We’re considering Florida for retirement in possibly the next 3-5 years. We’ve visited South Florida area and decided that’s not a fit for us (although we really had a good time there). Any recommendations for other beach areas that aren’t too expensive? My spouse is more open to other states such as AZ, TX, NC as long as it’s tax friendly and temperate climate year round. I’d really like to live near the beach and my S/O is open to any body of water (except swamps lol). Help!
Charleston or Beaufort, SC
^^I second Charleston. Plenty to do when you tire of the beach.
Temperate climate year round is why CA is so expensive. Can you get your spouse and S/O to agree on a place?
The Space Coast in Florida is very nice - Titusville, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne.
The waters of the CA beaches are generally too cold, IMO. And I don’t think that anybody retires TO California because of the high state income tax. Instead, many leave upon retirement… If you want beaches and to avoid state income taxes entirely, TX and FL are your only options. The TX beaches are not so great; Padre Island is fine, but it’s isolated… The beaches in the FL panhandle (e.g., Destin) are ridiculously white, and the weather is much milder than in southern FL. The winters there are actually too cold for us… If lakes fit the bill, look at those neighboring Austin.
@whatisyourquest we are from CA and want to escape it because of the high taxes, lol. Thanks for the FL suggestion. How cold are you talking about in FL? We’ve talked about Austin but I think housing costs might be more there compared to FL.
@twoinanddone thanks for the suggestions, I’ll research those cities
@vonlost sorry spouse and S/O are same person :). Anyway, no I cannot get him to agree. He loves living in SoCal but knows we cannot retire here because of the high COL. He has a weird perception that anywhere in FL will have a gator problem even though we’ve been to Miami area :-?
I’m in NY and want to retire to where I will NEVER see snow again except on TV. H likes the water. Now that I have finally gotten him to consider leaving NY, we are looking at places like Greenville, SC. We want to be at least an hour from the beach as we lived through Superstorm Sandy in a water-based town. H won’t consider Florida at all, though I am the one more scared of gators.
^ The lows in the FL Panhandle in the winter are in the mid-40s. Summer highs don’t quite reach 90:
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/Florida/Places/destin-temperatures-by-month-average.php
My brother lives in Santa Rosa in the Panhandle and they love it there. Seriously, the beaches look like they are covered with snow, not sand… The housing prices in the Panhandle are also considerably lower than in Miami, Boca, or Fort Lauderdale. My brother says that the only downside is rowdy tourists coming from AL and MS.
Yes, Austin is getting to be very expensive. You could also check out the rivers in the TX Hill Country, places like New Braunfels, Dripping Springs, and Concan. Very pretty area:
http://texashillcountry.com/cities-in-the-texas-hill-country/
Housing should be much less expensive there than in Austin.
I’m also retired and a CA expat. PM me, if you want specifics about our experiences.
I wouldn’t say AZ has decent temps year round…unless you live in Flagstaff…and really…there isn’t much water there either!
We aren’t beach people…and we like the climate in Winston Salem. Still 4 seasons…but a milder winter for sure.
The area north of Myrtle Beach is nice too…Longs, for example.
You might like southwest coast of Florida (Naples/Ft Myers/Sanibel etc) Much different vibe than east coast.
My cousin just retired to Austin from Boston but only because their D/SIL and grandchildren live there. They love it but it’s definitely not inexpensive for housing (but cheaper than Boston.) They also had to buy fairly expensive house (about $1M) so they didn’t have to pay cap gains tax on sale of Boston house.
We were there in May for family bar mitzvah and loved Austin. It’s hopping 24/7. We wouid consider it if it wasn’t in Texas (I won’t live in certain states because of politics.)
@CALSmom , you might want to look around Naples, FL. It is pretty different from Miami.
One of our CCers retired to San Diego!
Consider estate taxes, too. One estate tax attorney used to joke that to maximize one’s estate, one needs to work in WA, shop in OR, and die in CA.
@emilybee that’s crazy about your cousin! We’re definitely not looking at that price range. But thanks for the FL insight…you too @gardenstategal
@BunsenBurner San Diego is a nice place to retire in terms of climate and atmosphere but I want a change and I told my H he got to live the past ten years where he wanted to so now it’s my turn 
Plus we’ll get more bang for our buck in FL with no tax on retirement money (plus no estate/inheritance tax).
Our youngest will graduate college by 2023. If he decides to attend college in FL that’s even better for us!
I’ve looked at Kiplinger’s top ten list and FL is #6…the top five are not places I see myself or H spending our golden years. http://www.kiplinger.com/slideshow/retirement/T037-S001-10-most-tax-friendly-states-for-retirees-2016/index.html
We absolutely would move to Sn Diego…but it is not affordable for us…at all. Housing there is very costly, and we don’t want to live an hour outside of San Diego! Same with the Seattle area…would love to go,there… it it’s not realistic financially for us.
Naples area is nice…but amongst the most costly areas in FL.
We will be taking a trip to the St. Augustine area to check it out. And we will revisit Winston Salem. But we are not at all interested in living near the beach…and that is low on our criteria list…if we move.
Check out Cocoa Beach (the wide beaches are beautiful!) and Melbourne area on east coast. Both are about an hour from Orlando (although Melbourne has a ton of shopping of it’s own). Doctors, hospitals, grocery stores are all close by making for convenient living.
Englewood and Venice area on west coast. Punta Gorda (30 min south) is often rated as top retirement spot. Very different from the Naples area and further south areas. Again, these areas are convenient to amenities that retirees look for.
Haven’t been to Pensacola for more than a drive-through but it is very pretty. Does get cold! Florida considers it southern AL.
Thanks @gouf78 for the suggestions
We’re the CC’ers that retired to San Diego and haven’t regretted it for a minute. We looked at warm weather locations around the country - particularly near a city and large body of water. Ruled out Florida and Texas because of summer weather. And Palmetto bugs and hurricanes! I absolutely love living here and my quality of life is everything that I hoped for after leaving winter. We don’t have the level of culture and dining that we had in Chicagoland but I had 40 years of that already. And now that DS is in Seattle, we can always visit him for a more urban fix.
We knew it would be expensive to live here and it is. But overall (other than the cost of the house), it isn’t that much worse than Illinois. Our property taxes are lower with a house worth 30% more. Our state income taxes are actually little different than they would be in Illinois. Even though retirement earnings are taxed, California has a graduated income tax as opposed to the flat tax of Illinois. We are far from the highest tax rates. Also California allows itemized deductions which has been a great help considering the cost of retiree medical insurance premiums. Now that we’re on Medicare the effect will be less. Energy costs are very high even though we use much less power overall, and gas is also high but we don’t drive all the far so not a budget issue. Obviously everyone’s situation will differ.
Off to lounge around our resort style pool for a few hours…and Monday is Beach Day with our Meetup group.
Ambergris Caye, Belize 
We also have friends who recently retired from PA-NJ areas to the Bay Area and they love it ! No thank you to the high humidity in TX and FL.