Posted on 12/04/2001 8:28:05 AM PST by hattend
I am looking for suggestions from FReepers in lower 48 for city/state recommendations on where to retire.
I have pretty much decided on the western US (excluding the Pacific Coast states) and would lean to the southwestern states. I would stay in Alaska but I am tired of the long winter nights.
Would prefer acreage but you can try to convince me to live in town. :-)
If you know of any on-line newspaper links that have the classified, a URL would be appreciated.
Thanks
Don
You know, if Mexico allowed ownership of property by gringos, I probably would do something like that. I could live like a king in Mexico and besides, turnabout is fair play.
If the illegals want to come north, gringos with money should move south and take it over.
But as New Mexico keeps coming up I'll suggest you look at two little towns there that I thought were interesting: Soccoro and Truth or Consequences. Soccoro more than T-or-C but on trips through there a number of times, I always stop at these.
The Torquoise Trail area between western Albequerqe and Santa Fe is interesting as well.
AZ has better taxes and economy, but NM is sure pleasant.
Mississippi. Not bad, a real sleeper. Try McComb, the whole southern part of the state from Jackson on down, incl the gulf coast. You can live within 50 miles of New Orleans and go down there to eat and party.
Missouri, the Ozarks are pretty but they are an awful thinly settled and remote area, except at Springfield and maybe at Branson if you like the shows there.
Montana, parts of the extreme W and NW arent bad, like Idaho...
Nebraska, avoid.
Nevada, unless you just want the gambling, avoid it, unless you like Las Vegas for constant excitement, and a low cost big city, or Reno/Tahoe if you already live in N Cal or that area. The outlying towns are to be avoided.
NH, low taxes but unless you are already in the Northeast it is TBAvoided.
NJ. TBA.
New Mexico, not really very good. Some pretty areas around Ruidoso or Alamogordo, or in the Indian pueblos of the N Central if you want to retire in Mexico but want to drink the water...Roswell is a nice W Texas town with occasional alien visits.
New York, TBA for taxes and govt generally.
OKla, anything bearable is in the Ozarks of far NE.
Oregon. If this was the place for you, you would already know it, and probably be there.
PA and RI. To be avoided, unless it is back home to Grandma for you.
SC Hilton Head, and a lot of little towns way up near the mtns in the NW, and the university communities, can be quite livable. Myrtle Beach getting a little crowded.
SDak The Black Hills and Hot Springs, Rapid City quite nice. Awful weather in eastern 3/4 of the state, but clean air and lots of room. Most interesting state in Midwest.
Tenn. The eastern half is a well kept secret, try Cleveland in the extreme SE.
To be continued...
Taxes are LOW?
I lived in Arkansas once......... ......Once.
All kidding aside, It's BEAUTIFUL there. People are nice. Dems are well, there, but not as loud about it as they used to be.
I'd suggest towns between 30k and 100k in Texas. Like Stephenville, etc. There is a publication of the "100 best small towns in America" each year. I forget who publishes it.
TAXES are low?
Never been to the southern rural part of these states, have ya? Marion, Ill. is full of retirees from the nearby states and very nice to stay in. So is Carbondale-- except the students at Southern Illinois University are nuts. Southern Illinois has very little in common with northern Illinois-- you'll feel like you're in Tennessee. Check out Crab Orchard Lake and Cave-in-Rock state park. Shawee National Forrest is A+ for hunting and fishing. Terre Harte and Evansville, IN are beautiful, warm, folksy, CONSERVATIVE towns in midwestern heartland. Cincinnati is way too dirty and liberal, but the suburbs on the Kentucky side are really nice. Ames, Iowa is the best little place if you're looking for charm in that state, and Riverside, Iowa is the "Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk".
Beaufort, NC (not to be confused with Beaufort, SC), is a charming town, and prices are not as outrageous as they are, in, say, Wrightsville Beach, or, God forbid, Corolla. Here's one real estate agent:
http://www.beaufortrlty.comrealtor.com listings for Beaufort and all surrounding communities are here:
http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/HomeListings.asp?This will give you 50 hits at a time; if you have a slow modem connection to the internet and you want fewer than 50 hits in a page, change the pgsz=50 to something smaller, like pgsz=10. Alternatively, this page should give you a map:
mlsttl=&frm=bymap&pgnum=1&mls=xmls&js=on&st=nc&ct=Beaufort
&areaid=86696&areaid=49301&areaid=81850&areaid=76322
&areaid=49466&areaid=20693&areaid=38504&areaid=76719&areaid=93704&areaid=30899
&typ=1&mnprice=0&mxprice=99999999&mnbed=0&mnbath=0&mnsqft=0&pgsz=50&view=2&ss_fthb=n%2Fa&ss_mitm=n%2Fa
http://www.realtor.com/carteretcounty/nbregion1.asp
The trouble with the beach communities (and the mountain towns as well) is that there aren't any good hospitals nearby. If you want healthcare, then you should retire to the triangle area (Durham, with the Duke University School of Medicine, and Chapel Hill, with the UNC School of Medicine). Of course, you pay for what you get - prices in the triangle are pretty high.
An alternative, with fairly good health care, would be Winston Salem, which has the Wake Forest University (Bowman Gray) School of Medicine.
Wouldn't it be to your advantage to move to a high tax state when you retire? I would think it's the working stiffs that pay the taxes while you freeload. You could even vote for socialists, though that may cost you entry into heaven. :)
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