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As I rapidly approach retirement, I have started thinking about where I may want to spend my twilight years. Along this vein I started to think of the characteristics that would make a location my ideal.
1. Hilly or Mountainous (elevation 1000 ft or greater)
2. Forested - mostly conifers
3. Near the coast, so I can hear seagulls. A seagull's call makes me happy!
4. Low cost of living, SS retirement friendly
5. Small city - non-touristy
So far I have not been able to locate this imaginary nirvana..
West Coast to expensive. Gulf Coast and East Coast too flat.
Maine seems the obvious choice. They don't tax SS benefits, and it's reasonably cheap compared to the rest of New England. Lots of forest, shore, and mountains close to the coast.
Avoiding the tourists might be the hardest part, since tourists are everywhere on the Maine coast. Maybe Brunswick? Belfast? Bath would probably be the cheapest/least touristy of any of the coastal towns by far though - you can get a house for less than $200,000 easily.
As I rapidly approach retirement, I have started thinking about where I may want to spend my twilight years. Along this vein I started to think of the characteristics that would make a location my ideal.
1. Hilly or Mountainous (elevation 1000 ft or greater)
2. Forested - mostly conifers
3. Near the coast, so I can hear seagulls. A seagull's call makes me happy!
4. Low cost of living, SS retirement friendly
5. Small city - non-touristy
So far I have not been able to locate this imaginary nirvana..
West Coast to expensive. Gulf Coast and East Coast too flat.
Any suggestions?
Imaginary, yes. Especially since you probably want “warm climate” but forgot to list that. Throw away the Low COL item and there are a lot of candidates.
Wow, I can't think of an area that will meet all of that. Might have to give up on a few things. Someone mentioned Bath, ME. If you can take the Winters, it seems to come the closest to what you're looking for. Good luck and hope you find a good place!
Wow, I can't think of an area that will meet all of that. Might have to give up on a few things. Someone mentioned Bath, ME. If you can take the Winters, it seems to come the closest to what you're looking for. Good luck and hope you find a good place!
Bath is pretty flat.
Camden has 1,200 foot hills right on the coast including a little ski area. It completely fails the "not touristy" requirement. Once you get away from the coast where the vacation home buyers want to be, prices drop quickly unless it's on a lake. Rockland south of Camden isn't touristy and has affordable housing.
None of that is really "small city". Portland is the "big city" and only has 66,000 people. Only Lewiston and Bangor are over 30,000. You could probably find something between Bangor and the coast that has 800 foot hills.
I'd think somewhere around Bellingham Washington would be the closest.
Camden has 1,200 foot hills right on the coast including a little ski area. It completely fails the "not touristy" requirement. Once you get away from the coast where the vacation home buyers want to be, prices drop quickly unless it's on a lake. Rockland south of Camden isn't touristy and has affordable housing.
None of that is really "small city". Portland is the "big city" and only has 66,000 people. Only Lewiston and Bangor are over 30,000. You could probably find something between Bangor and the coast that has 800 foot hills.
I'd think somewhere around Bellingham Washington would be the closest.
Bellingham is expensive, as is pretty much all of the PNW. As you and I have pointed out, it's going to be really, REALLY hard to find a place that meets all of those requirements.
Bellingham is expensive, as is pretty much all of the PNW. As you and I have pointed out, it's going to be really, REALLY hard to find a place that meets all of those requirements.
1,000' elevation 30 minutes east or northeast of Bellingham? The prices are similar to what you'd find in Maine in the few places that have that kind of terrain and proximity to a "small city" and the ocean. By left coast/right coast standards, that's inexpensive.
Where am I?
New Mexico's high desert. I have little interest in the ocean or seagulls, although some visit us in the winter. We have Cranes here all winter. I can visit the ocean but wouldn't want to live there. I can see five mountain ranges from my house and be in the tall pines in about 30 minutes but I live in a desert environment. At 5500 feet there is none of the heat that people associate with the SW desert and I'm not high enough for heavy winter weather. We get a dusting of snow. The humidity is usually in the 20s but I've seen it at 4%. June is our hottest month and we won't see 100 degrees -- maybe 95. I don't have AC but use a swamp cooler on hot days (82 degrees w/15% humidity now @11 AM so it will hit the 90s). I'm a half hour north of Albuquerque and the COL is quite low compared to other places. The metro area is less than one million. I'm located on a small acreage on a mesa overlooking the Rio Grande Valley and across to the Sandias. That view is pretty much Nirvana. I guess the closest salt water is probably the Gulf of Cortez (about a 600-mile drive) but I take the night train to LA if I want to go to the coast.
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