Want to retire to the Hutchinson area (Wichita, Dodge City: for sale, apartments)

[nomajanedill]

We are hoping to take early retirement next year. The cost of living here in Hawaii ins getting beyond belief! We love the Hutchinson area and are looking for a small farm in the area. Can anyone give us some ideas?

[TwoWheelRider]

Wow! Talk about culture shock. Hope you don't mind frigid cold winters and hot humid summers. Although I will have to say that the past few winters have not been extremely cold. I will say that the cost of living is far less than Hawaii. I myself would not want to retire in this state because I don't like the temp extremes and there is not much here for my tastes. It comes down to whatever floats your boat. Good luck.

[amlizalde]

Originally Posted by nomajanedill

We are hoping to take early retirement next year. The cost of living here in Hawaii ins getting beyond belief! We love the Hutchinson area and are looking for a small farm in the area. Can anyone give us some ideas?

WOW......you want to come here and I want to go there....ha-ha. I was born in Kingman Kansas many moons ago....ok I'm only 28 but still, I feel old. I lived in Hutchinson growing up and couldn’t stand it. I looked forward to our weekend drive to Wichita to go shopping. I now live in San Antonio and enjoy the culture, food and all the entertainment the city has to offer. The funny the thing is I am wrapping up some details for retirement and often told my fiancé I would like to go back to Hutch to retire since I like the small town feeling. I miss the farmers market on south main, the hardware store on north main. The nice summers.....but then we thought about winter and said never mind.....we just bought land on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the PUNA district ($15,000) for less than an acre......that’s cheaper than san antonio!!!!! We plan on moving there in 10-15 years and retiring. The only advice I can give on Hutch, since I really haven't lived there in 20 plus years, though I always visit, is go if you just want peace and quite....but honestly, having been to Hawaii several times over, you are NOT going to get the culture, food, scenery and weather that your place gives you now. If it's getting to expensive think about a move to the big island........ Try www.myeranch.com


or try Bandera, Texas....50 miles from san antonio and known as the cowboy capital of the world. Very beautiful and quite views of the Texas Hill Country. I bought some land there a few years back....

[ashleyrw88]

I would say trying going The Hutchinson News Online Edition and going to the classifeids section, Im far too young to be looking for homes but while browsing through different things it seems like there is a large selection of homes/land for sale around the area and there are so many small towns such as inman, nickerson, buhler, and haven that are no further than 20 min. away from hutch.

Ive lived in Hutchinson my whole life, at 19 I feel like theres not a whole lot here so Im getting ready to move, but I have definitely not excluded the option of moving back. Hutch is a great place to meet people and get an education etc. and Ive had some great times here. I love it for the most part, haha but Im not sure how Id feel moving from hawaii to here.

Good Luck though!

[ljkbsb]

I moved from Hutchinson about 10 years ago and still miss it. It has small town values, but many of the big city amenities. If you like to golf, you will be in golf heaven. It is truly different from Hawaii (no beach), but similar to inland on the Big Island. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[j_k_k]

I lived in Hutch as a child and I'd move back in a heartbeat. What a thrill to go back after so many years and see that the old planetarium had grown up into the Kansas Cosmosphere with an SR-71 on struts in the front part, plus lots of great other things. (The old planetarium I recognized, thirty years later, while sitting in there watching a Dr. Goddard rocketry demo.)

[NorthCarolina-Girl]

Hello everyone. I'm so glad to see that there are some people out there from Hutchinson!! We are a military family, having to move to Hutchinson on very short notice. We were supposed to move to Dodge City, which I got lot of respond on here, and now everything has changed. We are leaving in 4 weeks, so I don't have a lot of time to look around and find a place to live.

We will not be able to go there before hand to look at places, so all is done online. Anyway. What I really need to know about this town is following:

1. Any areas that you should avoid due to crimes etc? Very important because we are a family and I want my children to be safe and play outside in the yard and neighborhood.
2. Which areas are nicer? More expensive? Less nice? Less expensive? More apartments? More houses? More townhouses? Or are all the areas mixes with all?
3. What about Elementary School? My daughter is now 6. Please some insider information about good, non violence school, with good education, without too many in a classroom, safe to walk/drive or take a school bus to.
4. What about Downtown? Is it an area where you can actually park your car and walk around and shop? Cafe's? Restaurants with walking distance? Some smaller town have everything laid out on both sides of the roads, so you have to take your car to every store, no walking area. Here I understand that it's actually to walk around?!
5. Read online about Carey Park. Looked beautiful with playgrounds and waterfalls, or was it just very styled pictures..?
6. I read that there is a public transportation system, a bus system. Any feedback on that? Safe? Good standard? Expensive? Good bus stops, many of them, or just a few?
7. Any insider information on rentals?
8. Good places with clean rooms to stay for a couple of days, weeks...depending on how our house hunting goes? I understand there is some motels, hotels etc, we want to spend little money, but still be safe and clean and good service, if you know what I mean!

I hope to get some help from here, in these threads people have been so nice and helpful, and I am sorry to "nomajanedill" for borrowing his/hers thread for my questions. I hope you don't mind, but I hope to get some help here. Please write me anything I need to know!!

Thank you so much!