Where do you want to live?

[iris lilies]

As requested, here is a thread about places to live. Where we want to live, where we actually live, and why.

More to follow from me...

[Tybee]

We actually live in Michigan. OUr kids moved to Maine and have been asking us to follow. While we like it a lot, it seems to be in a housing bubble right now with prices flying upward and inventory going down.

I am also tempted by Virginia, over near the water, which is about six hour drive from my elderly parents in Va. That seems close enough to get out there to help,but still an area I like.

My husband likes mountains and I like ocean, so that is one problem.

[herbgeek]

I currently live in central Massachusetts. I'm adjacent to a state park (with one lot between, but no houses on my side of the road). On a dirt road. I like this location because so many of the activities I like to do are literally outside my door (bike riding, hiking..)

I'm here because I had lived for 10 years (8 longer than planned) in a condo that had been overpriced, so no one could resell and so it became mostly rental units in a town where residents don't typically take care of their things. I'd had enough of noise, both on the other side of the wall as well as outside where people would run their cars for 20 minutes early in the morning. I wanted a little house on a larger property so I wouldn't have to deal with people in such close proximity.

My dream location (ie when retired so I don't have to think about long commutes to a job) is in coastal Maine. I like being near the ocean, and I imagine Maine folks to have more simple living types than the Boston and suburbs area. I recognize that some of the simple living may be necessity and not choice. I don't need much in terms of "culture", I like being outside and having simple pursuits. Winters I'd like to RV it for a few months, likely the Carolinas or South Florida (family there).

[razz]

I really enjoy visiting different parts but love where I live right now - southern Ontario has a wonderful 4-season climate; great gardening opportunities; access to convenient amenities, Lake Erie, Shaw and Stratford festivals; travel from Toronto is easy; fantastic food production and down-to-earth people that I have come to know and love.

[Ultralight]

This is a cool thread!

Enjoying it so far.

[dado potato]

Speaking as a baby boomer who is reading McFaddens' book Aging Together, "the search for a good community" is not just a matter of finding a salubrious geographic location, but also tapping into communal engagement and connecting with people who can be friends. The next time I move, I hope it will be into something like cohousing, or something that approaches Dr. Martin Luther King's ideals of the Beloved Community.

[Ultralight]

The next time I move, I hope it will be into something like cohousing...

This is a cool idea, and in my opinion, when done well, it can be another form of social security.

It is evasive and elusive though. Here in ColumbOhio I was part of, and in some senses a leader, in an group that was trying to put together a co-housing, cooperative living community. We met for a year, watch documentaries, had guests speak about there time on communes, and we checked out big houses in neighborhoods, old hotels, old apartments, etc.

What I came to realize is this:
1. It usually takes some cash! And the more complicated your dream, the more cash you need.
2. Most people come in with some wild-eyed pipe dreams about 10 families buying a city block and turning it into an ecovillage. This, in my experience, goes nowhere.
3. The other issue is that everyone is very finicky about their living space, so finicky that no one wants to live with them and they don't wanna live with no one either. All this despite their desire for communal living.

What I kept advocating for was something realistic and doable on a budget.
We find a big house, rent it, then live together with a mission statement and some reasonable ground rules. And we make a focus of the whole thing saving money and being there for each other for support.

Again: Went nowhere but Nowheresville.

[Lainey]

This is a cool idea, and in my opinion, when done well, it can be another form of social security.

It is evasive and elusive though. Here in ColumbOhio I was part of, and in some senses a leader, in an group that was trying to put together a co-housing, cooperative living community. We met for a year, watch documentaries, had guests speak about there time on communes, and we checked out big houses in neighborhoods, old hotels, old apartments, etc.

What I came to realize is this:
1. It usually takes some cash! And the more complicated your dream, the more cash you need.
2. Most people come in with some wild-eyed pipe dreams about 10 families buying a city block and turning it into an ecovillage. This, in my experience, goes nowhere.
3. The other issue is that everyone is very finicky about their living space, so finicky that no one wants to live with them and they don't wanna live with no one either. All this despite their desire for communal living.

What I kept advocating for was something realistic and doable on a budget.
We find a big house, rent it, then live together with a mission statement and some reasonable ground rules. And we make a focus of the whole thing saving money and being there for each other for support.

Again: Went nowhere but Nowheresville.

Ultralight,
reminds me of a true story of an older cranky bachelor engineer. Years ago he worked for the same Megacorp that I just retired from and I didn't know him, so this is second-hand.
He owned a house in a cul-de-sac in a decent neighborhood. When the house next door came up for sale, he bought it and rented to a family he liked. Then proceeded to do the same with the remaining 5 houses in the cul-de-sac, so he owns all of the property and the only people who live around him are those he hand-selected. Closest thing to an intentional housing situation that I'd heard about that was actually successful

[Teacher Terry]

I have lived in WI, KS, TX, Upstate NY and now NV. I love northern Nevada. It has a mild 4 seasons climate and since I have been here 20 years I have lots of friends, etc. WE did move into town and downsize 5 years ago and it is nice to live in a walkable neighborhood. We are also about 45 min's to the mountains. So we will not be moving.

[JaneV2.0]

I absolutely LOVE it here on the Seattle Eastside, and it would feel like ripping off a limb to leave here, but most of my friends and family live in Oregon, and as I'm getting older...Ideally, they'd all just move up here, but practically speaking, that's a no-go.

I've been revisiting my old condo complex lately. I found a nice updated 2br 2bath unit a few weeks ago. If I weren't so risk-averse, I would have just made a down payment and started scrambling to get this house sold.

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