Congrats on your move. I also am in the PNW and it’s expensive. Property taxes, food, fuel it all adds up and when we retire (soon) it’s going to be hard. Overall are you happy with the move, how about being far away from other family? that would be hard for us.
Funny you mention that (about family).
My middle daughter moved to a suburb of Phoenix, and my olderst, just two weeks ago, moved to southeast LOUISVILLE, KY!!!!
I practically go by their house every day on my way home from work. Yeah, the one drawback Is my 150 mile round trip commute. But it’s worth it, since I’m averaging 70 mph on the whole thing. :)
We absolutely love it here. And the ANNUAL property taxes on our 32 acres with a home, barn, shed, and two creeks, is less than one months Toyota Camry payment. And when we turn 65 it goes down about another 25%.
Oh, and though this is an income tax state, it doesn’t apply to SS. Not one cent. It’s like you never received the money, even if you still work and earn a good income.
If you’ve been well employed your entire life, you can live quite comfortably here on SS alone, even more so if both of you were.
However, if there was no such thing as air conditioning, I would not live here.