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Old 07-09-2010, 11:52 PM
 
3,804 posts, read 6,141,933 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NewToCA View Post
Though I didn't move to that section of the country myself, I know a few folks who have. From your description, you may want to take a look at Huntsville, Alabama.


Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau
What I was thinking as well though I'm nowhere near retirement age. Great place. However, downtown Huntsville is dead. Just a warning. It's not dangerous or anything, and you'll see folks there during the day working. However, there's only a few restaurants (some of which close after lunch). If you there at night outside of a few clubs and folks working late its deserted. Now Huntsville's got great shopping and restaurants its just that the city built up rapidly and the businesses coming in didn't want or need to be downtown so nothing is really there now.
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Old 07-12-2010, 12:16 PM
 
Location: southwest TN
8,568 posts, read 18,028,513 times
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Someone mentioned Chattanooga and Knoxville, TN. I second TN as a retirement location. We will be retiring in 13 months and 6 months ago, we bought our home south of Jackson. We were looking for more rural than what you are, OP, which is one reason we looked in western TN. The home prices in eastern TN for the land we wanted was just too high on our budget. However, I went to college in northeast TN and fell in love with it. So when we started researching where to retire to and were looking at states with low/no income tax, TN jumped out. The more I looked, the higher TN got ranked. Then we started looking at house prices.

So, after 2 years of researching, we looked in earnest for a house and found just what we wanted in western TN within our budget. Take a look at central and eastern TN given that your housing budget is higher than ours.
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Old 07-12-2010, 01:57 PM
 
Location: State of Superior
8,733 posts, read 15,876,201 times
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East Tn. can be higher in property values in some areas due to tourists, Smoky Park, Dolly wood, and the Like. However, the Mountains are the best places in the South to move too. East Tn. and W. NC.Your summer will not be as hot, and the views can be wonderful. Its a whole another world comparing W. Tn. and E. Tn. just not the same in anyway.....Suburban Knoxville, even further out,more rural, more hills and woods, are the best of both worlds...and, there is still some "deals" on land and houses. You just have to look harder than in the flat lands, but its worth it, trust me, I lived in the western NC Mountains for 18 years, I really miss it in many ways. They say , once you see the Mountains, you will always come back, they are addicting.
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Old 07-14-2010, 07:02 AM
 
332 posts, read 655,282 times
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Like you, I searched around the south (GA, SC, AL, TX, and FL) and I narrowed it down to San Antonio, TX or Florida. Even though FL has a ton of drawbacks, it was where my wife and felt the most comfortable and we decided on St. Pete. By the way, there are many nice places in TX is you don't want Florida. I agree about Talahasee also. Nice place.
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Old 07-21-2010, 12:34 AM
 
Location: Central Ohio
10,802 posts, read 14,860,275 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by weindell View Post
As long as you're considering Georgia, why not go 10 miles south of the border and look at Tallahassee?
Why not live just north of the Florida border in Thomasville, Georgia?

A 30 mile drive gets you to the north side of Tallahassee if you like the big city.

Property taxes and homeowners insurance is half or less what it is in Florida.

Weather is the same.

Look at what you can by for $139,900 3 Bed, 2 Bath | 1,462 Sq Ft on 0.41 Acres

I bet you can buy it for $125,000.
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Old 07-21-2010, 07:10 AM
 
Location: State of Superior
8,733 posts, read 15,876,201 times
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No doubt, south Ga. can be a real bargain as a place to retire. There are exceptions however, so much depends on the neighborhood you choose. Almost anywhere in rural America will have a lower cost of living. People need to decide what their priorities are first, then go from there, not something to take lightly, this may be your last move, depending on how liquid you are or will be once committed.
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Old 07-23-2010, 05:08 PM
 
Location: AL for now
360 posts, read 1,528,176 times
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Question Retired to Huntsville, AL from San Diego...

Before I tell you our experiences, let me say when I read your post, I immediately thought of Greenville, SC and Cookeville, TN.

The skinny on Huntsville per your requirements:
+: low cost of living, low property taxes, lots of transplants, walkable downtown (but nothing much going on most of the time), the basic suburban retailers (Super Target, Super Walmart, Lowe's and Home Depot, Barnes & Noble)
-: limited number of parks and other recreational opportunities, especially if you live outside city limits as we do; not the most scenic place, but some pretty areas (Jones Valley, Monte Sano). (I much prefer TN.)
?: housing. A 2500 sf house on 1/2 ac for $200,000 will be out in the country, most likely off a 2-lane road that handles a lot more traffic than it should. (It took us almost 3 years to find a newer 2000 sf home on 1/2 ac for under $200,000 that wasn't too remote or a fixer.) Since you're willing to consider fixers, you may have better luck.

The longer version (skip if you've read enough!):
We were looking to ditch the big city, big traffic, crowding, high cost of living, high taxes, and liberal political landscape of CA. I was a CA native; DH from MI. Shoveling snow was out of the question, so we ended up looking in the SE due to the affordable housing and generally low cost of living. DH also wanted to study physics at a university in retirement. We chose Huntsville, AL after having visited Nashville, Knoxville, Clemson/Greenville and Columbia, SC; Oxford, MS; Raleigh/Durham, NC; Austin, San Antonio, College Station, TX. Although I LOVE the beauty of western NC, the Asheville area is $$$ and fairly remote from anywhere else if you like to take day trips. We never found anywhere in FL that met enough of our criteria to warrant a visit. (High property taxes and HO insurance were 2 factors.)

DH came here 12/07 and immediately started college. I stayed behind; kept working full-time and fixing up our house for sale. I got here 51 weeks ago. DH loves attending UAH and seems to like it just fine here. Me, not so much. I must say it has been a much more difficult and frustrating transition than I ever anticipated. I WAY underestimated how much of a negative effect the climate would have on my mood. I like being outside and actually thought I would spend enjoyable time in my yard growing flowers and vegetables... Of course, it doesn't help that we just had the 5th coldest winter on record and the hottest spring ever. Because you've lived in ATL so long, you will not have this issue.

The other main thing I've found troublesome is fewer options due to the smaller size of Huntsville (grocery shopping, car repairs, health clubs, medical care). My best advice to you is to really think about daily living in a place with only 20,000 to 50,000 residents. (We may have overcorrected going down to 160,000.) If your car is recalled, is there a dealer within 30 miles? 50? 100? What if you need to see a medical specialist? My doctor here refers patients to Birmingham 100 miles away. I've driven 110 miles to Nashville to shop at Trader Joe's, and while there, I ran into a couple from Cookeville (100 miles East of Nashville) who make regular runs into Nashville to shop. (I don't believe they have a Target, either, in Cookeville.) It is easy to assume these types of inconveniences will not bother you. But they do bother me a lot more than I thought they would.

Good luck in your search. While I would never return to San Diego, I'm not sure if I would choose Huntsville again knowing what I do after having been here a year.
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Old 07-23-2010, 07:21 PM
 
9,296 posts, read 16,580,571 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Latashia View Post
If you are concerend about taxes also forget New York state.

I don't know much about Rhode Island but it's probably more affordable NE state. I ehar Delaware is very tax friendly to seniors and that many are moving there b/c of location, shore, better winter weather (compared to North), and low taxes.
You should check out a Cost of Living Calculator. We actually moved upstate NY. There are a lot of deductions on your taxes; seniors get a large reduction on the school tax portion of your property tax; $20K exemption on pensions, Energy Efficient credit (STAR), military pension is tax free, etc. Although DE has cheaper real estate taxes, it would cost us $6K more there. RI taxes are extremely high.

Prefer the change in seasons, snow and cold to bugs, heat and humidity. The winter weather doesn't keep us housebound like the oppressive heat of the south.
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Old 07-24-2010, 07:35 AM
 
Location: State of Superior
8,733 posts, read 15,876,201 times
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Humidity is the killer, can't stand it ! Florida is too humid , so are all the low lands across the south.Only the Blue Ridge Mt's. offer relieve from the heat. Forget retiring to those heat restricting places if you are from a more temperate place, or , are used to the four seasons.
Many folks from up North move down south and find its not all its cracked up to be , yet, are too shy to complain or admit they made a big mistake.
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Old 07-24-2010, 08:06 AM
 
Location: Marietta, GA
857 posts, read 4,867,747 times
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Thanks for all of these great suggestions. I recently took on a large remodeling job so I haven't had time on the computer for weeks. I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I checked here and found so many responses.

Greenville, SC is definitely one of the areas I want to look further into, although I am often told to check out Tennessee as well. I have been living in GA for almost two decades and I have never been to Rome, so I think I ought to take a day and ride up there and have a look-see. My husband and I used to work for a construction company years ago, and when the owner sold it for a gazillion dollars he moved to Rome, so I figure it must be nice there!

Keep those suggestions coming! As soon as we are done with this remodeling job I am going to start taking some trips to narrow down the search.
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