***Retiree looking for best place to retire to....with limited housing budget (pension, state)

[folkguitarist555]

Hi there, I am looking for a place with a smallish city, or rural area not too far from a smallish city to retire to. My budget is around 190k for a house. What I would like is:

Low crime

Decent housing with small acreage for 190k or less

Pretty nature, rolling hills, lakes, or mountains

Nice people, not overly standoffish, but warm and welcoming

Place not too prone to tornados or natural disasters

Low property taxes and utility rates

Place where homeowners insurance and car insurance rates are reasonable

Within an hour driving time to a major VA medical center

Winters not overly brutal and long



So far I got a few places over the last few months I been considering on my poll...please mention others as well if you know of some. I also would like to add Colorado Springs and Grand Junction CO to my poll. thanks

[jlawrence01]

1) Johnson City, TN
2) Tucson, AZ
3) Green Valley, AZ
4) Knoxville, TN
5) Dover, DE


Putting together a quick list is the EASY part. Hitting the road and actually visiting some of the places to see if they fit is a whole different matter.

[old_cold]

Originally Posted by starrider434

Hi there, I am looking for a place with a smallish city, or rural area not too far from a smallish city to retire to. My budget is around 190k for a house. What I would like is:

Low crime

Decent housing with small acreage for 190k or less

Pretty nature, rolling hills, lakes, or mountains

Nice people, not overly standoffish, but warm and welcoming

Place not too prone to tornados or natural disasters

Low property taxes and utility rates

Place where homeowners insurance and car insurance rates are reasonable

Within an hour driving time to a major VA medical center

Winters not overly brutal and long



So far I got a few places over the last few months I been considering on my poll...please mention others as well if you know of some. I also would like to add Colorado Springs and Grand Junction CO to my poll. thanks

I would have told you mine will be for sale shortly until that last one. Of course, they all aren't overly long and/or brutal but then, there was this last one.

[modhatter]

Mt. Dora, Florida. Love that place. Has large lake, rolling hills, and lots of greenery, very quaint homes, fantastic antique fair grounds with large events throughout the year.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by starrider434

Hi there, I am looking for a place with a smallish city, or rural area not too far from a smallish city to retire to. My budget is around 190k for a house. What I would like is:

Low crime

Decent housing with small acreage for 190k or less

Pretty nature, rolling hills, lakes, or mountains

Nice people, not overly standoffish, but warm and welcoming

Place not too prone to tornados or natural disasters

Low property taxes and utility rates

Place where homeowners insurance and car insurance rates are reasonable

Within an hour driving time to a major VA medical center

Winters not overly brutal and long

So far I got a few places over the last few months I been considering on my poll...please mention others as well if you know of some. I also would like to add Colorado Springs and Grand Junction CO to my poll. thanks

Only one thing on your list disqualifies where I settled to.

We live in a forest, with river frontage, 150 acres and a 2400 sq ft house cost us less than half of your budget.

Very low crime rate, low taxes, low COL, etc, but we do have winter here.

[folkguitarist555]

Yea what troubles me about Maine are those long, snowy winters. Along with high utility rates and high heating costs....unless I guess I lived way up in northern Maine, which simply might be a tad too isolated. NW Arkansas has some lovely nature, great affordable houses for sale, ...and beauty, and some neat smaller cities though. But I am concerned about tornadoes there. Seems like Colorado is drying up and the front range getting overly congested and crowded. Rapid City, is nice, but lousy housing stock with low inventory, and higher then should be, real estate prices. I heard the tri cities of TN do not like outsiders, especially northerners. Read that Tucson is pretty with the mountains, but rough with the crime and run down areas, and hotter then hell itself, and never rains. Boise has gotten too expensive thanks to the transplants over time. Ada country assessed home values jumped up by 22% this year as well. Making property taxes higher.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by starrider434

Yea what troubles me about Maine are those long, snowy winters. Along with high utility rates and high heating costs....

If you are not careful you can have a winter heating bill of $1,000 or more. It is a concern.

As I said, we do have winter.

Low home / land prices, low crime rate, low taxes, low COL, do make it nice for us on a budget. Most places I have lived before, I could not afford to live on my pension.

[Serious Conversation]

It really depends on if you ever think you will need to work again. There are many places that could fit the bill, and also some serious reservations.

The Tri-Cities in TN was listed. I'm from there, and while it can be a great place for a retiree, there are too many problems for me to recommend it. Crime is through the roof (mostly drug/domestic), and while Johnson City does have a VA, more major medical needs will have to be done in Knoxville (two hours away), or Charlotte/Nashville (three to four hours).

TN does fit the bill on most of your other needs. There are other towns around Knoxville, like Maryville, that are considerably safer than the Tri-Cities, closer to larger cities, and still well within budget.

You also have to remember that you do sometimes get what you pay for. If you go too far or too remote, you can run into some odd small town and rural area issues that you may not have encountered before.

[folkguitarist555]

I am surprised that the tri cities of TN have such heavy crime issues, if that be the case...I figured that would be the case in Knoxville, but not in the smaller, more quaint tri cities of TN area...

[folkguitarist555]

anybody have experience living in the rural areas outside of Lexington? Like in Berea? Just saw that Branson MO, has a crime rating of 0 out of a 100, on a particular website, that is the worst rating I have seen yet, compared to anywhere else in the USA, surprised me.