Good places to retire? Sorry-long

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MileHighDart

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Lakeview, OR
Considering our options. Loved living in Lyons for the past 25 years, but it’s kind of turned into little Boulder. Lost it’s small town feel. And since the flood 4 years ago now, the town has spent all its fema money on turning the town into a tourist attraction. While ignoring the needs of the residents. Boulder county has gotten so built up and so expensive.

Anyway my wife has made several trips to Oregon to visit her dying father, I went with her once. She’s kinda loving it up there because of all the wildlife , the cheap cost of buying a house, and way way way fewer people there. We could buy a nice house with an acre or two up there very cheap compared to where we are now.
So now she keeps talking about moving there in a couple years when I retire. Only thing I’m worried about is I read online that during Dec, Jan, and February it doesn’t get above freezing during the day, and can be 20below at night.! The town we’re looking at(Lakeview) is so small there isn’t even one restaurant you’ve ever heard of, only little cafes and such. Closest town big enough to have a Walmart or sams club and decent restaurants would be about 1-1/2hr drive away. Just not sure I could handle that much isolation and the winter temps.
Need some other ideas before we settle on Oregon.
 
Lakeview is seriously in the middle of nowhere. I traveled all of OR-WA-ID for 15 years for work, if you'd like some observations and info feel free to send me a PM.
 
If you want to post about politics, please post your comments in the N&P forum. Not here in the general forum please...:)
 
If you don’t mind the heat from June to Sept with very little freezing winters Kerrville Tx is very nice. Small town it has hospitals and doctors. Which are very important to have around after you retire. It is the Texas Hill country. Hunting fishing and golfing. Kerrville Tx or Flagstaff Arizona is where I wanna go when the put me out to the pastures. I don’t know your budget but a 1200sqf home in Cali for the same amount could get you a 4,000 sqft house with acreage.
 
I think all the small towns are either going away or turning into tourist traps here too. Good luck on your search.
 
I live in New Hampshire . It's a beautiful place to live but because we have no sales tax and no income tax the property owner pays for everything . If you rent you get away for free . Also, there is no required auto insurance you arent' required to wear a helmet while operating a motorcycle and there is no mandated seat belt law . THat being said we have "eight months of winter and four months of damn poor sleddin'" . the biggest industry is tourism . Skiing and snowmobiling being the biggest . We have more miles of snowmobile trails than paved roads . lol ! C'mon up ! If I could do it again I'd move to North Carolina or east Tennessee . Vermont is beautiful but there is nothing to do there except cows .
 
11 acres. This one is on the higher end most are from 150k and up

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I would retire where ever makes your wife happy.

I plan on staying where I am, when the winter months hit, I am going to hook our camper behind my truck and go camping in a warmer climate.
 
I lived in Cincinnati for 7 Years and it was pretty damn cheap. Winters could be a bit harsh though, especially in January.

I also lived just outside Memphis for 4 years (and still own a house there that I rent out) and the cost of living was a close second. Get further away from the city and the options become better...but it gets rural fast. It is also hot as hell there from May through September and there are the Spring tornadoes to worry about...and lots of them.

The Fall and early Spring were fantastic, and Winter was very short and mild. I was putting up Christmas lights in a T-shirt most years.
 
The coast of France for me in 15yrs. Le Havre or more inland like Roun. Can catch trains to anywhere in the EU for exploring the old past.
 
I think loganscuda hit it with the hospitals and doctors. We have been having the same discussion about retirement recently and while my dream was always to move out away from everything, seeing how fast things can change with friends and their health has me reconsidering the location. Getting away from the crowds while still maintaining decent health care is in the mix now.
 
I'm a long way off from retirement, but I plan on going somewhere that doesn't get snow. I hate winter, love the heat
 
loganscuda said:
If you don’t mind the heat from June to Sept with very little freezing winters Kerrville Tx is very nice. Small town it has hospitals and doctors. Which are very important to have around after you retire. It is the Texas Hill country. Hunting fishing and golfing. Kerrville Tx or Flagstaff Arizona is where I wanna go when the put me out to the pastures. I don’t know your budget but a 1200sqf home in Cali for the same amount could get you a 4,000 sqft house with acreage.
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Mom lives in Kerrville! She loves it. Shes from TX originaly so the heat doesnt bother her much but it doesnt get stupid hot there, maybe the slight elevation? She lives in Riverhill Country Club.
Oregon has no sales tax but has a high income tax, and property taxes are 1.6 to 2.5 of assessed value of property. $300K place (not hard at all to do) would have a $7,500 yearly tax on the property. Many Oregonian seem to feel CA politics are creeping north so they tend to shun the new folks. Im not injecting politics, just stating an observance when we had an aunt move up there. Sadly there is alot of meth labs too. Another CA import? That'
s from a Medford police man, my wifes cousin.
 
Single and wanna live like a king but sweat your balls off? Cebu, Philippines. Island paradise with 25 cent beer and 50 cent women. Just dont sell drugs or youll be shot dead by police.
 
North Carolina has been mentioned. Lived outside of Raleigh for over 20 years. If you're outside of city limits there's still plenty of "country" left but still within reason to get to town. 2.5 hours from the coast and a few hours from the mountains. Not a bad place to be if you like weekend getaways. The best attribute is Duke Medical. There are some leading medical facilities and doctors in the area.
 
Thanks for the comments and info. We were thinking of something in the 150k range for a home. We could go higher but we were thinking of trying to buy a house with cash, no mortgage. And maybe keep our house in Lyons and rent it out for extra income. If we spent more than that then we’d have to sell our current house. Either way we’d be mortgage free, no car loans, no other debt to speak of.
We also thought about maybe doing the snowbird thing in the winter. Head south for a couple months with the camper if the winter weather gets to us.
 
Agree with GEORGEH x2 . If you move to N.C. bring money with you . There is a 10% unemployment rate and low hourly rate . I think it's worth it if you are going to retire . Maybe start a hobby farm where they give tax breaks for agriculture . The car hobby is hugh there , also . We moved to New Hampsta 12 years ago to escape the crazy Boston taxes , drivers and additudes . It's beautiful here but the property taxes are killing us . If youa re on a fixed income it's rough .
 
I live in San frAntonio Tx the cost of living is low, no state tax, 2 hours from the coast. Property taxes are lower outside the county. Soon from Austin to San Antonio will look like one big city. If you have allergies you will hate it here. It’s the headache Capitol of the world. With oak and cedar pollen and The barometric pressure so the neurologist say. Other side of that we have a lot of immigrants from California moving here and we all know what that leads to.
 
You could move to Oregon and work part time at Graveyard Cars. We can send our A bodies to you. Maybe they’ll put you in the background behind an E body.
 
If you were single, I would suggest SE Asia, as has been mentioned, But I dont know if a wife would go along with that. I'm a 50 sumpin divorced guy. My plan is to build a house in Viet Nam, south of Saigon, in the Mekong Delta city of Vinh Long. The people are great, the food is awesome, the sights beautiful. Best thing is the cost. Nicer house than the local Party Chief 80K, Beer 60 cents, square meal 4 dollars, Even 4 star hotels are only 25 dollars a night. I've been there 4 times in the last 2 yrs, I love it, and I have some very good friends there ( Female ). They are beautiful, and VERY loyal. I might keep my house here, and live there 6 months during the dry season.
 
I have just thinking about this very topic. I retired the first of July and am really itching to go somewhere else.
I have been living in the same house for 58 years and am due for a change.
My uncle is planning on moving to Ecuador this fall and my wife and I might go down to visit when he gets settled in. Maybe winter there and then come home for the summer. I don't know.
 
There's plenty of other places in Oregon besides Lakeview to settle on. You just need to swing your pendulum a little bit the other way. Maybe not as far as Eugene or Portland, but there's plenty of other places. I have buddies who live in Central Oregon, around Madras and Terrebonne. Bend is the "big city" around there and they have a great hospital. I know, my sister spent a month there in the ICU after a 4 wheeler accident. I wouldn't pay much attention to whoever was talking about property taxes. Yes they can be spendy, but only if you build a new house in a new subdivision. Buy an older place out in the "sticks" with grandfathered rates and the property tax rates can be pretty low. I paid about $1,600 a year on $250,000 assessed value.
 
We spent a couple Summers in McMinnville, Oregon. Decent weather and the Car culture is very strong in that area. Google " Draggin the Gut" sometime. We decided we wanted a little more sunshine in the end and chose Arizona. Did we ever get a little more sun but Car Culture is strong here also.
 
Back in Time said:
We spent a couple Summers in McMinnville, Oregon. Decent weather and the Car culture is very strong in that area. Google " Draggin the Gut" sometime. We decided we wanted a little more sunshine in the end and chose Arizona. Did we ever get a little more sun but Car Culture is strong here also.
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Damn just got news from Our Daughter. The organizer of the event had a financial dispute with the City and it has been cancelled. Sad News.
 
MileHighDart said:
Considering our options. Loved living in Lyons for the past 25 years, but it’s kind of turned into little Boulder. Lost it’s small town feel. And since the flood 4 years ago now, the town has spent all its fema money on turning the town into a tourist attraction. While ignoring the needs of the residents. Boulder county has gotten so built up and so expensive.

Anyway my wife has made several trips to Oregon to visit her dying father, I went with her once. She’s kinda loving it up there because of all the wildlife , the cheap cost of buying a house, and way way way fewer people there. We could buy a nice house with an acre or two up there very cheap compared to where we are now.
So now she keeps talking about moving there in a couple years when I retire. Only thing I’m worried about is I read online that during Dec, Jan, and February it doesn’t get above freezing during the day, and can be 20below at night.! The town we’re looking at(Lakeview) is so small there isn’t even one restaurant you’ve ever heard of, only little cafes and such. Closest town big enough to have a Walmart or sams club and decent restaurants would be about 1-1/2hr drive away. Just not sure I could handle that much isolation and the winter temps.
Need some other ideas before we settle on Oregon.
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Fisho said:
I'm a long way off from retirement, but I plan on going somewhere that doesn't get snow. I hate winter, love the heat
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To you two guys and everyone else that are thinking of about of state move, google friendly retirement states. Ones that don’t tax you pension. Low state taxes and research the weather.

I’m doing what someone suggested, follow the wife. Happy wife equals a happy life. She wants Florida to be near her daughter and I can’t really argue that much. I’ll be trading the hell of winter for the hell of summer.

Maybe I’ll get lucky at lotto one day and afford a House way up north. NH/Vermont.....
 
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