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There is no one place for me that is ideal. So I am going to choose one for climate 8 months of the year. The other for climate 4 months of the year. Large metro areas are so diverse that the politics of people don't matter. That's what I will choose 8 months of the year - Phoenix. And in Phoenix there are people of all sorts of political persuasions. I happen to be libertarian and capitalist. And my 4 months will be VRBO where it's cool. That way I can go to a different location every year if I want. Let's see: Mendocino, Big Sur, Tahoe, Flagstaff, southern Oregon coast, and the like are on my list. Easy peasy.
And I also agree with the posters who mention that some of your criteria cancel each other out.
Thank you for the feedback. Just out of curiosity, which items on my list are mutually exclusive? I haven't been in the lower 48 since 1987, so I'm probably pretty naive about a lot of things, but I find it hard to believe - or maybe just frightening to believe - that there's not some place other than Interior Alaska that fits most of my list (the cost of living and 6 to 9 snow free months are all that eliminate where I currently live).
Thank you. Could you elaborate on which items MN doesn't meet? I suspect one is the weather, but if there are others, that would be helpful to consider.
Anywhere in the central valley or foothills of CA will definitely not meet your "average summer highs in the 80's" requirement, as the summer temps in the foothills and valley generally exceed 90 about 75% of the days from June to September (lived there all my life until last year). Also we LEFT CA because of the taxes and high COL, so I wouldn't think that would work for you. It has BOTH fairly high property tax and high income taxes, as well as fairly high sales tax (minimum of 7.5%, up to around 9.25% depending on city/county taxes). In addition the price of property is much higher than most other rural parts of the country, and building permit costs are ridiculous in many counties. Add that to the exorbitant cost for electricity charged by PG&E, which serves much of the state, and you start to get the reasons we left.
I just happened to be looking at the real estate ads from yesterday's Redding, CA newspaper and saw a listing for a manufactured home on 5.75 acres here in Redding, just 5 minutes from all the major shopping for only $180,000. When I say major shopping, I mean Costco, Walmart, Target, Winco, a mall with the normal stores like Sears, etc. And several hospitals, vets, on and on:
Of course you can expand the search to see if you can get what you want - maybe you don't want a manufactured home. Another one popped up when I put in $200,000 max - 10 acres with a Redding address.
Lots of recreation right outside of town. BUT, it's damn hot in the summer.
I did take a gander at Medford, OR for you. Heard it's not bad. But, on Wikepedia it said they get horrendous fog. But, Ashland, which is only around 20 miles away, doesn't have that problem.
For grins, I thought I'd see if anything popped up for around $200,000 in Ashland, OR. I don't know about medical facilities or shopping for Ashland. I've only stopped and stayed in Ashland once, and LOVED it, though. I wanted to stay in CA, as I get better benefits here - CA supplements Social Security, and has better medical benefits for me (I'm on SSI).
If you search within Ashland for 5+ acres for the same price, you get nothing. If you expand the search to 5 miles you get these:
So, it's not as expensive right outside Ashland as I thought it would be. The stats say they get something like 100 days of precipitation, but not that much accumulated rainfall. So, lots of cloudy misty days, but much cooler than Redding.
[quote=ABQ2015;35164320]I like this Best Place to Live quiz. It allows you to assign a weight to the importance of the input, e.g., you can enter your three favorite climates from a listing and rank them 1-3. I think it gives you a listing of potential places - it has been a while since I took the quiz.
Moderator cut: link removed, competitor site
This was a fun little quiz. It actually listed Redding as #19. Had other towns I really like including Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa. Both are blessedly cool compared to Redding :-)
Look up gardening zone maps. They could help you zero in on preferable climate then work the other requirements from there. Had you not said west of the Mississippi, I would have suggested Vermont as being very close to all your requirements.
Vermont is nice, but the property taxes there are outrageous.
I guess I can't reply to each helpful post with a thank you because it triggers red flags for the forum. However thank you for the suggestions of the Sierra Nevadas, Pueblo CO, Ashland OR, and the Black Hills. I will research all those areas more thoroughly. Maine also has a lot of appeal, but is so far from any of my wife's relatives that she won't consider it.
Thank you also for the Big Foot museum suggestion. That made me chuckle.
Ok so that is the reason you want to stay west of the Mississippi?
Check out Bowling Green, Kentucky; Conway, Arkansas or Fayetteville, Arkansas
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