Baby Boomers Relocating/Especially Singles (real estate, condos, crime rates)

[Wisteria]

Hi,

I'm a boomer, and hope to retire in a few years. I'm searching out places to relocate to from California (can't pay the mortgage without my full-time job).

I know we are the largest demographic, and I also know there is a big co-housing effort starting, and those who did not amass large fortunes will be on fixed incomes. (Those younger who think boomers still don't have spunk, just think "Rolling Stones...")

Our bodies may be aging, however, I also feel strongly that in our heads we are still very youthful! And being the rabble-rousers we've been, I am quite sure that aging will take on an entirely different look than large golf courses, shuffle board and boring retirement homes.

I have been browsing cohousing.com and CoolTownStudios.com for "cool" places. But there must be places out there I don't know about. Like many boomers, I still want culture, music, walkable areas, cafes, classes, (preferably a university nearby), but also affordablility. I, personally, prefer the southwest and northeast. I don't think I'm ready for the Bible Belt.

Anyone else looking forward to relocating and trying to narrow it down? I am 58-1/2, female, divorced, have a teenaged daughter (who will not be living with me then -- she'll be in college), and I own my own home in California, but still owe a lot on it (thus, the move).

Suggestions appreciated! Thanks.

[Baltic_Celt]

Hello Wisteria -

I'm a single, almost-boomer, so am looking for something similar. After mega-metropolis living all these years, I'm looking for something a bit smaller, a la Seattle. Loved it there, but will most likely venture back to my home state of PA, although I left as a teen. Ever thought of Seattle, by the way? Beautiful city.

What size town are you looking to find? I know you live in CA, but are you looking for something CA-like, just not the prices? And, if so, please tell us where you live so we can compare. L.A. differs greatly from Yreka! I lived in Long/Huntington Beach/San Diego so am southern-CA familiar. I could be more helpful if I know more specifics. Also, do you need to find work & if so, which field? Nursing so need to live near hospitals/nursing homes? Legal?

Just off the top of my head, Pittsburgh, PA is a lovely mountain town, VERY safe, walkable, very friendly, plenty of colleges (perhaps your daughter can find something close to home?), metro pop of 350K-ish, college town so nice cafes/nightlife, etc. I'll be checking out Harrisburg (pop 50K)/Pittsburgh sometime soon (within 6-mos) & can report back, if you might be interested? Harrisburg's centrally located to alot of historic towns, near the mountains, several hours to ocean, lots of recreation/jobs/schools, safe. How pretty/friendly is it? Don't know as I've never been, but it looks good on paper. Can't wait to check it out, though.

Also, Cosmic is in OH & really enjoys it. S/he used to live in Boston (where I am now) & is in a smaller town now. Don't know where exactly, but perhaps you could ask? First search on Cosmic's posts, as s/he's is very generous with providing very specific info/answers. Housing in both OH/PA is very inexpensive, in many areas. Friends are near the Pocono's (Wyoming Valley area) & have a 4b/3b home for $50K. Not uncommon there, but jobs are scarce. Gorgeous area, one of the safest places in the U.S. & some colleges. Is the house brand spankin' new? No, but with some paint & sanding, it's lovely. Venture on over to the PA forum & search on "ScrantonWilkesBarre" postings. He's even listed a huge array of pics.

In my research, I found that Cincinnati appears to be a lovely city. I'm just beginning OH research now. It has all the criterion you mentioned. Paintballer1708 has a very nice, extensive pic website, too. The site is "http://www.pbase.com/cincyimages/cincinnati". Check out his very informative posts, too.

Good luck in researching. Please let us know how it's going & if you give some more info, perhaps I can help a bit better. Come on over to the eastcoast!

Oh, by the way, when I use words like rabble-rousers, doosey, nifty, dilly-dally & discombobulated, the youngsters (my 3 teen nieces) only think I'm an old fogie & not neat! When I mentioned Al Pacino to them recently, they responded "Who's Al Chapino?!" <sigh>

Have fun...Baltic_Celt

[Wisteria]

Hahahaha! Thanks for the laugh! Actually, I knew Timothy Leary's wife, Rosemary, (both have since died), and when they had a memorial, a friend's daughter (in her 20s) wanted to know WHY in the world she'd want to go and hear these "OLD" people (Ram Dass, etc.) speak??? "And WHO IS Timothy Leary, anyway????"

Actually, I'm from Buffalo, NY, originally, but have lived out west for nearly 30 years!! Yikes, nearly half my life! I've lived in Phoenix and Tempe, AZ; Boulder and Denver, CO; Seattle (!) (my daughter was born there -- love the city but hate the rain and overcast skies for 11 months of the year!); and the Berkeley area of CA, and now in the Santa Cruz area of CA.

One of my sisters lives just outside Pittsburgh, but doesn't like it. Her hubby has a super high-paying job out there, but she is in AZ with her daughter for now (he transferred from Phoenix).

I have to admit, I DO love the sunny skies. Being from Buffalo, and all the rain, snow, sleet, hail, thunderstorms, snow flurries, ice storms, and the like, I really appreciate the blue skies and warm weather. Out here when they say there's a thunderstorm, they mean ONE clap of thunder, and ONE flash of lightening -- it was very weird the first time I experienced one of their thunderstorms.

I DO love eastcoast people!! The best! Great sense of humor, great honesty, great friends. But the TAXES!!!! Property taxes!!! I pay the same here in California for a $245,000 house that my dad pays for his $60,000 house back there (NYS)!!! That's a huge difference.

I'd love to live in NYC, but you know about the prices there -- I'd even go to Brooklyn, but don't think that's feasible anymore either.

What I'm hoping to do is to sell my house here, and, hopefully.....get enough to buy a small one-bedroom cottage/house/condo someplace walkable and cultural. I don't need a whole lot (although I do have pets -- and a 16-year-old daughter who will be in college by then).

Actually, I have a friend in Buffalo who was checking out Cincinnati, but the crime rates are kind of high -- I didn't scope out the city, though. But she liked it when she visited there.

I'm kind of confused right now. I am drawn to the people of the eastcoast, but love the mountains and great weather (and low humidity and few bugs) of the westcoast. (I DON'T want to go back to Buffalo, though!)

If I could buy a small house outright, and not have a mortgage, I could make it on my paltry pension of only 10 years until SS kicked in. I do have a Masters in Social Work, but I also teach art (Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain), which I actually enjoy more. If I work, it would, hopefully, be part-time. I have lots of interests, and I'm sure I won't be bored, but I am pretty tired of working all these decades. I'd like to do more fun things.

Have you checked out CoolTownStudios.com ? They have great information about "cool" places -- not just for the young, but anyone looking for some LIFE to their town -- and walkability, culture, music, the arts, etc. I look at that site about once a week. They're doing some really cool things.

Thanks, Baltic Celt, for the info! I'm definitely into checking out many things. I've kind of gypsied my life through the states, so who knows?

I'll check back later. And I'll check out Cosmic's posts, too. Thanks for the tip!!

[Baltic_Celt]

Hi Wisteria -

I was curious as to why your sister doesn't like Pittsburgh? It was one of the cities I was considering checking out & heard wonderful things about it. Just thought you might be able to provide some info for me that would be helpful.

If NYC is the type of city that attracts you, then it sounds like you're looking for a larger town, which means higher housing costs/cost of living anyway. Cities next door to Boston (listed on CoolTown), like Cambridge/Arlington may be more to your liking, but housing would be very expensive. Cool little cities though. We do have alot of overcast weather, however, similar to Seattle, except colder & more crowded. But, as with any large city, the further you move away, the cheaper housing costs. Condos may be cheaper just 1-2 towns over (Watertown, Lexington) although, like NY, MA is expensive. If you go about a 20-min drive from Boston, there are 2 lovely towns (Natick, Framingham). Not sure about condo prices, but this entire area is really changing & beginning condos in my area, for example (inner-city Boston) are $350K+ for 1st floor units (1-2b/1b). It goes up $100K for each floor (most bldgs are 3-5 floors here). My house's (3-unit bldg) value has increased substantially over 10-yrs. My entire area is being condo converted. You can find some bargains in neighborhoods where you need to be more careful safety-wise. A friend just sold his modest, 1b/1b, 1st floor condo on the Roslindale/W. Roxbury line for $150K. And, although you can drive to some funkly little squares (Dedham Sq., Inman/Porter/Harvard Sqs. in Cambridge) with upscale coffeeshops/cafes, Seattle-like movies, you need to drive there/take the train/bus, then walk about.

Good luck in your search. I would think that with your social work/art background, there are many pockets in many states where you could find work.

Have fun... Baltic_Celt

[BlueWillowPlate]

Wisteria
I admire your take-charge attitude and maybe your position in life looks a bit intimidating (upcoming emptynester, single) but I think it is very liberating.
The best is yet to come!

Have you looked into cohousing in Colorado? It looks promising. As you undoubtedly already know, all three of these are not far from universities.
These are: first link, Durango.
Second link, north Boulder.
Third, Colorado Springs.

http://www.heartwoodcohousing.com/

http://silversagevillage.com/cohousing.html

http://www.casaverde.us/

BTW
I'd always heard of the flower Wisteria but never saw it in abundance till I moved here. It is lovely.

[Wisteria]

Thanks Cil and Baltic Celt! Good info, and I'll check it out. I am already on the co-housing email letter lists, and making contacts. Most are already filled or have a waiting list. I guess like other Boomers, I need to stand in line!

Pittsburgh -- well, mostly the weather, I guess. She said it's okay, but living in AZ now, she's gotten used to a different more outdoorsy, warm and sunny every day thing. Maybe if she had moved there first, she'd feel differently.

Kind of the same for me -- I never knew what it was like to have really nice weather until I moved west, and then discovered it. Until then, it wasn't real.

However, it is difficult to find a good blend of east and west -- eastcoast fun people, and westcoast beauty and sun. Ideally (but I'm not wealthy), I'd like to have some land in a beautiful place, (co-housing concept), build cute homes, and fill them with eastcoast people! Party time!

By the way, I have wisteria in my yard and it really is beautiful and smells wonderful. A lovely flower.

[fish2026]

Baltic Celt maybe senility has struck you early lol
Pittsburgh has just been listed near the top of major cities for crime. Its been losing population for years - its not a clean place and if you use this site there are quite a few toxic sites in both the city and the county.

Maybe you own one of the many vacant buildings there and need some tenants... LOL

[Baltic_Celt]

Originally Posted by fish2026

Baltic Celt maybe senility has struck you early lol
Pittsburgh has just been listed near the top of major cities for crime. Its been losing population for years - its not a clean place and if you use this site there are quite a few toxic sites in both the city and the county.

Maybe you own one of the many vacant buildings there and need some tenants... LOL

No, not senile.
No, don't own anything in Pittsburgh or the state of PA.
No, don't need tenants.
People onboard live in & enjoy Pittisburgh. Same as for many other places, some of which I'd never consider living.


Stats differ depending on who's compiled them, opinions differ depending on individuals' experiences & run the gambut from "strongly dislike" to "love it". One loves town A, the other strongly dislikes it? Who's wrong? Neither. They stated personal opinions/experiences.

Stating opinions with respect is very much a personal choice.

Have fun... Baltic_Celt

[Wisteria]

I think that rust-belt cities are hard to reinvigorate. I think Pittsburgh falls into that category. I do know of someone who was raised there and although she no longer lives there, did say that they had done a fabulous job of cleaning it up. But a rust-belt city is still a rust-belt city. The cities that usually make those top lists of "best of" are generally in "clean" and "scenic" areas.

I'm from Buffalo, so I know about that. We have beautiful old mansions in Buffalo (I live in California now -- one of those other scenic places), and wonderful walkable areas, and nice parks. There are many Frank Lloyd Wright buildings there, the parks were designed by Olmstead, a lot of history. But.....it was a big factory town, and now they have never recovered from the loss of factories, and are trying to do the same thing as Pittsburgh -- trying to revitalize.

I feel sad when I think about my once hopping city (Buffalo) now a place where people run from. I had some good times there, but the economy has bottomed out, there is no real good business there (except the university), and it's overrun by poverty and crime. It's very sad. The infrastructure is good, but the rest of it is going to take many, many years to recover. But.....as you said, there are people who are still there (two of my sisters, in fact) who enjoy it. So, each to their own.

[RNLilly]

Hi Wisteria,
Take a look at Asheville NC for retirement. Don't let "Bible Belt" intimindate you. Check it out. It is becoming/has been, a very eclectic area. I lived in Asheville in the 60's for about 7 years and would go back in a heartbeat. Even then, it had a lot of people from different areas and we had an interesting life. I am also presently a Californian. Retired about one year ago. Not thrilled with retirement because I am so healthy and active..and very use to working. I'm dealing with boredom by picking up a nice amount of "walking around money" doing contract work for an agency (when and IF I feel like it . I'm tired of CA. Would love to go back to NC but since all 9 grandkids and 4 adult kids are here in So. CA it is hard to make that big a move. Friends who have relocated to Boise Idaho area like it there...but not sure I would like it. We are looking at other options in CA - but nothing is knocking our socks off. Real Estate here is high. Would love to sell - buy cheaper and have extra $$ in the bank. But then, wouldn't everyone?
Good luck.