How to decide where to live

[nswef]

We live in the country- only 1 acre, but the other properties have more acreage so we see houses but aren't right next to them. The closest town with grocery, bank, library, barber is 10-15 minute drive over the mountain.. 2 larger towns are 30 minutes, Baltimore and DC are 90 minutes or 300 depending on traffic! I often think of moving to "town" but we have decided to age in place as much as possible until driving is impossible. We will hire lawn mower people and snow blowing people but as of now- 68yrs. old- we seem to be doing OK. I cannot move farther south than MD - and have no desire to move farther north either. The beach calls me and we have a condo there- 4 hours away- but we don't go and stay long. I think if I were alone I might go and stay all winter there. In the meantime I am doing some clearing out of stuff. That itself is never ending, but I do it knowing sometime we will need to downsize and just what exactly is the point of keeping so many things. We had the house interior painted which resulted in many items put into the attic and not returned to the freshly painted rooms. A good move, now to get them out of the attic and GONE.

[Tybee]

IL, would you ever consider Galena, Illinois, or is it too far from your peeps?

I fell in love with this miner's cottage last week, at 312 Gear st, Galena:

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...84_rect/11_zm/

[iris lilies]

IL, would you ever consider Galena, Illinois, or is it too far from your peeps?

I fell in love with this miner's cottage last week, at 312 Gear st, Galena:

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...84_rect/11_zm/

that cottage is super cute! Too small for dailynliving though, and no land with it.

I have entertained Galena in my mind and even go there online occasionally to look at real estate. There, Hermann, Eureka Springs, all attractive little touristy river towns on hills. I would like a tourist town, I would volunteer during the festivals and etc, although I suspect we would tire of drunkenness in Hermann.

we always said we would retire in Tennessee, so I havent even looked there yet (online, of course.)

[JaneV2.0]

That's the downside of preferring suburbs--a lack of anything resembling architecture. Personally, I prefer contemporary houses (think of a random bunch of boxcars and garden sheds stuck together) or vacation cottages (think beachy; sandy floors). My house is kind of an amalgam of the two, but that's impossible to find where I'm headed (and hard to find here). And I do like a view.

[Teacher Terry]

I would buy a small house in town so when you can't drive you don't have to move again. WE moved into town 5 years ago and love it. It is nice to be able to walk places. I have done rural living with land when I lived in upstate NY but I was young. All that driving especially in snow gets old.

[pinkytoe]

When I was younger, I wanted the place in the country and still think about it. But the reality is that I detest driving in today's driving culture plus I like the choices that living in the city provides. I don't want to be too far removed when I get older and then have to make a huge move again. Also, practical things like municipal water and wastewater, trash service, etc. Don't want to think about things like wells and septic systems. I am sticking with my formula - inner ring suburbs (no newer than early 60s) in an economically healthy city/town with colleges and/or universities. I can grow veggies in my yard, keep chickens etc yet there are beautiful, wild places close by if I need to escape. My brother lives on four acres in a remote, mountainous area and I wonder about him as he gets older. If one of your choices is living outside a town with a 20 minute drive, that would be my pick for the long haul.

[SteveinMN]

When I was younger, I wanted the place in the country and still think about it. But the reality is that I detest driving in today's driving culture

A few people in this thread have mentioned not being huge fans of driving. Autonomous cars will change that. I'm not sure it will happen in our lifetimes, but they promise to alter the "I don't like to drive" equation. What they are unlikely to alter, however, is the time it takes to get from Point A to Point B and the relative expense of traveling longer distances. So there still will be that.

[ToomuchStuff]

A few people in this thread have mentioned not being huge fans of driving. Autonomous cars will change that. I'm not sure it will happen in our lifetimes, but they promise to alter the "I don't like to drive" equation. What they are unlikely to alter, however, is the time it takes to get from Point A to Point B and the relative expense of traveling longer distances. So there still will be that.

I miss the logic of a car driving for you, causing you to be a fan of driving a car?

[SteveinMN]

I miss the logic of a car driving for you, causing you to be a fan of driving a car?

Most people I know would rather have root canal than drive. For them, autonomous vehicles will be a godsend. Me, I think I'll keep my manual-transmission I-drive-it car as long as I can.

[Alan]

Most people I know would rather have root canal than drive. For them, autonomous vehicles will be a godsend. Me, I think I'll keep my manual-transmission I-drive-it car as long as I can.

While not self-driving, my current car is the smartest vehicle I've ever driven. If I want to make a phone call, I just tell it who to dial, issue voice commands to change audio or climate control, there are front facing cameras which monitor lanes and alert me if I get too close to one or the other, my cruise control adjusts itself to compensate for slower vehicles I may approach, while stopped at a traffic light it alerts me when the car in front of me moves and the manufacturer assures me that the car will automatically stop if something blocks my path although I've never tested that feature, my high beams automatically switch to low when oncoming traffic is detected.
My problem with that sort of technology comes from the fact that those systems sometimes turn themselves off during inclement weather such as a heavy rain which can adversely affect visibility. What would an autonomous car do in that case?