Wow, chill out, its a discussion of places to retire and not get killed with taxes and quality of life. Not politics.

Hey! You said you wanted to live as a renter, use mass transit & ride bikes to where you wanted to go...that is the "lifestyle" I was referring to. That is what the "planners" of Portland want for the masses. No need to get upset...

I couldn't care less about your sex life, if that's what you're referencing.

I would consider Vegas... Plenty of entertainment, mild winters, and housing is at give-away prices. One could buy there and still have enough left over to go somewhere else in the worst part of summer. No state taxes is a bonus. For year round, Albuquerque is not bad. Mild winters and summers. My goal would be to retire some place with a mild winter...Cold/ damp is hard on us old folks.

Might add that Fintstone has lived in both of the above places for a fairly long time, so knows them pretty well.

ABQ is not my type of place but the outskirts of Vegas or Henderson would be worth a look at.

Only thing you might want to consider about moving out west is the landscape. Not everyone takes to living in the desert or semi-arid local. Personally, I loved living in Arizona (Lived in Scottsdale and Sierra Vista). Not many places you can live where you can drive 1-2 hours and be in a totally different landscape/climate.

i read this as "no lawn to mow"..

now get off my terrascaped lawn!!

Great that this has gotten back on track. I've been reading most of the replies with interest as my wife and I have started to look as well.

There have been a few posts on state taxes. Kiplinger has a guide to the state taxes for retirees:
Kiplinger.com

Interesting site...there sits Oregon...one of the 10 least friendly (tax wise) to retirees. No surprise to me.

I've been spending a ton of time in the area and the info on Santa Fe has not been my experience. I've never heard of St George in Utah, will look it up since I am hoping ot retire in the not so distant future.

One thing that we need to know is the numbers. What's too expensive? Is a retirement home in the 200k too expensive? How about 400k, 800k? 2 Million? Without the info, this is all just chatter.

I'm based out of the bay area but I know that eventually, we'll want to move on. The question is where.

My problem is that I don't want to live in a place I've already lived, although parts of California really appeal to me.

My criteria is pretty simple, although everything has to be within an hour or so drive: Good regional airline access, college town, mountains or high terrain or water, reasonable health care options, big enough for a garden for my wife.

I've actively looked at Montana (I was offered a job by the University) but the timing was poor since I wanted to get my son through High School here.

I love parts of the south but the summers are a deal breaker unless I can have a place to go where the summers aren't a slog. One of the best little towns in the country is in South Carolina, a place called Aiken. It is remarkably beautiful and sophisticated, and only 110 miles or so from the Atlantic.

A place that really intrigued me was outside of Walla Walla. My son and I stayed the night in Lewiston, ID and drove through Pomeroy and Dayton into WW. The drive was simply one of the best I had been on and the towns were really cool. I take another look soon.

Slovenia, its beautiful

Only if you are Mormon... I had friends that lived in Cedar City...gorgeous place..but they are not Mormon and the rest of the community would have nothing to do with them. I suspect that anyplace in Utah will be the same and there's no alcohol served at restaurants either.

Maybe that is Sammy's plan!

LOL, I was born in SLC and didn't have a problem with Mormons.
Only about 50% of the population in Salt lake is LDS the last I read.
In the smaller towns in Utah that percentage climbs a little but I don't think that will be a problem for me.
I don't drink liquor at all unless you count an occasional beer or 6.
Plus if no one has anythnig to do with me I won't have to tell em to GET OFF MY LAWN! ;)

I absolutely love the feel of small Utah towns with the tree-lined streets, the white church steeples, the nostalgic look, reminds me of how it used to be. I almost expect to see Opie Taylor riding by on his western auto bike.

I own a large lot on a hill overlooking Cedar City but I sometimes wonder if that's the best place because of the elevation.
St. George is at 2850 feet, cedar City is at 5846.That means the cedar city winters will be quite a bit stronger and longer. I didn't think that was gonna be a problem until a Pelican mentioned it and got me thinkin .......................

I bought the lot back when the Californians were over-running Utah (and Vegas, and Arid-zona, etc) and they had pretty much screwed up the real estate markets. They were borrowing money from the equity in their homes and building huge McMansions all over the place in St. George.

I have a feeling the bottom has fallen out of that and I may eventually buy a lot in St. George and sell the other one.

Whichever, the first thing I'm gonna do when I move there is get rid of the Kalifornia license plates and get bumper stickers that say "Utah Native". :)


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Sammy,

Good to hear. I only heard that from one set of friends. They said it was awful but that was a decade ago. I've driven thru Cedar City a few times and found it to be one of the most beautiful places I've seen. I like my Manhattan cocktails at night but I'm sure one can buy booze at state stores...maybe not. I could stand to do with out for sure, ;) My wife will never leave Ca. so it's moot.

Vash, its not like this. 95% of us have "crushed granite" of various colors and sized and its really just large rough pebbles. Looks nice, lasts forever and requires NO maintenance nor water. What plants we have are either desert, meaning no water needed or drip irrigation.

Hugo,

Please do a google search for St. George. The photos there will help and it looks much like Sedona, just not as flaky (the aura the hippies there worship) nor as expensive.

DrDogFace (mark)

Its not that bad these days. We spent a week or so in SLC and up in the mountains and the booze restrictions have petty much been relaxed. We met a lot of "jack-Mormons" (non-practicing) as well as the faithful and all were very nice to us. I would move there tomorrow if I had to for the job.

I think it may depend on the person. My mother really didn't like Utah or the mormons, my father and I and my brothers really liked it there. At least two of us (out of 4 brothers) plan to retire there eventually.


George, it might be worth it to send an e-mail to a local RE agent. They'll know the secret places that don't hit the inter-webs.
Allot of times the stuff that gets advertised is the stuff that doesn't move quickly and the real good stuff gets snatched up in a day.

Maybe they have a secret jewel just waiting for you or know of what that might be coming on the market soon.
Couldn't hurt ........

I'm down wit that bro... but like Joe said most of those are pretty high rent (Hanalei being my #1 SLO #2) i may have to look into the Reno

My Vote: Stockton, Calif.......kidding, worst place in the State and worst State in the Union.

Steve

73 911 T MFI Coupe, Aubergine

No one is taking my Thailand comment seriously.