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I'm going to throw out a previous suggestion of mine--the place I would least consider to live-now! Ready? Truth or Consequences, NM!! Dirt cheap, hot springs, cheap, layed back accomodations, and most likely to accept pets. A great place for a retreat, and a great way to explore NM. Now, I have to chime in with others who say New Mexico is not really a hot state!
Yeah, southern NM gets up to 100 or so, but not in the rest of the state. Dancingearth can vouch for Northern New Mexico as cold! Here's a tidbit: the lowest elevation in the state is around Carlsbad at 3500 ft! Las Cruces is 4000, and TrC is 4500. By the time you get to Albuquerque in the middle of the state, you're a mile high! 5200 ft!!
TrC can get to 100 in the summer, but not every day, in fact not till July or August, but also the nights are beautiful! , and TrC is just a great central point for exploring the rest of the state. TrC is 80 miles south of Socorro, 150 miles south of Albuquerque, 100 miles east of Silver City (beautiful small mountain community open to green, co-op ideas) and 70 miles north of Las Cruces. Santa Fe (7000 ft) is less than an hour north of Albuquerque, but of course, Santa Fe's more expensive.
Not far from TrC: Elephant Butte Lake (5 miles), there are wildlife preserves, lots of mining towns, great drives, etc.
What's not to love? And I'm familiar with the accomodations, so rates and reservations would be a breeze!
What are your thoughts on that as a destination?
Ya did just find on the directions Anomoly I get my directions switched too! Although when I'm in the east I know it--all those people! Must be from moving around so much--where am I now? Wanna go hiking with me as the leader?
I'd vote for TorC then I could make it for a weekend otherwise I can't this year. I'd bring my tent and camp or share a room. I'm up for cheap after the pay cut.
It's definitely cold in northern NM but nothing like MN! And it stays sunny most of the time so it's not depressing like PA or WA. Well, you know I could go on and on since I'm a big fan of NM other than spring allergies and when I'm grumpy but then it wouldn't matter where I live. Then I go for a hike in the mountains and get those views and a different perspective and once again remember why I love that I live here. I LOVE the sense of space here and how convenient nature, history, and art are to enjoy.
I have friends coming in May from PA and WA and we're going to check out a few places in southern NM--I've never explored much of south NM and when I get tired of the cold in the winter and I haven't gotten out enough then I think south NM might be a good place to retire although now that I have Kahtoola's I'm set for hiking in winter. Do people have the allergies in southern NM? I think it's the juniper.
I'm in Santa Fe NM. My property tax for last year was $458 but I think it will change. My understanding is that is based on the lot right now (new housing development) and they try keep it low for a couple of years because of the affordable housing program that I bought the house through. When I lived in Eldorado they were also low compared to the east coast but I can't remember what I paid - seemed around $1,000-1,500 for two acres and 1,000 sq. ft house.
Thanks DancingEarth, for sharing your prop tax info. Here where I am in NE, mine is $2400/year, with the promise to go over $3000/year by next year because the city/towns here are out of $!!! Cannot afford this!!! And that's nothing compared w NY state or NH!! This confirms my need to move, if for nothing else, expenses in my old age
I just wrote out this long reply to Anomoly's suggestion of TorC and BLINK - it disappeared. Ah the frustration. I have to leave now for the weekend so I don't have the time right now but here's a brief summary and I'll have to add details later.
I understood our mission to be two-fold:
1). Check out a potential retirement spot
and
2). have an opportunity to meet some of our fellow CDers.
Based on what you, Anomoly, have reported in the past on TorC I have to say I know I will never want to live there so it's not an option for me.
If others want to go - that's OK.
Now, I need to get out of here and will check back in later. Have a good one
Well, now, if Knoxville were the place and it was over a weekend, I probably could cobble together a little comp time and drive down there for a day or 2 this year. For me, I'm very flexible about accommodations - share or not is ok with me as long as I don't have to breath cigarette smoke. I have asthma and am rather fond of breathing. I grew up in a large family, so sharing is not that hard.
Being something of a professional in the weather biz: Knoxville is up at a little elevation - not NM altitude but not sea level either. It is a little moderated in humidity and temperature compared to lowland eastern US. That said, desert rats and westerners in general will not see the distinction in humidity levels between Knoxville and coastal cities in the south. It will seem awful. I think the humidity - temp perception is a little overblown. High humidity adds about 5 degrees in reality. Very hot is very hot. I have never felt as hot in the east as was a regular experience in Redding CA. But on the plus side, the higher humidity levels in the east and central of the country is kinder to skin than the desiccating dew points in the west.
NM is quite high in most places. Albuquerque is the other mile high city but most don't realize that. I really liked Santa Fe every time I've visited. It used to be on my list of possible places to live. It is very dry and you can feel it in your skin. There is a summer weather phenomenon called the Four Corners High. It swoops moisture from the Baja gulf and makes the summer dew points a little higher than most of the interior west gets. It also fuels thunderstorms with the lift that is gotten from rising land as you go north. Phoenix thus gets boiling hot temperatures and some higher level of humidity from this. The other thing about strong sun at elevation is that with the thiner air, the sun really beats down on you and you get hotter than the same temperature at a low elevation will feel.
Denver used to be destination of choice, but my perception of living there has deteriorated over the years. I have family there so I go fairly often. But then, my feelings about Denver were formed in the 1960's when I lived there as a child. To me, the smog pall is bad in the summer and dry spells in winter. I remember wehn it was completely confined to the industrial NE sector of the city. Traffic can be awful, but on the plus side, the grid layout with major roads criss-crossing the city give you alternative routes - something the layout of the eastern cities rarely allow. Public transit is quite good in the city and has always been so. We crawled all over the city on buses when I was a kid.
I took the train out there over last Christmas and took the metro train down to my mom's house. It was very good except for one thing that took me by surprise - to board, you have to climb 3 very steep steps. Not handicapped friendly and it made lifting heavy luggage hard. Hard enough that I begged my brother to give me a ride back to the train station downtown on my return. What were they thinking? The signs were confusing and it appeared to me to be pretty much on the honor system to pay for it. No real checks or gates like eastern metros have.
Denver is THE major metro area in the central west. Because of that, it has very good medical options along with shopping. Most of the old military bases were closed and turned into suburbs or shopping (Lowry, Stapleton, etc.). It is a spread out city that essentially goes for miles. The city itself is small becaue Denver county is small. But all the surrounding suburbs are essentially all city. I remember when Boulder was a distinct city and a fair distance with open ranches between. It is essentally all one city now. Longmont used to be a pretty ratty farm town and stunk to high heaven. But it has been turned into a bedroom community to Boulder. Golden might still be a nice city - just south a few miles from Boulder and easy access with I70.
Ft Collins in the north used to be a really nice small city but it is so overgrown without adequate roads - horrendous traffic from the city to Loveland. They used to all be distinct towns with farms in between. Loveland used to be a fairly nice town. Don't know how it is now.
The weather in Denver is best described as variable. It can get really cold (negative digits in December when I was there). But you can get a warm downslope wind in the winter that can get the temps up to 70. You can have piles of snow on the ground with that wind and short sleeves. Gardening is a real challenge. The elevation and highly variable temperatures along with a dry cimate make growing things difficult. You have to plan for Zone 5 winters because of the cold snaps. But unlike MN, it can easliy get into the 50's and 60's.
Summer is milder than lower places but it seems to be getting a lot hotter. For 20 years, my mother never had air conditioning. A whole house fan was plenty sufficient to keep the house cool in summer. But there are a lot more upper 90's and 100+ days now than there ever used to be so she had to put in an air conditioner. Thunderstorms are very common in the summer and they can be violent. A lot of times, you get no precipitation. Other's of them can drop hail. Most of the summer precipitaiton is from thunderstorms. There have been more tornadoes in the last 20 years than were ever seen before, but that might only be due to better detection equipment and higher population to see and report them. In general, they are very unusual along the front range becoming more frequent as you move east of the city.
Severe wind damage can and does happen from time to time. Boulder to the east is almost always very windy as the flat irons generate it and focus it. Some of the thunderstorms have violent downbursts and can do a lot of what we call straight line wind damage. Dust is a bigger factor in that climate than in damper ones. It tends towards browness that a lot people find depressing - in winter there is often no snow cover, in summer in a dry year, it gets brown. Easterners, especially, tend not to like this. It seems bleak. When the pioneers came into Colorado, they considered it a very harsh desert climate. Water is gold and water restrictions are a way of life in that area.
But the main killer for Denver for me is that I have a terrible allergy to something in July-August that nothing seems to be able to dampen.
My mother says that the house prices have held steady in Denver thru this economic mess. Weird because Denver has always been a boom or bust kind of economy. That is good if you own property there, bad if you want to buy it and your area is sunk.
Location: Monterey Bay, California -- watching the sea lions, whales and otters! :D
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Slide shows of New Mexico and Colorado -- a preview
Tesjae, where is it that you are considering? I forgot. I've noticed that you do not like hot weather (being from the northeast, originally, I don't mind 100+ once in awhile -- plus where I am I have a portable swamp cooler -- for those of you who don't know what that is, it's sort of like a fan with water in a compartment that the fan blows over, creating cooler air -- can only be used well in a low-humidity climate). I also notice that there are few places I have heard you recommend. Was it Oregon? (I can't do rain all year, though....pretty country, but I've been there, done that). Which ones were the ones you were considering?? I'm just confused because it seems like each place that is brought up, there have been negative reviews about them, and I'm not sure where you planned to relocate to. Try living in Buffalo, New York, sometime - it's one advantage of being raised in the worst weather place - it's easier to appreciate any place else!! I think Livecontent can back me up on that one!
I'm just not keen on the Bible Belt. I've had some very bad experiences with Born Again Christians [one which destroyed several long years of my life, I'm sad to say] (I apologize to any who may be on here), and I don't think I could handle a whole town of people focused on church as the main social activity (sorry, Knox...).
That is why I am focusing on the southwest -- and cheaper areas. My ideal place is not a place I could afford....so I am definitely compromising.
I like the idea of New Mexico. Not only could we explore areas around there....and maybe even visit Dancingearth's home and she could be our Santa Fe tour guide! -- but it's definitely a cheap state to live in -- which is why it's on my list. As for the heat .... see, again, I'm from Buffalo, originally, so when I was in New Mexico in August, it was "warm" but I didn't feel "hot." That lovely dry desert heat is very nice .... as long as those 100+ days don't go on forever like in Phoenix!
Just for the heck of it, I'm posting my slide show again from when my daughter and I went through New Mexico and Colorado -- just to refresh people's minds about what's there. I don't mind the idea of Truth or Consequences as a central point, however, I think I'd almost prefer Las Cruces or Albuquerque over TorC only because they might be more plausible as relocation sites. I really need to re-check out Las Cruces because I did not spend much time there -- now, I actually have an acquaintance there who is a guy, very lively, smart, fun, and I bet he'd be happy to give us lots of info on what to do and where to go.
Conceivably, we could cover the major cities in New Mexico....I did a lot in only a few days -- lots of open spaces and not much traffic.
Location: Monterey Bay, California -- watching the sea lions, whales and otters! :D
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Another idea: I think we should form this into a "real" organization! Seriously. We are just a vocal minority of a very large majority of women who will be facing the same issues. I do believe that this will be a national crisis once the world discovers that there are many more women living alone on lower incomes than they ever thought! Now is our time to get out there and start a new movement!
We could have a website, contact the media, set up our goals more clearly, and try for grants. Probably, we should be incorporated to protect all assets.
I just know that we are not alone in this. We just happened to discover this thread! As an organized group with an organized name, and a website, we might have more leverage in getting noticed....thus, getting some help to do this -- creating affordable homes and lifestyles for us! In four or five years, there will be a much larger wave -- more like a tsunami -- hitting this country as women scramble to figure out how to make it financially on less. I think it's worth a try to be more focused, actually legitimize our concerns, and get out there. Feedback??
That is why I am focusing on the southwest -- and cheaper areas. My ideal place is not a place I could afford....so I am definitely compromising.
I like the idea of New Mexico. Not only could we explore areas around there....and maybe even visit Dancingearth's home and she could be our Santa Fe tour guide! -- but it's definitely a cheap state to live in -- which is why it's on my list. As for the heat .... see, again, I'm from Buffalo, originally, so when I was in New Mexico in August, it was "warm" but I didn't feel "hot." That lovely dry desert heat is very nice .... as long as those 100+ days don't go on forever like in Phoenix!
I would be happy to show you my home and either give a tour of Santa Fe or send you in the direction that interests you. I can't do any more following visitors around shopping but I'm happy to can tell you where it is.
The only place I've lived that is better in summer than NM is western WA state. Love summers there--too bad about the rainy winters. It never feels that hot here--even in the 90s I don't realize it until I've walked for a mile. I wear a hat for the sun and use sunscreen. I agree with Wisteria--Las Cruces would be a better place to meet if I can get a few days off work--I want to check it out again and go to Silver City. I saw how low the cost of living was in the CD stats for LC. I'd like to see how long it takes to get to mountain hikes from there.
We might have to do two areas. The Knoxville group and the SW one.
If we could post a survey that might help but I lost track of where people want to go. and when?
My vote is early to mid August or September. Anomoly - how's Las Cruces in September? Here's a link to the chile festival for THE flavor (at least food) of NM. Yum.
Berea and Knoxville could be one trip. Berea is less than 100 miles from Knoxville. Same with Asheville, NC.
Chattanooga (and the choo-choo!) is also just 100 miles from Knoxville as is Nashville and Franklin, TN. Franklin and Chattanooga are both lovely places with viable downtowns that are attracting retirees. Fairfield Glade in Crossville, a huge retirement community and resort, is 45 minutes from Knoxville.
Abindgon, VA, is about 150 miles from here.
(FYI: I know what you mean about directions. I grew up on the west coast near the beach and my mother taught me and my sister that west was toward the ocean. Shortly after I moved to the East my sister came for a visit and we went driving to the Eastern Shore. We kept getting hopelessly lost because neither of us could get it through our heads that the ocean was now East.)
Last edited by knoxgarden; 03-20-2009 at 01:28 PM..
I like the idea of all of us getting together, but concerns...
Many on this thread seem to be favoring the West/SouthWest, and that's not an option for me. In getting together at one location with others, I probably wouldn't go west of Tenn. Mostly because of the cost and travel, but also bc I can't live west of Tenn. for a number of practical reasons.
If it's just info that we want to seriously compile and share, we could do that online and/or via a website. I sure could use some stats (retirement income tax, prop tax, weather conditions, cultural stuff, Northerners being accepted, etc) that would allow me to compare issues on a scale of maybe 1 to 5, with 5 being best.
If it's social, unfortunately I'd have to pass, only because I can't afford to go someplace for any reason other than to check it out as a place to live.
At this point, if anyone has any good data on the above 5 things I mentioned, comparing these 3 states and areas, I would be grateful:
1. Knoxville Tenn.
2. Roanoke or Charlottesville Virginia
3. Northern part of North Carolina
I need to put the ratings on paper, to do a little analysis, before I can make informed decision. As someone else here said, just visiting a place isn't going to give the true facts of what it's like to live there!
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It must be time for bed - I'm acting like a 8 year old
Wanna go hiking with me as the leader? 
I grew up in a large family, so sharing is not that hard.
Slide shows of New Mexico and Colorado -- a preview
but I'm happy to can tell you where it is. 
