Artsy, liberal, etc. (pensions, milk, attractive, best)
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OP, have you taken a look at Asheville, NC? A college town in the mountains of western NC... you'd have the proximity to nature, four seasons, and the artsy scene. I don't know about taxes or cost of living there, though.
I'm all that you say you are and I'm happily living on Cape Cod. Boston and Providence are both sbout an hour and a half away with Provincetown being the same but an easier ride. Temperature wise, we're a little more balmy in winter than the Boston area. Its only expensive if you vacation here. Owning a condo in your price range is doable. We also have the lowest prop tax in MA because we don't have that many schools or roads to maintain.
I agree--you're going to want to be somewhere in New England. You might want to consider Western Mass--Northampton (very liberal college town), or even further west like Lenox (Tanglewood) or in the mountains like North Adams where MassMoCa is.
If you're budget is extremely low let me offer you my home town (Dunkirk, NY). The 2 enduring perks is that it's right ON Lake Erie AND it's a few miles from SUNY Fredonia so it's near a college town. It has the first hispanic mayor in NYS and you can get a very trendy 2 bedroom loft style apartment one block from the town dock for under $800/mo. https://www.apartments.com/chadwick-...rk-ny/fbkndkv/
The sunsets rival those that you would find on the Gulf shore of FL. You'd be in the middle of the grape belt and budding wine industry. You could go blueberry and strawberring picking in the summer, apple picking and be surrounded by spectacular fall foliage in the fall. The Lake keeps the summers bearable, and contrary to popular opinion, the Lake Effect snow hits further inland (Syracuse gets the brunt of it)
You'd be 35 min from Erie PA, 50 min from Buffalo and less than an hour from the Canadian border.
Downsides: no industry, depressed economy, no department stores (You would need to go to Erie, Hamburg, Buffalo or Jamestown for that) There are 2 area hospitals but most seniors wind up going to Buffalo or Erie for major healthcare issues.
The bizarre thing about Dunkirk is that anyone who grew up here couldn't wait to leave. Those same people are pining away and wishing they never left.
What you're describing is Northampton, MA and the surrounding area. VERY liberal, 5 colleges, big art scene, funky downtown shopping area, interesting restaurants, and it's scenic. Surrounded by blue mountains (actually the foothills of the Berkshires) it is set on a major river and has both farmland and forest within a stone's throw.
It has a lot of free entertainment like lectures at the colleges, there is theater, always something going on. The downsides are the masses of students and the influx of New Yorkers who think they have found Nirvana and that they are out in the country. It can get a bit pricey because the academic types are highly paid and demand expensive housing but if you get to the outskirts, it's still affordable.
Northampton is nowhere near Boston, thank goodness. Boston more or less ignores it. Northampton is over the top liberal and its neighbor, Amherst is so liberal that it might make you sick, lol. But people are really nice, well educated, and, all in all, it's a great place to live. Summers are muggy but autumn is crisp and gorgeous. Winters are long and bitterly cold. Spring barely exists before it turns into the hot but short summer. There is no ocean, which can be a downside--if you need ocean, you drive south to the Connecticut coast for the day or a few hours to Maine where there are beautiful beaches but you'd need to stay overnight.
Jobs are few and far between because nearly everyone who graduates from one of the colleges wants to stay. You'll get PhD's working at MacDonalds just to live there. But for retirement, it's excellent. So much to do, so open and free, kind of a happy place--in fact it has been called The Happy Valley.
Threads about the same topic and subject title by the OP merged. The second thread is essentially a "bump" and is not permitted per the T.O.S.
Moderator--
If you'll read what I wrote, you'll very easily see that it was not in any way intended as a "bump", but rather my post was to further define and elucidate my criteria so that viewers can intelligently respond.
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