[Craig T]

Originally Posted by scottmandue

I'm in the same boat (see my thread about moving to Portland OR)
Retiring in four or five years.
Like you I am native to SoCal and thus addicted to our (almost) perfect weather... and in my case wife is a native Oregonian but I am worried how I will fair with sunshine only 1/3 of the year.
Also like you we can sell, pay off the mortgage and be able to buy a house outright someplace else (very desirable for retirement) but where?
This is an "all in" bet, who wants to retire, move, the find out you don't like where you are and deal with the expense and hassle of moving again? Frankly, we are middle class folks and most likely WON'T be able to move so we really have to be sure on what we do and where we end up.

Wow Scottmandue, we really are in the same place, even the same timing. You're right. It's a "all in" bet, and I'm losing sleep over it. I'm actually thinking of biting the bullet now and buying a small condo in Hilton head, SC, something we can rent out to snow birds. We can spend a lot of time there over the next couple years just to be sure. If we don't like it we can sell it and start re-thinking this.