Lake retirements in the southeast (beach, move, communities, states)
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One of the things my husband and I are really looking forward to in retirement is boating. We are on the East Coast in VA and can't wait to move from here. The crime rates have really gone up where we are at and housing and taxes are expensive. We love the beach, but housing is not affordable near the beach and taxes and insurance is generally higher. We may snowbird a month in FL and vacation at the beach to get our fix. However, we do want to be by water somewhere! Some areas we have thought about are around Columbia, SC near Lake Murray, or Charlotte NC near Lake Norman and Wylie. It is about a 3 hour or so drive to the coast from there for beaches. I like to be near a bigger city, but would live on the outskirts. We don't plan to live on a lake either. Just want to be close by for the boating. One thing is for sure, it is so hard to nail down a place to retire to. Our kids are both in the military and who knows where they will end up when they get out, but they both want to stay on the east coast also. So, any suggestions for other areas with lakes and/or rivers would be welcomed!
Many of the communities listed here are on lakes. You can see lots of photos, amenities, etc, and even check out how the residents rate their communities.
By the way, they are not all gated, so I don't know why the link comes up that way...the actual name is www dot realestatescorecard dot com/community reviews (replace the word dot with a . )
There are several communities in or around Lake Keowee in the upstate of South Carolina. My husband and I stayed at a couple of them when we visited our daughter when she was in college in the area.
We live on High Rock Lake, near Lexington NC, about half-way between Greeensboro and Charlotte. We've been there about 2 years and have been very happy there. Lake Norman is very nice, but it is quite crowded and generally more expensive, based on what I know and have seen of it.
Do you just want to get out of where you are in Virginia or get out of Virginia entirely? Have you checked out Lake Anna? If you don't want water front it's very affordable, then you can rent a dock or trailer your boat in to one of the boat ramps. It just depends on how close to a big city you want to be. Charlottesville and Richmond are an hour away where Fredericksburg is 30-45 minutes away.
Central Florida from around Sebring to around Lake Wells is, well, lake country (there is even a Lake County to the north of this general region).
Not sure about crime, but there are no state income taxes in Florida, property taxes are about average for the US, there are plenty of lake front retirement communities in this general region with all ranges of housing, night time winter temperatures never go below the 40s, and you are never more than an hour from the beach, east and west coast.
Perhaps worth looking at.
Good Luck!
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