<p>Alwaysamom, and when it is said and done, we may never leave either. I’m very tired of the climate, though, I miss autumn, and the airport situation is a real killer because we would want to travel. We may end up moving in the area where my husband’s parents live, they have a warm 4 season climate, snow is a rarity, and live about 60 miles from the Atl airport.</p>
<p>My parent’s plan for a long time was to move to Chapel Hill, NC to buy a laundromat and live partly off the money they made off of it…</p>
<p>Unfortunately retirement isn’t in their future (life…), but I always thought it would be a great idea to own a small low-impact business in retirement in a college town to keep yourself young (and keep some stream of income…).</p>
<p>Another retirement factor I’ve seen for some is to attempt to live where their kids settle so they can be near them and grandkids. Of course this can be logistically difficult if the kids move a few times.</p>
<p>Although I grew up in many places (military father), I’m fortunate to have ended up in San Diego and have been here for over 25 years. I really like San Diego so I’ll probably stay here. Unfortunately, plenty of other people seem to like it here also so it’s getting more and more crowded. </p>
<p>One problem with these kinds of lists in articles is that they can be heavily skewed by housing prices. Places like San Diego and other popular coastal communities would never make the list because of the housing prices. For some people this is a very important factor but for others the higher housing prices are worth it if they can afford it.</p>
<p>Not that I am candidate for voluntary retirement anytime soon, but how about naming more places to retire to?</p>
<p>My dream place:</p>
<p>Carmel, California</p>
<p>The problem is there are so many interesting places, it’s so hard to just pick one.</p>
<p>It almost seems like it would be easier to just throw a dart at the map, and wherever it lands, just go there.</p>
<p>The problem IMO is that the truly great places have very expensive real estate and do not make these lists. The CA coast and especially SB, high end Fl, Nantucket and similar (part year for your millions), Aspen and Vail and so on.</p>
<p>Carmel is beautiful and real estate is down now. You can probably get 800 sq. ft. with a view if you crane your neck for a few million.</p>
<p>If I had infinite money I’d retire to New York City.</p>
<p>alwaysamom, I’m with you. I can’t imagine having to leave our town. I feel the friends and support systems I/we have developed here would be difficult to replace. After all these people are the ones who have already seen you through many of life’s ups and downs and I want to be here for them, and they for me through the next stage of life.</p>
<p>I don’t mind snow, but yeah, if there’s no ocean within an easy drive, it ain’t happening.</p>
<p>I crave salt water-
when we looked at neighborhoods in seattle even, I prefered living closer to the sound, even though at the time, the neighborhoods by lake washington were more popular</p>
<p>However- H really likes up in the mountains- but he did say he will consider Pacific Beach
But I doubt we are retiring anytime soon</p>
<p>My niece attended Bloomington, as long as her dad lived in Granger, but came back to Washington when he did.
Indiana- at least some parts of Indiana, might be little “confined” for someone used to a more urban diverse area.</p>
<p>My sister in law, who is Columbian, also said that there is the assumption that Hispanics are housekeepers/gardeners/nannies. ( not that there is anything wrong with those occupations), and in the country club section of town where they lived, ( which was cheap compared to what they pay out here), she found it difficult to make friends with neighbors.</p>
<p>Also still KKK</p>
<p>So while some might find more rural areas quaint and affordable, others may find them a little too provincial .</p>
<p>I hear Bellingham is very popular though & I love Vancouver BC</p>
<p>I do expect we will move at some point- but also depends where kids end up-</p>
<p>I also know some who are “technically” retired I suppose, having worked at Microsoft very early on ;)- but they are far from retired as far as participating in the community.</p>
<p>I expect many people may switch careers but still will be involved barring health problems, as long as they can.</p>
<p>Even my neighbor who is in her 90s, and was a tailor for a dept store, still hikes and even does a little sewing for friends and relations.</p>
<p>Your health is certainly much more important I think than where you live, because it enables you to more fully participate & the more you participate, the healthier you are :D</p>
<p>Coeur d’Alene is a great place but the 40 mile trek to the Spokane airport can be a hassle and be prepared to fly west to SEA-TAC even if your final destination is somewhere east.</p>
<p>Im not sure about retiring to Anacortes. There is a LOT of car, car + boat, car + RV, car + boat + RV and big-ole RV traffic to and from the San Juan ferries.</p>
<p>AlwaysAMom wrote:
</p>
<p>I honestly have never contemplated the question that is the subject of this thread. I don’t have any plans or notion of retiring some place else. I like where I already live. If we have the time or money, I like traveling but I like coming home here. Maybe that is because we went through this “picking a place to live” in the first place right after graduate school. We didn’t land in this state by chance but it was a choice about where we wanted to live. So, we are not here biding our time until we can go live some place we REALLY want to live. We like it here just fine. </p>
<p>For my own parents, with regard to retirement, they have a second home where they would go to live for four months or so out of the year. That is not an option for everyone, I realize. Their main home is still in the town they lived in their entire adult lives. For my in laws, they plan to stay in the same town all their days and they are about 80, and chose their town and moved there after graduate school.</p>
<p>I agree on Anacortes…I think Bellingham and outskirts it better, 2 hours to Seattle, but only 1 hour to Vancouver.</p>
<p>I had always thought I would stay put. To me, community is not something one buys but an intangible that is created through a shared history over many years. Sadly, we find that some of our dearest friends have moved away from our area. The taxes are so high that people often leave when their kids finish school. It’s not that we want to leave our community, but in some ways our community has left us. Although we have no immediate plans to leave, we spend many weekends away visiting family and friends now rather than involved in our local community. I didn’t expect to be this kind of empty nester. </p>
<p>It is likely that one or both of our children will settle here, which would be enough to keep us in the area, but if not I suspect we may make a “lifestyle choice” and start looking for a promising retirement destination. NYC or a college town would top the list. Time will tell.</p>
<p>As someone who’s lived within a 15-mile radius her whole life (minus college in PA), I’ve spent plenty of time wishing I could live somewhere else-- preferably someplace more rural. But now that H and I are nearing 50 I’m not so sure–</p>
<p>In a perfect world I’d take our home and town, cut them out, and plop them down somewhere a little bit less congested. Nearby mountains would be nice. Winter and snow are OK, but I could do without those 90+ degree summer days!</p>
<p>At this point, it would be hard to imagine living anywhere else. Have no idea how we’ll feel years down the road when the kids have moved out, though. I love our home, but the larger surrounding area is over-developed, and the congestion, traffic, and bottleneck of bridges and NYC is too much. </p>
<p>My mother’s neighbors on Cape Cod have a good system. They buy a summer house, spend weekends and/or summers there for years, (some rent them out, some don’t) and by the time they move there permanently at retirement, they’re already “at home” in their new home. </p>
<p>My current dream spots are New England and upstate NY, but I’ll pass judgement until I get to see the northwest US someday.</p>
<p>Maybe part of this is because I already live in an area where many retire to or own second homes. I live in the mountains in a ski resort area in Vermont. We picked to live here 26 years ago. So, it is not like there is anything I want to escape. Others escape where they live to come here either on vacation, as a second home, or to retire.</p>
<p>I am similar to Soovievt. 20 years ago we made a decision to move and put thought into our location. It has changed but we still love coming home. When we go away on vacation especially a driving one we are still in awe when we make the bend in the hwy and see the ocean. Our town is a mix of families who have been here for generations and newcomers. After 20 yrs we are probably still considered newcomers. Most of my children feel they will come home to live in this town at some point in their lives. Many people do retire here. But it has become so expensive that it is out of reach to most people. We are lucky we came when we did. I have seen some friends and neighbors move to less expensive locations but not many. You could sell your home here and live most places quite comfortably. My husband sometimes talks about selling and moving to a more rural location but it will never happen. He see’s himself still playing volleyball at the beach at noon when he is 70.
Other Ca town’s that I consider as retirement spots. Ojai- also now expensive, Santa Ynez valley which until a few years ago wasn’t so costly. A place that is not as expensive as other coastal locales and has many retired people is Morro Bay. Another spot if you are interested in ocean that has gone up in price but not astronomical is strangely enough the tiny beach sections of Oxnard Ca. (Hollywood Beach, Oxnard Shores, Silverstrand)</p>
<p>Bloomington IN Coeur d’Alene ID, two very pretty places whose serene environments have been unfortunately disrupted time-to-time by loud bigots.</p>
<p>Don’t know about Bloomington, but there are communities (last 20-25 years) in northern Idaho between CDA and Sandpoint that have a large concentration of retired LA and southern Calif policemen (Mark Furman, et al).</p>
<p>Most of the Aryan’s have either left or gone underground after Butler’s compound was seized.</p>
<p>Soozievt, a very good friend of mine in D.C. is from Vermont, where her parents still live. She goes home often, and the way she describes the area where they live - it sounds breathtakingly beautiful, almost magical. During Christmas in particular it sounds like a winter wonderland. </p>
<p>Then just after Easter she tells me they’ve decided to look for property in North Carolina to retire, and, I couldn’t help but think, WHY? I’d bet real money that they look around in NC and decide not to move for retirement, after all. I do not see how they could bear to leave an area that is as beautiful as what my friend describes, and especially considering that her parents have lived there for so very long…</p>
<p>LatetoSchool…I can see why those VT folks might consider retiring in NC. SOME people just want to get away from winter, especially as they get older. That is a common thing for people in the Northeast…to want to go south or to other year round warm climes. For me, I enjoy the change of seasons and it makes life interesting. Some have had it with winters. So, even though Vermont is indeed a beautiful magical place, some don’t want to live where there is a winter season like this and just be in a warm place all year long. It so happens that my nearest neighbor (shares part of my long driveway) bought the home as a second home and they live in NC.</p>