Where to Move (Settle Down) to
 

Hi guys......

....been a long time since I posted within this Pelican Parts forum. Was a frequent contributor and listener when I still had my pristine 85 Carrera a few years back, but that car went to a German collector in Hamburg, Germany, and I've dropped mostly out from posting since (time for another story... the buyer and I became good friends and I've visited "my" car whenever I'm in Germany !!!).

Anyway, I'm currently a resident of New York State (extreme western end near Buffalo, where Ohio and PA meet). At this late stage of my career and nearing retirement (whatever THAT means !)....I'm very seriously thinking of relocating to another state. Somewhere where they don't have 6 months of winter (like here)....don't have predominantly "blue" state politics (like here), and definitely want lower cost of living, especially from a house real-estate taxation perspective. Being "gun friendly" is a big plus too. Needing to watch $$.....hoping to get a smaller home that is still in a nice neighborhood, and priced close to what I'm seeing in Buffalo would be additional "bonus points". Any other financial "perks" such as getting special Social Security breaks or Homestead Act breaks would be good too.

So I come to this group as a trusted source of information. From research, it looks like I'm focusing in the greater area around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to include nearby towns like Conway, Loris, and Longs (but not necessarily limited to these towns). I currently am an independent consultant for industry and can do my business from anywhere as long as I have computer access and am reasonably close to an airport.
As part of the questioning, can someone tell me why closely-packed towns like Conway, Loris and Longs show large swings in the apparent "crime" rate ?( ex: Conway stands out as 2X the rate as the other neighboring towns). Wrong?...a statistical aberration?

I welcome any commentary from folks with knowledge or direct experience living in this area of the world.....thanks in advance for any suggestions, recommendations, or guidance..... SmileWavy

Conway attracts a lot of people that work in Myrtle Beach, but want a cheaper place to live.
North Carolina would be a great choice also.

Also...Welcome Back!

Would you consider moving west or are you only interested in the east coast?

We are looking at Washington state.

How about Texas, you can skip the cold almost entirely, cheap, gun friendly, not blue, no income tax, potentially low cost of living, can be pretty in areas.

As to considering NC vs SC....look here ( as only one reference point, I know)..... comparing NC to SC on the aspects I mention are important to me. Seems SC has the advantage.

State retirement guides

The same chart and stats can be used to do point-by-point financial comparisons to other states...like Washington. I'm kinda focused on the SE......

I grew up in Tonawanda and moved to the ATL suburbs after a few years in NOLA. Wouldn't go back up north if you paid me. I have found this area to be quite nice with a great mixture of the seasons and mountains, lakes and beaches all close by.

...and has its own grid. So I've read.

A friend moved to Sarasota, Florida some years ago. Loves it. He's a retired American Airlines pilot who lived in many places during his working days...might be worth a peek.

Yeah, I guess Texas can work too.....once visited Tyler area that was surprisingly "green".... nice area.

For all these areas, we need to consider this other point that maybe I didn't stress. I'm selling a home in Buffalo ( on a nationwide basis, at a low price)...so I cannot "cash out" and go to a considerably higher home price area...even if other cost of living aspects are good. People coming *to* Buffalo often make out like bandits on this point....where they sell (say) a California home for $3MM and can get a comparable home here for maybe 1/10 the cost. Going in the other direction like I am, on the home-to-home comparison..... is a killer. Going further, I pay $10,000 / yr in property taxes here in NYS...and the smaller place I have in mind in SC has property taxes of maybe $600-$900/yr. Yet the home prices are fairly comparable between these SC areas and suburbs of Buffalo...odd. Also newer construction in SC.

To keep this thread on topic....I will certainly entertain other areas....but as a first pass or core question to get some answers to.... would love to hear from some of the SC folks for the areas I mention, to compare and contrast some of the towns mentioned. That said, no problem talking about other areas...who knows, there may be expanded interest in this topic question, from other people's perspective and their areas of interest.

I spent last Thursday and Friday in Columbia, SC, met up with an old friend of mine in Sumter Saturday for lunch then drove to Myrtle Beach that afternoon.

I drove from MB through Conway and other small town to Charlotte, then back to NC Sunday.

My impression of Conway was that is a nice little town with a still intact center. Pretty cool.

The problem for me is that the low country of South Carolina, away from the beaches, marshes and rivers, is as unremarkable a landscape as exists in this country.

Think about Aiken, SC. I lived there for a few years.

Opposite move!
 

Wil,
I moved to Western New York (Hamburg first, now in Perrysburg) back in 93 for new career. The past two winters have really worn me down and I am starting to think about possible relocation in retirement. Moved here from Virginia Beach area and could see myself possibly relocating back there. I really dislike the higher humidity (the Western NY summers, although too short, are fabulous!) of the deeper South, so VA has potential. I guess it all depends on exactly what you are looking for and what your game changers are.

Consider Greenville, SC

But Sarasota or anywhere Florida saves 7% on income tax vs SC

Hawaii

/thread

I'm just using this as a data point. I was in a home in an old neighborhood (built late 60s early 70s) with homes that were appraising for $120-135k, 1500-2000 sqft, decent front and back yards, and property taxes were, I think about $2300/yr.

I think most newer neighborhoods in the 'burbs around Houston are $200-300k, but there is stuff lower and, of course, higher. If you're retiring, I don't know if you'd want a neighborhood or not.

Houston has cheap housing and the taxes are reasonable. Not the cheapest, but, I think, compared to NY or NJ, they will have to be an improvement.

Yep, no state income tax in TX either, but if he's retired, how much income tax will he be paying anyway?

If you are serious about MB, Conway and Longs, you need to go down there during tourist season. I think you will be amazed at the congestion.

The original post sounds a lot like Kalispell Montana.

San Antonio, Texas. Drop the mike.

Florida and Texas have no income tax and no estate tax. Both have places you can live cheaply if you're willing to drive a long way and live in a relatively isolated area. As far as I can tell both have places that can be pretty nice and still be reasonably priced. The panhandle of Florida is beautiful. You can buy something close to the water anywhere between Destin (expensive) and Pensacola (also expensive) with everything in between being reasonable. We have family in Ft. Walton Beach and visit every year or two and absolutely love it. It's very red because of the Air Force bases in town. Beautiful beaches, nice weather, easy access to an airport. Not a bad deal all in all. Ft. Walton Beach is about half way between Panama City and Pensacola. There's a good airport in FWB and Pensacola is about 50 miles away. Panama City is a little farther but still an easy drive. When we fly in we price FEB and Pensacola and take whatever is cheapest.

This would be my #2 concern with that area. Depending on life style, it may or may not be an issue.

The other, being up against the coast, you get the full brunt of the big storms when they come in to land.

I'd recommend going west to the Piedmont area, beautiful woods and rolling hills. We've had a few years in a row of very mild summers from the norm, lots of "where's the global warming" jokes, but last year, it finally boiled again.

If you're into shooting, search for shoot clubs & ranges. My eyesight makes shooting a no go for me, but I know the Charlotte area and its out lying towns are dotted with them.

I'd also look at the road system in and out, lots of places in South Carolina have you driving in spirals to get around. Look at the places you travel, and how you would get there.

You could move to Michigan. Winters aren't six months long AND we voted red in the last election. You can buy a decent house for 500 bucks in some neighborhoods that also come with free water. The only things that are expensive are food, clothing, fuel, taxes and insurance. The roads are great if you run a mog and there's pretty much a total absence of reliable mass transit.

This area has seen tremendous growth in recent years. Lots of snowbirds moving there. Tons of road construction in that whole area to accommodate the growth. Housing costs are very reasonable. I have never felt unsafe in any of these places. I think the crime rate increases during tourist season. I would be curious to see the crime rate of citizens as opposed to travelers.

Longs and Loris are very rural. If that is what you're looking for, then I think you could like it. Since internet access is in your requests, I would check internet speed options. Don't be surprised if 10-12Mbps is the most you can get in that area. They are outside the normal tourist track so you won't need to worry about traffic as much.

In the summer, Conway's traffic can be very trying. It is on the main road to MB and traffic can easily triple or quadruple in that time.

T77911S lives just south of Myrtle Beach. Hopefully he will chime in on specifics on the area. I would PM him if he doesn't.

One more suggestion to check out N Central Florida. Alachua county (where I am) votes Blue because of UF, rest of area is all red. Only firearm restrictions are federal, low taxes. On a 120k house (1900sf, 1.5acres, slightly rural) I'm paying about 1500 per year for insurance *and* property taxes...

Hour to hour and a half gets you to either coast for the beach, not much more to get to Jacksonville, Orlando, or Tampa.

I've spent a lot of time in both FL and TX, and they would be near the top of my retirement wish list. I also second the panhandle area, the Gulf and beaches there are Carribean quality. We have gone to either Pensacola or Destin on vacation four straight years and love it. I love TX as well, very affordable living, low taxes, conservative political inclination, very gun friendly, and some areas can actually be quite pretty. My wife's sister and her family left Dallas last year and moved back to KS, I think they are both regretting their decision.

Another suggestion would be AZ. If you like being outside, some of the most beautiful places on Earth can be found there. Yes it gets hot in the summer but you also don't have to deal with humidity, and the remaining 9 months of the year are spectacular. Again very conservative, gun friendly, and affordable taxes. Cost of living somewhere like Phoenix would be high, but there are lots of little Snowbird towns with more affordable costs.

Really appreciate the interest and responses here..... I knew this forum would have wide-ranging and thoughtful comments on this topic... after all, it may affect many of us here at some point of our lives.

You forgot to mention the Great Gray Dome of Doom that covers the state from December to March. This year has been awesome - we saw the sun and blue skies twice in January. And that was for at least 3-4 hours each day. Also, we had at least 4 other days that featured a lighter, brighter gray than normal. One of those days, there was a hint of something bright behind the Dome - maybe the sun, but not sure :confused:

Today the schools are closed because the roads are covered with ice. That's a positive because it improves your driving skills greatly.

So yeah, big improvement from Buffalo. And BTW, I'll be heading south out of here myself in the very near future .... I've become too old for this crap :)

We have a client that is dead center (Shallotte, NC) between MB and Wilmington, NC. For medical care, MB is never a consideration. They always go to Wilmington or up to Duke.

And if you are of retirement age, excellent health care needs to be a top priority.

From my post #5 above and the shown link, maybe we look at these mini-summaries of the states mentioned so far, on a per-state basis. I know we can't distill stuff like this down to only simple terms when making a move decision... but it should be a help in the overall evaluation.

Maybe local guys can comment on the accuracy and truthfulness of these summaries.

SC.... south_carolina retirement guide

NC... north_carolina retirement guide

Ariz... arizona retirement guide

Fla.... florida retirement guide

TX..... texas retirement guide

Prop. taxes in AZ are super low. I think our house appraises at around $430k and our taxes finally just went up to about $2k/yr. The sales taxes will get you though. Nothing under 8.3% and plenty higher in some areas. There's still no sales tax on private party vehicle sales, but I can't imagine that will last forever. Best gun laws anywhere too. If you can legally own it, you can legally carry it without a permit. State law requires CLEO sign-off on all NFA apps. too.

My wife and I moved down to Charlotte NC from Central NY about 9 years ago. If you are a native NY'er, the weather is phenomenally good. Few truly WNY cloudy days, it does get hot, but not Florida hot, and winters are cool to moderate (today is 70 and sunny again). That alone made the move worth it. The property taxes are low compared to NY State, the income taxes have actually gone down to 5.7% flat rate, crime is only seems to be a problem in the usual places, the medical around Charlotte is world class and the 2 main systems strongly compete with each other.
The whole controversy about the transgender bathroom issue is basically a big-city non-issue with the vast majority of people, it has had a lot of national coverage but it is not a real topic to many folks, or that one that you are likely to encounter in everyday life. NC is a traditional Southern state with generally conservative values (especially away from the major cities) that has had a large influx of Northerners with their own traditions and values that are mixing with each other, sort of like the "Californian effect" on surrounding western states.
Also, Charlotte is only 700 miles straight south of Orchard Park (my cousins live there) and it is still relatively easy to stay in contact with family and friends.

My parents retired to a very small town outside of Pensacola, Milton. It was a very nice, small town. The biggest problem with the panhandle of FL is that it seems like the area that is most likely to take a direct hurricane hit after the Atlantic coast of South Florida. Anywhere between Gainsville, FL and Port Arthur, Texas.

My parents lived just north of I-10 in Milton very near the blackwater river. THe only thing that they really worried about where they were was falling trees because their house was pretty much in a forest.

You paint such an appealing portrait.

Doesn't AZ have astronomical tag fees? I lived there years ago - and recall they were based on retail value of said car. Yearly tag fees were almost up in the 4 figures for a nicer car (BMW 3 series)

Lack of income tax generally means it's made up for in property tax. If you are retired, I'd say it's even worse, I don't get why FL is such a retirement destination when prop tax is so high (unless you live in a real cheap home)...

Personally I'm tired of hurricanes, sinkholes, tornadoes, mudslides, floods, quakes and snow... So I cannot think of a place in the US anymore ;-( Is there such a state without the above calamities and decent weather ?

You would hate Portland. Especially the blue part...

Just curious....Why is being "gun friendly" a requirement? Owning, carrying, hunting? Never have worried about that here in MI...maybe I'm missing something?

You don't have to worry about it in MI because the gun laws there are somewhat, if not totally reasonable. In the northeastern states you can often be guilty of a felony after a stroke of a pen or by unknowingly doing something totally legal and customary in the free states.

Ok...didn't know that. Thanks.

Here in NJ, if i stop for gas or a snack on my way home from the range, i'm facing 3-5 in the big house. (required, no judge's discretion) It takes a governor's pardon to stay out........

N AZ..Prescott .or down around Tucson.

NV has no state income tax and property tax is reasonable..Reno biggest little city in the world...close to Tahoe...or LV with the river and Utah close by. one thing about LV is the amenities..best entertainment, food and shopping along with recreation. Summers are hot, but head over to the Calif beaches for a week or two or go to Utah. If you want a machine gun here you can have a machine gun.