[gregandvicky]

We would appreciate whatever info you might provide. We currently live in Texas where property taxes are out of control. We pay $3600 a year on a $150,000 home.
My wife and I are retired and are looking at areas like Bull Shoals and Lakeview Arkansas.
We are looking for treed and mountain type environment and low cost of living and affordable housing.
Any towns of specific areas would be appreciated.
Thanks
Greg and Vicky

[Sam I Am]

Greg and Vicky -

Give me a little better clue.....do you want acreage also, or in a community? Retirement community or hippy chick (LOL!)....the Bull Shoals area is absolutely gorgeous, with a LOT of affordable housing. However, if you want to get more rural - well of course the further you get from the lake, the cheaper it gets....what do you require for your daily living - do you like to eat out, go shopping, into water sports? Without being nosey....age bracket?

[gregandvicky]

We are looking for something out of town but with access. Some land would be fine. We currently have an acre.
We want something new and under $150,000.
I also have just discovered Eureka Springs online, looks great but a little expensive.

A retirement community would be OK but not too excited about living with too many older people, I thinks it makes you old.

sorry for all the posts. I am 59 and my wife is 54. We eat out 3 or 4 times a month. Just enjoy peace and quiet with access to stuff.
We are pretty much home bodies. I am retired and my wife works out of the house online.
Enjoy scenic drives, dislike tornados and hurricanes.
Is the area extremely humid in the summer?

[Sam I Am]

The first that popped into my mind is Mountain View in Stone County, up on the White River. Very, very affordable, and BEAUTIFUL country. Get outside of town - there is a certain contingent of tourists who hit there every year - there is fiddling on the square and all kinds of bluegrass music and folk art, so it can be a little busy on the summer weekends. Right around town you don't get the view...get out on one of the bluffs and the view is impressive, and the prices are too. GREAT trout fishing, if you like to fish. There's a Wal Mart supercenter, but to say you are close to anything - well, not so much. The area around Clinton is beautiful, too. I'd pick Mountain View in a minute, but for bigger shopping adventures you will have to go to Conway or on into Little Rock, and I'm thinking it's about a 2 hour drive.

Many of the retirement areas (Bella Vista, Hot Springs Village, etc.) have a little jacked-up cost of living, but I think you will find it quite a bit cheaper than Texas in most respects. We live in Russellville, a great town halfway between Little Rock and Ft. Smith, that is at the foothills of the Ozarks - our property taxes in Russellville proper are $36/year with a $300 homestead credit. I would imagine Fayetteville's taxes to be fairly high, as well as Little Rock's. The far NW corner of the state is growing almost out of control and I would avoid that or you will be in the middle of a population boom.

Mountain Home is obviously where you are looking at...? Maybe think further south, around Greer's Ferry and Heber Springs? The lakes there make it hectic in the summertime, but you aren't that far from Clinton and there's quite a bit of stuff that has popped up around Heber...unfortunately, it reminds me of a smaller Branson in some ways (ugh, I just don't do Branson). I'm really unsure of how close you are to anything over the state line in Missouri.

Please remember there are still many, many dry counties in Arkansas....if entertainment that includes alcohol is your thing, look closely. Most of the dry counties will have a "private club" or two, but since they are the only game in town some of them can be a little too.....common? for some people.

You might write one of the realty companies like United Country or something that is active in the north central area of the state and get them to send you one of their Homes booklets. I don't know if www.realtor.com has a good amount of listings or not - it seems there are more independent realtors up that way that do not belong to the MLS, so their stuff wouldn't be listed on realtor.com

[gregandvicky]

Sam I am,
Thanks for all the great info. I will pursue all of them and let you know what we are going to take a look at in person
Again, Thanks
GregandVicky

[Sam I Am]

G & V -

Glad to help, please let me know if I can help you any further. You can PM me if you'd like - I've got a friend who is in real estate who might be able to direct you to a reputable agent who can tune in to what you want. We are historic home lovers - no one in the Russellville area was really pushing the older homes except her when we moved here - now the neightborhood has developed and downtown is on the upswing. We're a little over an hour from Little Rock, about 40 minutes to Conway, and an hour to Ft. Smith going west.

Humidity is a problem in Arkansas, but not nearly so much if you can get up in the Ozarks to homestead....obviously no hurricanes here; tornadoes seem more confined to the lower levels but are obviously a threat most anywhere that the weather can change quickly.

Have you thought about the River Valley area, which includes Russellville? There is also an area, Mt. Magazine and Petit Jean out past Morrilton that are very lovely...the views are splendid once you hit about the northern 1/3 of the state and don't venture toward any of the delta regions. South from Russellville you can go through Dardanelle and down toward Danville, and we're maybe a little over an hour from Hot Springs?

My husband and I moved to Russellville 7 years ago after being raised in Little Rock. We made a brief foray into the Caribbean on a job transfer and went through complete sticker shock and culture shock - when we decided to transfer back, it was Russellville we came "home" to even though we'd both spent almost a half century in Little Rock.

If we can help you in any way, please let us know! Feel free to contact me through a PM if you need specific info on anything and we will do our best to provide it to you!

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by gregandvicky

We would appreciate whatever info you might provide. We currently live in Texas where property taxes are out of control. We pay $3600 a year on a $150,000 home.
My wife and I are retired and are looking at areas like Bull Shoals and Lakeview Arkansas.
We are looking for treed and mountain type environment and low cost of living and affordable housing.
Any towns of specific areas would be appreciated.
Thanks
Greg and Vicky

Greg, our daughter and son in law have just had 2 couples in thier neighborhood move from Texas to Arkansas for the same reason. Well one hasn't moved but will be and the other has. They both went to Hot Springs village. Just a thought. NMNita

[tahoesista]

I am currently living in New Orleans, having just moved here from Lake Tahoe. I LOVE living in the mountains but Tahoe is too expensive and I want to stay closer to my family here. Which mountain towns would have the least amount of humidity. I have found some very affordable houses around Eureka Springs but don't know exactly where that is. What mountain towns would be good to look at? Lakes and streams wouldn't be bad either. I just can't handle humidity!!!

[adysmom]

Hi, you might also check out Cherokee Village area, it's only 18 mile from missouri and there are lakes and rivers....

[Sam I Am]

Originally Posted by tahoesista

I am currently living in New Orleans, having just moved here from Lake Tahoe. I LOVE living in the mountains but Tahoe is too expensive and I want to stay closer to my family here. Which mountain towns would have the least amount of humidity. I have found some very affordable houses around Eureka Springs but don't know exactly where that is. What mountain towns would be good to look at? Lakes and streams wouldn't be bad either. I just can't handle humidity!!!

Eureka is in north central-and-a-little-west - Arkansas - do a Mapquest search on it and you'll find it up close to MO.

If you can't handle humidity, you probably won't like Arkansas - up in some of the mountains it is slightly cooler and less humid, but overall......we just have hot summers with lots of humidity - the benefit, I guess, would be to get into the Ozarks or Ouachita Mountains (and I mean on up there) to get the cooling breeze - but there is no real way to escape humidity in Arkansas, no matter what time of year.