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Interstate Highway Access, with no more than a 2 hour drive to a metro area of at least 2 million population, preferably with at least 2 of the major sports leagues, Southwest Airlines, and a decent jazz club.
When one becomes too old to drive, many places, even small towns have senior centers that will pick you up and take you grocery shopping or to doctors appointments. They also have meals on wheels and other services to keep you independent as long as possible.
Until then, I think a half hours drive to anywhere you want to go is reasonable for shopping, hospital and so on.
I have never in my life lived far from amenities but am thinking of a house that is a bit far, for me, from certain types of amenities.
Lovely area, crime free, lots of retirees. Grocery stores, pharmacies 6 minutes away by car. A WalMart SuperCenter 11 minutes away (by car). An emergency clinic, and veterinarians are 10 mins away. This is pretty good.
But doctors, Mall, Target, Sam's Club, Hospitals, Best Buy, pet stores, things like that - those are 1/2 hour away.
I should mention that I'm gauging things by travel time by car. Mileage may be greater, since the house is semi-rural, but few traffic lights, and able to travel on main thoroughfares to get places. (The 1/2 hour mileage is between 15 and 20 miles, for most things.)
This would be fine for now, I suppose. But what about when I get to be 70, 75, 80, 85? Too far for a senior?
A cab would go out there to pick me up, if I would call one, I suppose. I'd have to wait a while for it to get there. Cabs aren't used much in the city, although they are there. (No Uber or Lyft.) There is no public transportation.
How far is too far for a senior?
it's impossible to predict what your health status is going to be after the age of 65. It might not matter at some stage whether the stores are 5 minutes away or 1/2 hour away because you likely not be driving a car. you 'll be taking hired transport anyway. If you are not certain whether taxis will be willing to take you, just call up a cab company and ask them if they service your area and what they would estimate fare to the businesses you want to visit.
Any seniors association like AARP will have good advice for you.
it's impossible to predict what your health status is going to be after the age of 65. It might not matter at some stage whether the stores are 5 minutes away or 1/2 hour away because you likely not be driving a car. you 'll be taking hired transport anyway. If you are not certain whether taxis will be willing to take you, just call up a cab company and ask them if they service your area and what they would estimate fare to the businesses you want to visit.
Any seniors association like AARP will have good advice for you.
It isn't that easy to get cabs to take you short distances like 20 mi in an area where cabs are uncommon, like small towns and berbs.
I'm 25 minutes from town and don't feel it is too far. Towns are generally separated by the distance that it took a horse and wagon to get there in a day, in other words, about 20 or 30 miles. You can drive that in half an hour. There aren't enough people in areas more sparse than that to worry about, and they like not having other people around.
This is a good question and more seniors need to think about this before moving to an area just because it's quiet. Seniors need things close by especially a hospital that is large enough to take care of cardiac and other problems. Nice to have a decent airport also to visit friends and family....
This is a good question and more seniors need to think about this...
Most commonly the Q comes up from the other direction...
such as when the family owns a perfectly nice home but which is a bit far out into the boonies.
From ages 30ish up to 60ish they had daily reasons to drive to where the services are
but with retirement are often advised 1) to downsize generally and 2) to move closer to town;
and often 3) to move to a new state altogether when they do those things.
But volunteering for remote for the retirement years is tough to er rationalize.
Volunteering for the large lot on top of that isolation is even tougher.
If one is mobile and can drive, it does not matter if something is 2 minutes or 20 minutes away. I can get to everything I need within 15 minutes. I have a grocery store, liquor store, Chinese take away, home cooking restaurant with take away all less than 10 minutes away. Exception is my physician is about 25 minutes but that is typically a twice a year visit. There is a doc in a box about 15 minutes away for typical maladies like cold, flu, injury, etc.
When one becomes too old to drive, many places, even small towns have senior centers that will pick you up and take you grocery shopping or to doctors appointments. They also have meals on wheels and other services to keep you independent as long as possible.
Until then, I think a half hours drive to anywhere you want to go is reasonable for shopping, hospital and so on.
I live in a town of 50,000 that has a median age of 44, with many seniors and relatively few younger people. There is a local "senior center" that does retreats and activities, but does not offer a service like this to my knowledge. We have a municipal bus system with discounted fares for seniors, but it only runs in certain places in the core city.
People outside the core city are pretty much on their own.
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