@colorado_mom I’ve done the COL calculator for everywhere we’ve lived so far and they’ve always been just so wrong. I can say with certainty that we won’t be giving up a car. At some point I would have to drive somewhere, and my husband is a bit crazy and ocd when it comes to his car. I’ve never even been allowed to sit in it, let alone drive it- and it’s not because there is anything special about the car. This particular peccadillo would make sharing difficult.
Average rent in Bellingham is $1,950 per month according to Zillow. Surrounding area averages $1,850 per month.
P.S. If you move to the New Orleans area, it will be easy to explore the Mississippi Gulf Coast & its communities, then venture to Alabama & Pensacola, Florida Gulf Coast beach communities.
Alabama beaches are beautiful & the beaches in the Panhandle area of Florida are spectacular.
Mississippi has some attractive beach communities, but not breathtakingly beautiful as the state park beaches in the Florida Panhandle. Grayton Beach State Park & Caladesi Island State Park (Dunedin, Florida).
Many public, commercial beaches in the Florida Panhandle are rated among the top beaches in the US.
Orange Beach in Alabama & another more popular area–an island that I cannot recall at this time–are exceptional as well.
My mother lives in Palos Verdes. Incredibly beautiful. Easy access to beaches and great hillside hiking. Wonderful restaurants, lots of music venues, a few theaters, superb libraries, close to good hospitals and not far from LAX and a few other airports. I would have NO PROBLEM calling the PV Peninsula my home, no problem at all!
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Does anyone know what average rent on Zillow or COL calculators are using to get their numbers?
I do not trust Zillow numbers at all.
Zillow owns another listing website which does use inflated numbers. In my limited experience, Zillow has been fairly accurate.
P.S. However, I did lose out to a higher offer on my dream lot because I trusted past sales numbers & Zillow’s estimate value which turned out to be too low–although higher than past sales suggested-- for this exceptional acre plus waterfront lot ( I should have known better).
Assuming that you make the move to New Orleans, both Gulf Shores, Alabama and Pensacola, Florida are just a 3 hour drive from New Orleans.
Lots of affordable housing within an hour drive of either the Alabama beaches or the Florida Panhandle beaches.
Well a typical house 2 bed, 2 bath that would be less then &$250,000 in NC is about $1.5-2.4 million dollars at the same square footage. Saw a great looking $7.5 million dollar house… Lol…
I’m in the bay area and Zillow seems pretty darn accurate.
Zillow is accurate for rents when you search for actual homes or apartments listed for rent. I would ignore any “estimated” rental values.
We move a lot & find Zillow is petty accurate in areas with a lot of turnover and/or for properites that are reasonably typical in the area (which is intuitively sensible). The last 2 places we sold the Zillow estimate turned out to be closer to the actual price than the real estate agent’s was!
COL calculators are good for first pass, but they are not detailed by neighborhood etc. We used the to convince our son that his job offer salaries (in CA and Boston) were nice, but not as nice as they sounded once you factor in COL difference from Denver.
https://www.nerdwallet.com/cost-of-living-calculator/compare/denver-co-vs-boston-ma
I have found it’s very hard to compare places for retirement.
They don’t meet all of your criteria, but we are considering the research triangle in NC, along with Wilmington NC (but worried about hurricanes) and a couple of places in Colorado (maybe Fort Collins or Loveland). I was unable to quickly find a site that told me the property tax rate in Fort Collins. It sounds rather complicated there.
Be careful that you’re comparing for your situation.
Do estate or inheritance taxes matter?
Does having to vacate for hurricanes or other natural disasters (wildfires, tornadoes?)
@1214mom, no I can’t imagine ever having to think about estate or inheritance taxes. Most places have some sort of natural disaster, and we’ve lived through hurricanes, earthquakes, nor’easters, tornadoes, and fires, so I don’t plan to base a decision around that.
And even with that, Zillow only lists what Zillow lists. There are plenty others that are not picked up by Zillow, so Zillow average is not very representative of the area.
@BunsenBurner - I agree that a Zillow “average” is suspect, but listings on Zillow, whether for sale or for rent, represent actual data points of what an owner is willing to do.
Another problem with determining rents is when supply and demand are out of whack. We’re currently building apartments in a small oceanside community where there are virtually no apartments available to rent, there is very little apartment turnover, and most apartments rent for about the same prices they fetched 10 years ago. There’s a lot of demand but very little supply. It’ll be interesting to see what we’re able to charge. I believe we’ll do well.
@Knowsstuff Italy is a fairly friendly country to immigrating retirees. Since we have no restrictions, I do not know details but I know it is not difficult to obtain resident visas, even purchase property.
Many know of the $1 auctions for properties, and those are legit. But, they come with a very strict set of rules for property restoration. That isn’t as terrifying as it is in the US; property restoration is extremely common and the community of tradespeople is large, very skilled, and very reasonably priced. But…restoration is slooooow. Expect at least a year. There are many realtors who work closely with the project managers and the trades. So, quite possible to manage all of this from the US. When you are purchasing a place in Italy, properties are organized by level of restoration needed. One can buy a pile of rocks (literally) in the countryside, yet there will be strict guidelines in what structure needs to be rebuilt there. The good news is the Italians are pretty good at gorgeous residential real estate. Purchasing a fully renovated home is more expensive than doing a restoration project. Very different than in the US in many areas.
We have fully investigated the northern area, and love both Milan and Turin. The proximity to other European countries is our biggest attraction to the north. The middle has Bologna (I think the most livable large city in Italy) Tuscany (famous for a darn good reason) and Umbria. We favor Umbria, in particular Perugia because of the large university.
Rome is out. Husband wishes to be with 1.5 hours of Rome, but other the airport (usually the cheapest flights), I don’t care about being near Rome.
East of Lazio (Rome) is Abruzzo, which most Americans know nothing of. Rather remote but the seaside towns are lovely. Mountains and fabulous national parks.
The naples/Campania region is where I am mentally targeting. The sorrento peninsula is unmatched but just south of there are seaside communities almost as striking where no international tourists venture. On the other side of the foot of the boot is Lecce and Bari areas of Puglia. Rather tropical and gorgeous and and quite affordable.
I am not familiar with Calabria or Sicily.
With the exception of the north, one can get a 2 bedroom apartment in a non-touristy village for $40k. It will be basic but completely livable. For $80k in a non-famous community you can get something quite nice.
Italy is a poor country. It has 10% unemployment. It has had a very low birth rate and is seeking residents. I do not speak Italian (husband does) and I would not want to live in a different country than my children full-time, but it ticks a lot of our boxes for part-time living.
At the moment, Italy might not be a great place to travel, with the increase in coronavirus cases https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/coronavirus-china-live-updates/2020/02/24/58bdab58-56ad-11ea-ab68-101ecfec2532_story.html
@cypresspat. Thanks for that information. Memories of being there are rushing back… It’s intriguing but also wouldn’t want to be there full-time. Funny thing is I speak broken Spanish from high school but it sorta comes back when I need it. When we went to Italy, I actually learned enough phrases literally on the plane ride over… Lol… My two main questions daily since we back packed and our adventures were completely random were “how much is that” and "do you have hot water " (for the showers/baths)… Lol… We actually managed in small seaside towns with almost no tourists. We were there in the fall time.
@jym626. Yep. Not going anywhere except Detroit to visit family. As an aside my daughter might go back to Indonesia this summer but already told her it might be a no from us unless this gets under control and especially there… Kinda scary