Retirement: Frederick, Hagerstown, or Winchester, VA (Baltimore: low crime, homes, gated)

[Davros]

Which is best ?

Access to medical care
In home non-medical caregivers available
Nursing homes (available just in case)
Low Crime
Not Oppressively Hot
Not too gloomy in the Winter
Stuff to do: The Arts, and nice places to walk

Any other places nearby that are better ? Are the lower crime areas of the Baltimore and D.C. areas too expensive to live in if you don't have a high income ?

[HandsUpThumbsDown]

You didn't mention price. Of these Frederick would be the highest, I'd think. Winchester has more happening downtown than Hagerstown. Frederick is quite nice though and satisfies many of your criteria.

[Lariat]

Retiring anywhere in the state of Maryland would prove a poor decision based on your criteria.

All in all, Maryland is one of the worst states to retire in.

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Lariat

Retiring anywhere in the state of Maryland would prove a poor decision based on your criteria.

All in all, Maryland is one of the worst states to retire in.

Thanks.

So you'd say Winchester, VA is the best of the 3, then ?

[Lariat]

Originally Posted by Davros

Thanks.

So you'd say Winchester, VA is the best of the 3, then ?

By default, yes. No knowledge on Virginia. I wouldn't be surprised if your retirement money goes further in VA than in MD. Winchester is an area that hasn't been affected by NoVA shenanigans so CoL probably is lower in Winchester.

Have you posted the same question in the Virginia forum?

Your quick bio says you live in Central PA. Any reason why you wanna move out-of-state? PA does not tax retirement income if I worded that correctly.

[htownterp]

In Hagerstown and Frederick, a lot of folks retire to places like Greencastle, Gettysburg, Waynesboro, Fairfield, etc in PA for tax purposes. I don't know much about Winchester, but hear it is a nice place.

[Pilgrim21784]

Originally Posted by Lariat

Retiring anywhere in the state of Maryland would prove a poor decision based on your criteria.

All in all, Maryland is one of the worst states to retire in.

Your bolded quote is a bit of an unsupportable generalization, IMO, no offense is intended. I retired in Jan 2007, traveled the entire US for several years in an RV checking out many alternative locations.

We ultimately decided to stay put in central MD (about 45 minutes west of Baltimore and 45 minutes north of DC) as an optimal choice for our situation.

Access to interesting, world class cultural attractions & medical services, international airports (multiple), a reasonably decent climate (if you, as we do - snowbird in Costa Rica in winter and decamp to northern Maine or Canada in the dog days of summer), fairly dependable public services (blindfold me and I can tell you when we've crossed into PA, the road maintenance is that different).

Taxation - the devil is in the specific details. Housing costs, probably on the higher end but we have a paid off residence, RE taxes, not too bad, all things considered; personal property taxes - none, check out the PPT of owning an RV in VA.

Nickle/dime stuff like car inspections - try PA or NC.

We literally investigated north/south/east/west - bottom line, retirement made more sense in Maryland than any of the other permanent relocation options for us.

Generalizations are usually incorrect, it all depends. JMHO.

[Tiger Beer]

Like the previous poster mentioned, I usually disregard statements like this:

Originally Posted by Lariat

All in all, Maryland is one of the worst states to retire in.

I usually attach the statement to politics. There is a belief that 'blue' states like MA, RI, NY, MD, CA, OR, WA, etc. are bad places to live. Usually attached politically, if they are 'blue' they are probably taxed a lot.

Taxachussetts gets mentioned a lot by the same kind of people, and research showed it was way way way down the list on being a heavily taxing state.

I've also regularly heard the VA is better than MD because VA is red, and MD is blue argument with taxes. But, I've also read others quickly refute that with facts. It goes more in the 'well, it depends' category. Depends where in VA and where in MD, and what kind of house, and on and on. It's not a blanket statement that one can make.

[Lariat]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

Like the previous poster mentioned, I usually disregard statements like this:



I usually attach the statement to politics. There is a belief that 'blue' states like MA, RI, NY, MD, CA, OR, WA, etc. are bad places to live. Usually attached politically, if they are 'blue' they are probably taxed a lot.

Taxachussetts gets mentioned a lot by the same kind of people, and research showed it was way way way down the list on being a heavily taxing state.

I've also regularly heard the VA is better than MD because VA is red, and MD is blue argument with taxes. But, I've also read others quickly refute that with facts. It goes more in the 'well, it depends' category. Depends where in VA and where in MD, and what kind of house, and on and on. It's not a blanket statement that one can make.

This has to be one of the stupidest things I ever heard. Since when politics were a factor in retirement?

I'll also bet you say Nevada is a great state to retire in, too. LOL

[Davros]

Originally Posted by Lariat

By default, yes. No knowledge on Virginia. I wouldn't be surprised if your retirement money goes further in VA than in MD. Winchester is an area that hasn't been affected by NoVA shenanigans so CoL probably is lower in Winchester.

Have you posted the same question in the Virginia forum?

Your quick bio says you live in Central PA. Any reason why you wanna move out-of-state? PA does not tax retirement income if I worded that correctly.

Actually, I'm asking for a friend who lives in the sunny West. They'd like PA's tax policy, but they wouldn't like its weather (except maybe in the southeastern part of the state).