be habitable? Am I right to be concerned about being isolated on the Delmarva in case of a hurricane, SHTF, or other grid-down situation? Does it really smell like chicken crap all summer?
Advice is very welcome.
go rent a condo in Delaware for 6 months-a year before you buy anything! Join a local church and get to know some real people, then decide
Check on the relative property taxes and income taxes in both places. Then weight what your daughter wants on top of that. If you’re going to retire, quite often property taxes are bigger economic freedom destroyers than income taxes.
Delaware is great on property taxes. But if it were me...I’d pack a bag and check out West Virginia...close enough, more folks of a like-mind...and just a bit more rural. Virginia? Unless you moved far out to the western side of it...I’d pretty much take it off the map. State taxes go up almost yearly, and continuing growth of liberal voters in the state.
FWIW - Virginia isn’t conservative anymore - I have lived here most of my life and have to tell you, it’s solid purple now. Furthermore, there’s a good chance the influx of carpetbaggers and illegals will elect Terry Macauliffe as our next Governor, sadly. I am already scoping out the possibility of moving across the border to NC. That said - my sister lives in DE. I simply couldn’t stand living there.
I would consider the mountains of western North Carolina or even Georgia.
Take Delaware and the points. Stay away from the over/under...
I would say move near family. The only hesitation I have is that rural Delaware may not be genteel enough for you. I like it, but culture's never been my thing. I don't know how it compares to VA.
Since you don’t have something solid in VA, go with family.
Family is solid.
If your daughter is conservative and she likes it there then what makes you think you wouldn’t?
Pretty sure it is illegal to spank your children in DE.
Not particularly relevant to you as a person with adult children, but speaks of how silly liberal the state is.
“Does it really smell like chicken crap all summer?”
yep, most the rural area does.
Virginia is great. the only liberal parts are NOVA and Richmond.
I suspect that after 25 years in MoCo just about anywhere is going to feel conservative! LOL
You’ve never been to the Delmarva area? No, it doesn’t smell like chickens all the time. “Lower slower Delaware”. A couple of family members of mine just moved down there (made their “beach” house their permanent house). You’re going to find a fair mix of conservative and liberal as lots of people retire there.
The rental advice I saw someone post and “see what you think” is a good one. However, Del and VA are blue states. VA not quite there but pretty close. I don’t think a flight from Liberalism is going to work if you go to either of those 2 states. They are either Liberal or are going to be soon.
Other than that, sounds like you should plan a move to DE with maybe summers spent in hilly Va.
Virginia is two states except for taxes. Taxes were unusually high when we lived there, especially personal property taxes. Other than that we loved it. My parents lived in Del and my brother lives there now. I would not like it. Too many liberals to escape. I agree with the poster who suggested checking out WV. We love it here. Not the upper northeast part, but Eastern mountain or plateau area. WV is still a low population state. Too little level ground, but the living is cheaper and a great state for “getting away” from it all. Good luck and blessings on your live-change.
As other FReepers have suggested, go with the family locale. Having a couple grandchildren now, one here and one many miles away, any decision I would make would keep/put me close to my children and grandchildren.
Naturally, I’d recommend Virginia, but it depends upon in which part of the state you’re willing to live. If you’re restricting yourself geographically to the northern end of the state (aka “occupied Virginia), then it may not be all that distinguishable from Maryland. However, if you can move south or southwest, then you find yourself in a whole different environment. The people in those regions are far more down-to-earth, conservative and community oriented. The hunting and fishing are great and we’re not (yet) nearly as regulated as DE or MD.
Hope that helps.
I am single, almost 62 and I hate my location here in central CA, but all 4 kids & grandkids are here and I probably couldn’t uproot them. So I’m stuck. You may be in a similar situation, but 4hrs away ain’t all that bad.
It all depends.
If your conservative daughter loves it there and if this is about family, forget politics (hard, I know) and move to southern Delaware for family’s sake.
If you are also trying to factor politics into it, I agree with those who say VA is not your best bet. RINOS are running wild there as well as Democrats. It’s a mess.
I’m not expert enough to suggest an alternative to southern Delaware and VA, though.
Others can weigh in on that.
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