<p>dstark–we searched high and low for places to retire both on the net and then on a cross-country trip. You can’t beat the south for value and low COL. Most of the west is already bidup pretty high for the low cash purchase. Nachez MS looks pretty attractive along with Oxford MS. Bmont is thought of as the armpit of Texas but that was back in the 80’s. In Lynchburg we can buy an all brick slate roof 30’s Cape Cod in a great neighborhood for under $140,000. That’s in move-in condition. Taxes are low at around $1,000. My plan is to get three and bet on the area getting to be the next C’ville</p>
<p>dstark -</p>
<p>I have the same fear that you do, that starting somewhere between 2007 and 2010, all of the baby boomers (like me) - many of whom own these enormous 4000-5000 sq ft (and even bigger) houses will want to move some place smaller and cash in some of the equity for retirement. I notice that a lot of people around me are my age, and have built up equity from back when houses were much more affordable. And I don’t know that enough younger people will be there to snap up all these behemoths at such high prices.</p>
<p>While writing this, I just did a calculation. When I bought my first house, the price was 2.6 times my annual salary. When I bought this house I’m now in (30 years later), the cost was also 2.6 times my annual salary. But now, if I compare the appraised value to my annual salary, it’s almost 3.7 times my pay. I couldn’t afford my house today.</p>
<p>I too have a little bit of money invested in real estate, and yes - there is appreciation, but there is also negative cash flow because the rents I can collect (lower) seem to have no connection to what my mortgage payments are (higher).</p>
<p>Barrons, I like your plan. You are/were more flexible than I am.</p>
<p>Nothing against the south, but if I move to the south, my wife isn’t going.
We have to live in a blue state. I didn’t see too many blue states in the south in the last election. I’m thinking more along the lines of Washington, Oregon, and if I can convince my wife Arizona will be blue, Arizona.</p>
<p>I do like the prices in the south better. There isn’t a bubble in Lynchburg. That’s a great price.</p>
<p>It’s nice to know there are still places in the US that are affordable for most people. Now I’m ignorant. What is COL?</p>
<p>Was Madison just too cold to retire to?</p>
<p>digimedia, it seems to me, the argument being made that there aren’t going to be enough workers to fund social security, also means that there aren’t going to be enough people to buy our houses, or buy our stocks from us.</p>
<p>barrons - Is Lynchburg your retirement location? I grew up in DC but can’t picture where Lynchburg is and too lazy too look it up right at moment. Does it meet H’s criterion as weather conducive to golf 365 days/yr?</p>
<p>digmedia - As part of my RE practice, I used to have a “Wit and Wisdom” column in the local paper. The column that I got the most feedback on was called (something like) “This is not your father’s real estate market”. Key point? When my father bought his starter and move up homes, their prices were 1x (ie, equal) to his salary. Today a starter home where I am (NOT California) is ca. 5x most buyer’s incomes and sometimes that is 2-income family.</p>
<p>Have been thinking about the red/blue state thing since November. If we saw a red/blue coloring book by county would see more purple states? Maybe you can find a blue county/town in a Southern “red” state. I’m going to start googling again on this one.</p>
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<p>Just found it - there’s at least a little blue down there.</p>
<p>jmmom, I like your link. I think the blues are getting desperate. The party has to change or it is going to continue to play with coloring books and not with political power.</p>
<p>Dstark, my Westside snottiness is coming out: I’ve never heard of Beaumont so it must be in the boonies. The coastal strip, which is my environment, is so built up that operators like Del Webb would be hard pressed to find the land to put up new developments at anything resembling attractive prices. The Camarillo/Oxnard/Ventura triangle–about half way between me and SBMom–used to be very small townish…I remember when Camarillo had 1-1/2 traffic lights (one was hanging over the middle of the street at the boundary). Now you crest the Conejo Grade and you look out on a second San Fernando Valley…and I exaggerate only a bit…give it another 10 years.</p>
<p>Even Santa Clarita (to the north) is getting pricey. The new developments are going out in Palmdale, Riverside and other points north and east of LA.</p>
<p>JmMom, there are blue islands in many red states. Travis County (Austin) being one, though you couldn’t get me to live there. As for Mississippi, I lived there briefly as a kid and my pov is that I don’t gotta now. A litmus test for me is local feelings about people who are Jewish or gay. While I am neither, I have too many friends who are one or both and I’m not willing to spend every month swimming upstream against the local currents of bigotry.</p>
<p>Thedad, you and I are on the same page.</p>
<p>The bluer the county, the pricier the homes… Think Santa Fe.</p>
<p>And LOL dstark, about your wife not coming.</p>
<p>How about somewhere really blue, like Europe?</p>
<p>Funny, SBMom, but just today I was talking to the woman who owns/runs the cleaners I’ve been going to for nearly 20 years…creature of habit are I…she’s Korean and has been here for almost 30 years. I don’t think I could do it voluntarily, going to permanently live in another country. I have run the thought experiment and if I were ever declared persona au gratin under a John Ashcroft presidency, I would choose London for language and Prague for everything else.</p>
<p>SBmom & TheDad… I’ll be in Paris… you’re welcome to visit. 
</p>
<p>I don’t speak a word of French, but when I visited this past fall I discovered that I speak perfect “French restaurant”. (And, if I cash out the equity in my California hovel, that will keep me going for quite awhile in just about any part of the world).</p>
<p>Calmom:</p>
<p>The Paris real estate is even worse than anywhere in the US. Provence is pretty pricey, too, what with all the Brit expats and now all the books about fixing up rundown mas. One of my brothers tried that, and it did not make for a feel-good story.</p>
<p>In france it is still cheap in the Southwestern sticks and it is really beautiful-- Between Spanish border and Montpelier. Mountains, beaches, & wine!</p>
<p>Marite, I have no intention whatsoever of buying property anywhere once I cash out of my teensy little goldmine of a California home… but that money invested well will probably support a nice retirement with plenty of opportunities to travel.</p>
<p>
SBmom, I kinda figured that when I brought up the blue county within red state thing, but didn’t have the stats. Still pricey within a lesser-priced market might work as opposed to pricey within an insanely priced market.</p>
<p>TheDad - totally agree w your litmus test. I am a religious melting pot myself, 50% is Jewish; altho I would apply your test even if not.</p>
<p>H and I are going to scout out BajaMexico this winter after S rides off into sunset of college. Am not quite sure I want to live in another country, altho much of Baja is gringo-ized, I think (+/- to that in itself). Our thinking - close to our Cal friends (lived there 20 yrs) and we certainly can’t afford to buy back into that mkt unless we want to go back to work as WalMart greeters for food money which is not my idea of retirement.</p>
<p>Barrons, I understand COL. What are the rents in Lynchburg?</p>