Best Retirement State on A Budget - Lowest Cost of Living?

[JRR]

Originally Posted by marino760

I'm not concerned with sales taxes. I'm not a big spender and whatever my sales tax is on the few things I buy every month is minimal and even negligible. You do have some control on sales tax by limiting what you spend every month on goods.
Property taxes on the other hand can make or break you and plays a big part in where you buy a home and also a big part in whether you can continue to afford a home if your property taxes are increasing at an alarming rate.

I agree about sales tax. Yeah, Tennessee has a high sales tax and some people focus only on that. But our homeowners insurance is substantially lower than in Florida; auto insurance is also less. Same for utilities and auto registration. Things like those tend to make up for the higher sales tax.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by thrillobyte

I haven't read through all the answers but I once considered moving to Vancouver Washington because Washington has no state income tax while Oregon has no sales tax. ....

BTDT for 35 yrs. Border living has many benefits, (Nice airport (10 min from Vancouver, WA), good access for 20+ colleges, food, events, music, shops, unique supplies (parts for tractors / dozers / old cars / appliances...) ... Yet far enough away to avoid traffic / urban issues.

Best reason while working... was the high west coast wages and no state income tax.
Worst reason... watch your property taxes!, and the money to fund big government must come from somewhere. There are ways to mitigate this if you are strategic. I have homes just across the street from each other with 60% different tax levy (different taxing districts and assessor). Don't make the assessor mad! My daily property tax bill went from <$3 / day ($800/yr) to now over $44 / day. ($15,000 / yr). Same house just more old and worn out. Of course we could sell and move on... but... it is in a Nationally Protected Scenic area, so could not be replaced. Plus, we built it brick-by-brick to LIVE in it and enjoy the view... not to sell it. Challenges.

[Macinpup]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Most articles I have seen focus on cities. The biggest city in Maine is Portland, and everyone I have known who has lived in Portland has complained about its high taxes.

I wanted to retire somewhere rural, and drought-free.

Undeveloped forest land was very low priced and the property taxes are low [$1.05 per acre per year]. I have built a large house and it is taxed $600/year.

I have a military pension. Which in this region is plenty enough to support a medium size family, we had five children living at home when I began building this house. Yet my pension income is not high enough to be taxed here.

People do complain that New England has high taxes. I pay no income taxes, and my property taxes are extremely low.

I have owned four homes previously, none of them had property taxes this low. Each of them were in areas with much higher Cost-of-living.

I owned a home in CT also.

I paid around $6,000/year in Ct for 0.25 acre of land. But here in Maine I have 150 acres with river frontage.

Maine has the highest average age among its population, as compared to the entire nation. This is the oldest state, with the highest percentage of retirees.

I also think you get more tax breaks due to being a Veteran, whereas I would be taxed much more in Maine in rural areas from what I have been reading.