Steve B.

Yeah, that’s nuts. My Long Island taxes are $12,000 for a house valued on Zillow at $600,000. If I were to relocate to Santa Fe, NM, taxes on $500,000 houses is in the $1200 to $1500 range. That’s reason enough to move,

albrt 

All the super cool places we discovered over the years have been discovered by everybody else and are not realistic for retirement unless we win the lottery.

I live and work in Phoenix. It's getting better about biking but probably should not be on anybody's list, except that it basically has no winter and is still cheap compared to California. Some great trails and views if you like rocks. This summer has been pretty brutal though. If I stay here I will probably continue to work part time (I'm self-employed and I already tell people I'm semi-retired).

Our other base is northwest Ohio, where we both grew up. We still have most of our real friends there, and may end up there just because it's cheap. Sell the Phoenix house and no need to work part time. The nice thing about a small town is I could start my own C&V scene.

The closer I get to retirement, the more I think I want to live some place where I know people rather than move to a place with great amenities and hope to make new friends.

jamesdak 

Wow, no wonder the CA folks keep coming here. I'm going to stop complaining about my taxes now.

markwesti

Mswesti and I have owned real estate in So.Cal. since 85' , we retired in 08' and moved from Long Beach Ca. to Seal Beach Ca. , to a little town within SB. called Leisure World . It is a 55 and older gated community , the houses in here are kind of like a town house but you don't get a garage . When we moved in , we bought our place for 130K . Now our place would go for 300K , all that means to us is our property tax goes up . We didn't move in here to speculate . It is though a good location , bike paths all over the place . Plus we are about 2mi. from the marina where we keep our sailboat and there is a bike path that goes right there to the marina .

Classtime 

C&V retirement? Montana (Cino) for the Summer, Islamorada, FL for the Winter. Simple life with two bikes and 1/2 dozen fly rods in a Vanagon. I just have to figure out how to haul my wife’s garden along.

BlueDevil63 

There is also wonderful skiing nearby at Ski Santa Fe (a really excellent small area) and Taos. Lived in Santa Fe for 18 years. Pretty good for biking but lots of drunk drivers and some hostility to road bikers.

davester

Hmmm. You guys are all very domestic. Although it's very nice (though expensive) here in the bicycling paradise of northern California, I'm thinking more along the lines of France, Portugal or Italy.

Lascauxcaveman 

My wife is talking Florence, Italy. Or somewhere not too far from there. Apparently there are run-down (abandoned) houses in many parts of rural Italy where you can buy a place from the Italian government for the princely sum of 1 euro if you take on a contract to fix it up and live there. I bet the riding is good, most of the year.

I haven't checked to see if this is legit or not; anybody heard of this before?

gugie 

$2M listing in Pacific Grove 3 bd 2 ba1,867 sqft

In Pacific Grove, you're not buying the house, you're buying the location.

From our Touroica ride this last April:


And then there's the weather.

gugie 

My wife and I have gone back and forth on where to retire, and considered SLO County (not San Luis Obispo, which is really expensive), but rather Atascadero or Paso Robles. We did a trip down to case the joint last year, and decided we really like the PNW. The one drawback are the concrete skies durig the winter. We decided we'd just snowbird that time of year someplace with blue skies.

Moving from Redwood City (near San Jose) we knew that winters might be an issue, but the year round greenery beats the 6-8 months of brown-ness in California. Summers here are spectacular. Water on the wet side of the Cascades isn't an issue - nobody is begging anyone to rip out their lawn. When it gets wet, we use full fenders, and learn to get out when the rain stops for awhile.

stoneageyosh

Been retired since 2010, some things we learned before and after.
Plan ahead. Take some road trips and look around at least five years before you plan on retiring. Spend time in areas that look good to you. Once you narrow it down visit in the worst, winter or summer, weather to see if it is too extreme for you.
We spent several years looking at areas that might have worked and bought five years before I retired. Spent time off there and got to be considered locals by the time we retired.

Add to this list:
The realtor’s adage -
1. Location Do you really like the area? Can you afford it? Suits your planned lifestyle and hobbies? Are the medical facilities you might need within reasonable distances? Cultural, religious, fraternal organizations? Shopping, entertainment, sports?
Moving from cities to rural areas requires several adjustments. Our town of 3200 except for restaurants and bars pretty much rolls up the sidewalks after 1800. No fast food chains except for a Subway. No movie theater or dry cleaners, rarely you see a suit or tie, or a woman in a dress which, along with a button front sport shirt, is formal wear. Three traffic lights. Three gas stations and two(?!) bike shops. One liquor store and it is relatively expensive. We do have a hospital. Half hour from more and larger medical facilities.
2. Location. What are the hidden costs for the area?
Property taxes can vary, even between towns in some counties. Living in town vs outside city limits can mean a big difference in tax rate. We are on Agriculture/Forestry ground with some flood plain on the bottom which are the two lowest brackets.
Income and sales taxes. Living in CA is not just high property taxes that get you. No sales tax in OR and no income tax in WA. That gives you around 10% more to spend vs CA.
Utility costs. Electrical, water and gas can vary from state to state and locally.
We are on electrical power for cooking and heating (pellet stove) along with our water supply. One bill that averages $130/month. Compare that to LA area where we used to live.
Trash collection, sewer, bonds, assessments? Ours is a tiny fraction of LA.
3. Location Political/social climate. Will you fit in? This is something that has gotten to be a bigger deal than it ever should have. Rural areas, regardless of the state, are way more conservative than urban. People have preconceptions of what urban or rural types are like. It will take a while to gain acceptance going from one to the other.
A mistake either way is to try to push an agenda contrary to local norms. If you do you may find that after a while it could be difficult to get locals to respond to service calls or assist when needed. In small towns word gets around pretty quickly. Especially how you are at paying bills.

Retirement is to mellow out in the first place. Relax, play with your toys, enjoy your surroundings, which is why you are there, and keep in touch with your former colleagues so you can annoy them with stories of how much better it is to be retired!

Taking appreciation equity and buying with cash is the key to no mortgage or rent. Along with no commuting/vehicle costs, work clothes, tools, etc. Makes it possible to get by on a lot less than what you were payed while working.


Water is one big reason where we ended up. We have our own well along with surface (spring) water and stream irrigation rights. Our local town is limited in how much more development they can allow because of water.



Property taxes can be stupidly high because of local prices, zoning and rates. In our county there is a big difference between cities, incorporated areas and rural, with different rates depending on land use. Ask a local realtor.

FWIW - Florence has become light years nicer than Eugene as it is being infected with the Portland pox. Eugene and Portland have a wide range of top notch medical facilities. The drive time would be under an hour. We have medevac coverage as we are further away.

stoneageyosh

Hey gugie, just head south down the coast where the winter and summer weather is better than Portland. PM welcome.

Spaghetti Legs 

I’m with you Dave. If I’m not looking at real estate in California, I’m looking at Costa Brava in Spain. That means even longer trips to get to Cino though.

jdawginsc 

We need to meet up next time I am visiting my sister! She just bought a farm in Gordonsville. It is a great little area and on a short list if I were to move.

Shes going to build silo B and B units on site for the wine visitors.

easyupbug 

Ideal for me is avoiding the weather extremes (ride every day if I choose) and safe clean roads for cycling. What has worked perfectly is Southern AZ retirement community with 5' to 8' bike lanes everywhere that are swept regularly for the cold/cool months. For the hot months our cabins in the Bighorn foothills where there are few bike lanes but cars/trucks will pull out into the oncoming lane to go around you and if they would meet a car in that lane they often will slow down so they can pull out into the oncoming lane safely. I think I get at the most a flat once a year or so even with GP4000.

gugie 

That's part of the reason we're still in Portland, I've got some good friends here, including my publicist. People talk about the homeless situation here, and higher taxes in Portland proper. We have a Portland address, but technically we're 3 blocks fromt he city limits on county land.

The Atelier would be hard to replicate. Maybe 30-40% of the torchwork business I do is local. My kids are still in the area. I wouldn't move here now because real estate has gone up since we moved up from California. I think we're on a 5 year plan, will reassess then.

jdawginsc 

Thats a good spot to retire to and you are already there! No need to move elsewhere when you can vacation at any point!

markwesti

Yes I have heard of it , there are a few videos on Youtube about it . Good luck , keep us posted .

This next video is mostly a boring infomercial , but it does give a explanation of the problem .

Spaghetti Legs 

Lascauxcaveman Ive read a few articles on the house giveaways in Italy. They are generally in the south and in Sicily and pretty rural locations. I’d be very surprised if there were deals like that in Tuscany/Umbria.

John E

British TV series "Help! We bought a village."

John E

If I didn't live in a place with year-round great weather, I would seriously consider what some of you have suggested: own a summer and a winter home and migrate twice per year to avoid weather extremes. Birds do it .. .

stoneageyosh

They have the same type situation in Japan. Aging population, younger moving to cities leaving rural areas with abandoned houses that can be had for nominal cost, like $100 and up. Saw several on our last trip in 2018.
Lots of nice roads and riding areas outside of cities. Utility bikes are still in common use so drivers in Japan are much more aware and considerate of bikes than here in US.

steelbikeguy

and sometime the good roads for biking are right next to the areas that are good for kayaking!
This is River Beach Drive, on the north side of Peoria, along the Illinois river.



I've posted a ton of pics from the area over the years, mostly showing that there's a lot of good cycling roads around here, and they aren't all through the corn fields.

Steve in Peoria

squirtdad

These are real but are not perfect, most are in more remote areas as I understand I think overall real estate in Italy is less expensive, and you might be better off paying more for a place that is more livable to start with.

maybe Barrettscv can share some experiences

droppedandlost 

what if we all bought a $1 house in the same village and turned it into a C&V mecca?