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Retiring: Knoxville-and other southern cities such as Greenville,SC...both have high air quality issues in the spring and summer. Greenville altho a super lovely place is rated the highest in the country for upper respiratory diseases..check out topics like asthma, allergies to get a descending list of cities across the country. The valley of the mountains (such as Maryville, Tn) gets you more air quality issues...here the vegetative gases from the Smokys play into that.
Have you thought about Arizona? We retired in Tucson, which I just love, the climate (all those sunny days) is great, housing prices are good. We live in the country on 1 acre in a development with really really nice neighbors, some retired and some still working. Unfortunately we are moving back to the
northwest because all the family is there and we are missing the kids, grandkids. If it wasn't for that I stayed here. I'd be glad to answer any questions about the area.
I was just cruising the boards and saw your Tucson post.. We are looking seriously at moving back to AZ. We used to live west of Phoenix in Goodyear and havent really considered Tucson. We are currently are just east of Austin and the humidity is getting to us. Is the area you live in a development on acreage or single builds. If you dont mind give me a zip code and I will look at realtor.com.
Can you recommend some of the nicer yet affordable areas in Tucson or some links to developments and builders? Under $175000.
Thanks
We also moved to AZ to escape the high taxes elsewhere. If you do not find what you need in Tucson, I could suggest a few areas elsewhere in the state that would certainly meet your budget requirements. Maricopa is a growing city and shopping is starting to get out of the ground. Shea Homes has several developments and one starts around $165,000 and some other builders are around $150K. There is an Indian casino in Maricopa and it is very popular with the residents. Queen Creek has a Shea development in the $120,000 range. These are not far from Chandler where I would choose to shop for bigger items. You can go to [urmod cut[/url] and [urlmod cut[/url] to see what they have going and where. I did notice that Shea has moved their price upward in one community. Best of luck to you.
Last edited by Waterlily; 09-07-2007 at 05:31 PM..
Reason: sorry no ads
Ah, where to retire. It seems to be the biggest question of all. My husband and I retired 5 years ago and moved from Pleasanton, CA to Las Vegas. We chose Las Vegas ONLY because it was growing and we would get our $$ back when we sold the house. We knew we weren't desert people...our "list" included trees and nearby lakes/streams. The plan was to spend 5 years trying to find the perfect place. You know, the one we all want. Perfect weater, low cost of living, low crime rates, low taxes, good medical care, and whatever your "special" items are (for me it was city ammenities, for my husband it was fishing/golf).
This is our own view, but for us, we looked all over Washington (too much rain west, too much snow northeast, too "desert" southeast, too many hidden taxes, etc.). We looked at Fairfield Glade TN (lots of potential, loved the area, didn't like the closest town...). Too much rain going into eastern TN but there are some beautiful areas. We looked at areas south of Nashville (too crowded), we looked at Huntsville (too humid). We looked at several areas of Texas, but the property taxes and humidity put is off. We also looked at EVERY town in New Mexico as we love the state...however, it's too poor, Santa Fe is too expensive, Las Vegas NM too many problems, Albuquerque (sp?) too big, Las Cruces is desert and too windy, Ruidoso too small, too much snow...likewise most of Colorado as far as snow. East coast was out (My husband is from New Hampshire) from the beginning. Winters were too long.
In other words...we spent 5 years figuring out that there is no perfect place.
You have to find an area you love that meets a reasonable definition of your biggest factors. For us it was weather, taxes, and stuff to do. Now I'm sure that there are lots of great places out there, but for us, we ended up in the Branson/Springfield area of SW Missouri. It has a reasonable cost of living, relatively mild winters, relatively close to St. Louis and KC for big city shopping (although Springfield has most things now), and lots to do....shows, boating, fishing, golf, restaurants, etc.
I'm from the Bay Area so tornadoes scare me somewhat..but so do earthquakes and forest fires. I'm not too worried in that there are very few (if any) tornadoes in the area near Branson..too hilly, too many lakes. The weather service also warns you if there is severe weather in the area...unlike an earthquake that hits with no warning. One actually has a better chance of their house burning down no matter where they live than of having either a tornado or an earthquake gettcha. It's a matter of what your used to dealing with. So don't let those factors put you off too much. Poisonous snakes? I don't know of any state that doesn't have them although Washington has fewer than most of the southern states. Same for spiders, ticks, and chiggers.
And yes, it can be humid here...but we're in the upper south (or lower midwest depending on your definition) and it's not humid all of the time in the summer. There are days when it's a little sticky, but for the most part it is ok. Plus you get used to it after awhile. Not much snow down this way...they may occasionally get a few inches but it's gone in a couple of days (although there have been the occasional 12" snow falls). The further north ya go the more you get plus the occasional ice storm.
Last edited by mrschilicook; 09-14-2007 at 02:21 PM..
Reason: grammer
Good post Mrschilicook! Many of us are reading this forum because we are still looking for that perfect place. I guess that includes me although I now know there is no perfect place. Instead I'm looking for places that will be alright for us.
I spent about a year reading,and looking up books for retirement places. I made a list of some of them. Next I started looking around online for information. Well..after a while I ran across city-data. Next I found the forums. I thought it was great. Here I could go ask some questions, only I ended up answering a lot of questions too. There were so many places to consider,and lots of information. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I crossed off some cities I had on my list. I added some new ones and I'm still looking for new places. I actually have a notebook full of places I was considering. I am in no hurry. We'll take our time to decide on our place in the sun.
Last edited by Waterlily; 09-16-2007 at 05:34 PM..
In other words...we spent 5 years figuring out that there is no perfect place.
And for those who are in the "5 years from now .... 7 years from now" stage, keep in mind that an area you fall in love with might change and become a not-so-good place to retire, depending on your criteria.
10 years ago we moved to our current home, thinking "ahhh, this will be the place we spend the rest of our years." It was perfect: rural, quiet, not a lot of people, low taxes, non-existent crime, fairly close to a city that wasn't afflicted with sprawl and traffic. THEN the area was "discovered" and people began flocking here. Now, subdivisions and the attendant issues are getting closer and all of us who settled on 5-25 acre farms will one day be an island in the middle of sprawl. And many of us won't be able to keep our homes either because taxes are, even now, becoming too onerous for us. We expect to eventually see the pastures and barns we and our neighbors built for the hobby farms we hoped to enjoy in retirement be razed for another McMansionville. It definitely won't be our dream spot anymore.
My wife & I made a cross country move a year ago. It wasn't specifically a retirement move, but similar in many ways. If you'd like to read about our adventure, here's a link to a thread I started with a brief description of our journey.
Don't forget the good things that are near where you live now.
Like when you buy a new car, you often take for granted that it will have the features of the old one, but better. Sometimes this is a disappointment.
We live on the East coast, and like being near teaching hospitals, as they often have state of the art equipment and ideas. We also are near some good schools.
So when we move, we will be looking for a teaching hospital and at least one college that offers classes which appeal to senior citizens.
When we were working we wanted a secluded, slow paced community.
Now that we are retired for a bit, we want variety and people and thought provoking ideas. So, we are going to move to a city that is more crowded than the one we are now in. We will get a condo, rather than a house, which will give us no more hassles in trying to locate a good plumber, electrician, roofer, etc.
We also will not have a bother about shovelling snow or mowing the lawn.
We also can travel and not feel as vulnerable to theft as if we had a house.
We are moving, cross country, to Seattle, Wa.
But we also thought of Pittsburgh, Pa; Athens, Ga; Roanoke or Lynchburg, Va. All cities, all near colleges and teaching hospitals.
We are interested in the quality of the minds we will be living near, and enjoy a variety of different ideas. If an area seems to have its major outlet for a social life centering around church, we find ourselves backing off. To us, there are great, relatively safe, places in which to rear children, but they are not always the most interesting places for adults and keeping an older mind flexible and engaged. Most places with museums and theater and discussion groups are in cities, which I am eagerly looking foward to, having been stuck in suburbia for so long.
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Have you thought about Arizona? We retired in Tucson, which I just love, the climate (all those sunny days) is great, housing prices are good. We live in the country on 1 acre in a development with really really nice neighbors, some retired and some still working. Unfortunately we are moving back to the
The biggest question of all!
