<p>As someone said, Portland is great, and so are the wineries. Unfortunately, to get from point P to point W, and vice versa, you have to drive through Dundee ;)</p>
<p>there are the 99E wineries.</p>
<p>I like calculators that compare cost of living in different areas…</p>
<p>Like this…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.bestplaces.net/col/[/url]”>http://www.bestplaces.net/col/</a></p>
<p>[Cost</a> of Living Comparison: compare Irvine, California to Portland, Oregon](<a href=“http://www.bestplaces.net/col/?salary=50000&city1=50636770&city2=54159000]Cost”>http://www.bestplaces.net/col/?salary=50000&city1=50636770&city2=54159000)</p>
<p>“A salary of $50,000 in Irvine, California could decrease to $39,324 in Portland, Oregon”</p>
<p>“A salary of $50,000 in San Diego, California could decrease to $46,910 in Portland, Oregon”</p>
<p>“A salary of $50,000 in Irvine, California could decrease to $41,914 in San Diego, California”</p>
<p>A salary of $50,000 in Portland, Oregon should increase to $53,293 in San Diego, California</p>
<p>depends on the neighborhood…so the calculators are far from perfect…</p>
<p>but maybe San Diego can work…</p>
<p><a href=“Cost of Living Calculator | Salary.com”>http://swz.salary.com/CostOfLivingWizard/LayoutScripts/Coll_Start.aspx</a></p>
<p>I think renting in any community before you buy is an excellent idea. DH and I rented for nine months when we moved to Portland. During that time, we looked at all kinds of Portland neighborhoods and houses. While we ended up buying the second house we saw (it was sold and unsold during the nine months), we were really sure of what we wanted by the time we actually bought.</p>
<p>Very interesting - I have been in that calculator before but not lately. I just did the COL for our home town and learned that it would be cheaper to live just about everywhere else under discussion - solely because of the cost of housing in our home town. I put in Honolulu just for fun - it’s more expensive! This is better results than a few years ago, if I remember correctly. I think that’s promising…</p>
<p>On renting - I think it’s a great idea but DH does not want to move multiple times so not sure if he’d agree. I hate to be the only one compromising because I’m the one with the greater interest, but it may come to that. Ah well - if he wasn’t so set in his ways, he might not have stuck with me for 35 years! ;)</p>
<p>" Ah well - if he wasn’t so set in his ways, he might not have stuck with me for 35 years! "</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Renting is an excellent idea.</p>
<p>I’m surprised, housing in even the best Chicagoland areas seems much more reasonable than in most of CA. Also adjust your expectations. What friends bought in Winnetka for $1.4 million would be $3-4 million in an equal San Diego neighborhood.</p>
<p>Well…the weather is better in California. :)</p>
<p>Just a data point for you - </p>
<p>Today I drove home from work with the top down…in my short sleeves!</p>
<p>Unless you happen to live in a recently burned, flooded, mudslided neighborhood. Not to mention the past and future quake damages. Bit if you choose well it’s very nice.</p>
<p>^^ It’s hard to pick an area of the country that doesn’t have its share of natural phenomenon to deal with but simply not needing to drive often in rain/snow probably trumps the dangers of most areas since it’s driving accidents due to adverse weather that probably has the most impact and danger to most people.</p>
<p>Ah, UCSD etc Dad - my San Jose expert! I will be PM’ing when we start researching your area in earnest, if you’re available for advice.</p>
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<p>We actually did this when we were in Irvine - husband ended up with a rental convertible for a day. We put down the top when we hit Newport Beach and kept it down until brunch in Laguna Beach. It was in the high 40’s but we didn’t care! And yet he still wasn’t convinced…</p>
<p>We don’t want to be in the hills anyway - stick to the flatlands - so maybe earthquakes but no mudslides or forest fires!</p>
<p>I mentioned some of these suggestions to my husband who was out of town until yesterday. He asked why everything was in California and I said you were all west coasters. (He thinks I’m fixated on CA - don’t know why LOL.) I did mention the Austin and North Carolina ideas, both of which we’d considered. I really don’t think there are any areas left that we haven’t looked into, to be honest. Unless I’m willing to accept winter, that is. We might end up being from “X” and “Y”. We once spent a couple of days in Maine and everyone we talked to seemed to be from two places - “We’re from New York and Florida.” “We’re from New Jersey and Florida”.</p>
<p>Marilyn- on being from 2 places. The Palm Springs, Palm Desert area is a popular place for 2nd homes. The architecture reminds me of Irvine. Maybe because all the houses seem to be some shade of beige or tan.
I grew up in the South Bay part of Los Angeles and H on the Westside. We lived for a time in Santa Monica. I did not know Orange County at all. D lived for a short time in Laguna Hills and Costa Mesa and worked in Laguna Beach. We discovered an area that we had not known about. Laguna Beach, Newport and Huntington near the coast is really nice. Expensive and lots of traffic but very pretty.
I don’t know San Diego well but H and D were watching Man versus Food last night and they were in San Diego. Looked wonderful. Ocean and lots of cute dining spots.
We visited N and S Carolina this fall for the first time. I liked the area. Not sure I could be so far from family.
And as UCLA-UCSD Dad pointed out it is an absolutely beautiful day in the lower half of Ca. Blue skies with mid 60 temps with everything green from all the recent rains.
Every location seems to have some natural disaster.</p>
<p>The bottom line, which you’ll need to explain to your DH, is that in the US, CA is hard to beat for retirement if you can afford it. And that is a big if.</p>
<p>We did the same search you’re doing with a bias against CA. </p>
<p>Warm weather was a must for us and CA can not be beat on that front on the US mainland. Arizona, NM and the South get hellish heat and/or humidity for considerable stretches. The PNW quickly got taken off the list for rain and chill.</p>
<p>We ended up deciding to leave the US, but know if we return in our old age it will be to CA. SB or the Avila area.</p>
<p>We have neighbors at the Oregon coast who go to Arizona, Palm Springs or Hawaii for the winter.</p>
<p>I have to admit, having watched my mother–bored witless for twelve years–in her Florida retirement town, that I think retiring to a small city where walking is the norm and interesting things are close makes the most sense. I’m not sure weather is the most important thing. I think retiring to a suite in a luxury hotel near Broadway might be the most fun, for example ;-)</p>
<p>More seriously, I have a good friend who lives in a co-op building in NYC. Movie theater and several theaters within a 1/2 mile walk. Small grocery in the same building. Park across the street. It’s fun to visit, and I think it would be a pleasant life.</p>
<p>Here in Portland, I can see aging-in-place in our present one-story house. If we couldn’t drive or bicycle, taxis would be readily available, as are buses. Not much worry about falling on ice, which is what drove my mother to Florida, after she slipped and broke her ankle one winter, and the other ankle the next. But her words about Florida ring in my ears: “Everyone here is old and boring. They think the whole world is 75.” Me, I’d prefer to be in a more age-diverse society.</p>
<p>dmd77- agree on both Florida and NYC. Florida retirement communities are scary!</p>
<p>That calculator says Portland will be more expensive than where I am in California.</p>
<p>@ LongPrime–But you haven’t seen summer until you’ve seen fireworks against a cloudy sky, you really haven’t. :)</p>
<p>“We don’t want to be in the hills anyway - stick to the flatlands - so maybe earthquakes but no mudslides or forest fires!”</p>
<p>Flatlands are floodplains in the Pacific Northwest. Portland is pretty well-engineered, but Seattle is hilly. All of the nice neighborhoods are on hills. Portland’s downtown is pretty flattish, but the suburbs are hilly. The mudslides are due to the forest fires because of the lack of tree cover, and those fires were due to arson and unfavorable weather conditions. So that is really hard to avoid, because you never know what might come. All of those people should have been safe because of the trees keeping the dirt in the ground.</p>
<p>Certainly for retirement you’re looking for safety but what happened in the south could happen anywhere that could possibly have those kind of fires. The entire west coast is hilly because it’s a mountain range. Just something to consider. I’d still rather be in NoCal if I wanted the things you wanted.</p>
<p>If the Pacific Northwest is not totally out of consideration, may I suggest Bellevue/Redmond/Mercer Island area in WA? Pretty large Jewish community, beautiful area with large lots and trees, close to Microsoft tech corridor and Seattle, excellent medical facilities, yet far enough from the problems of a large city. I think I will try to retire just north of that area :)</p>