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Thread: Moving to a low-cost-of-living area to retire?

  1. #71
    Senior Member bae's Avatar
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    If my current divorce project runs off the rails, I am contemplating moving from the island down to Seattle, dumping the real estate up here, and getting a nice $750k 1 bedroom apartment down in Seattle.

  2. #72
    Senior Member dmc's Avatar
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    We originally planned on just buying a condo in the south and doing the snowbird thing. But the more I thought about it I just didn’t want to maintain two homes. So we ended up moving south and selling our Midwest home. We didn’t downsize like I wanted, and the cost of living isn’t really less. But it’s still cheaper than maintaining two homes. We just take lots of trips now in the summer.

  3. #73
    Williamsmith
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    I am not opposed to perhaps a tax friendly place like Tennessee which is far enough south to escape the evil winters but far enough north and inland to to protect from devasting hurricanes. It would place me geographically equidistant between my youngest and my two older children within a days drive. However, I would miss them just popping in on the weekend and the friends and connections I have in my current location. I would be hard pressed to find a lower cost of living situation and I am not rolling in the dough.

  4. #74
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bae View Post
    If my current divorce project runs off the rails, I am contemplating moving from the island down to Seattle, dumping the real estate up here, and getting a nice $750k 1 bedroom apartment down in Seattle.
    Ha! I was browsing local real estate yesterday, and you're not far off. Pedestrian condos in this area are running $500k, which is depressing. Maybe I should reconsider dusty little Maupin.

  5. #75
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    Retirement living opens up possibilities of relocating into an area of population decline due to a recent history of job loss. Communities affected by job losses and population decline will typically have a blighted downtown, limited choices for restaurants and other services. Schools (maybe not essential to retirees with empty nests), churches, service clubs may be in long-term decline as the population ages.


    Buying an existing house or renting an apartment can be astonishingly affordable. I am linking a tool which can be used to compare "Median House Value" for any 2 zip codes.


    http://www.homefair.com/real-estate/city-profile

  6. #76
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dado potato View Post
    Retirement living opens up possibilities of relocating into an area of population decline due to a recent history of job loss. Communities affected by job losses and population decline will typically have a blighted downtown, limited choices for restaurants and other services. Schools (maybe not essential to retirees with empty nests), churches, service clubs may be in long-term decline as the population ages.
    I'm not sure if you're recommending this tactic or not...

    So just about the time when things like the availability of mass transit and timely maintenance of things like streetlights and sidewalks and abandoned buildings becomes more important, you should move to an area that's continually scaling back such services? Without an influx of new taxpayers, most areas will continue their downward spiral. Good schools build communities, even if one doesn't have a kid to send to them. Economic opportunity -- including the ability to start one's own small business in an area that people want to live in (or at least visit) keeps an area vibrant and supplies tax dollars; that's hard to accomplish in blighted downtowns or neglected strip malls or neighborhoods which are at least perceived as "dangerous". It's surprising how much an abandoned house next door -- or several of them in the neighborhood -- spikes home insurance premiums even for owner-occupied houses.

    I'm not sure this is the moneysaver it appears to be.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  7. #77
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    most areas will continue their downward spiral.
    This is depressingly true. So many areas in America are becoming blighted. Full of criminals and drug addicts. It is not a scenario a senior citizen would want to find themselves in unless they have no other options.

  8. #78
    Williamsmith
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    Quote Originally Posted by pinkytoe View Post
    This is depressingly true. So many areas in America are becoming blighted. Full of criminals and drug addicts. It is not a scenario a senior citizen would want to find themselves in unless they have no other options.
    This is why many of the rust belt states elected our current President. This also why I am torn. My community is full of friendly retirees, professionals that I use that are soon to retire or have already, and a decaying infrastructure complete with the housing blight, school deterioration and increased taxes on the remaining native population. The future does not seem bright yet I struggle to pull up roots and navigate to a more promising scenario even though I know from my travels such exists. 3/4 of my immediate family live near me. It’s an issue I revisit often.

  9. #79
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Being near friends and family is important. I have lived here 21 years, have moved often and don’t want to start over again.

  10. #80
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pinkytoe View Post
    This is depressingly true. So many areas in America are becoming blighted. Full of criminals and drug addicts. It is not a scenario a senior citizen would want to find themselves in unless they have no other options.
    I'm interested in seeing how the huge shift in loss of storefront retail to internet will play out even in vibrant cities. One of my NYC friends posted an article about all the landmark NYC stores that are shuttering. Can you imagine the tumbleweeds rolling down the 5th avenue the way they are in some of the Midwestern cities?? I think we need to acknowledge vast changes in how community operates--not just from the commercial front, but the social front, too, and anticipate a lot more change before we figure it all out.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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