<p>I have a brother in-law who’s planning on retiring in Williamsburg in just a bit. He and his wife have visited a fair amount and have found enough to keep things interesting. My dread about “retirement” is living in one of those dreary places where the main recreations are golf, tennis, and listening to puddles drying up.</p>
<p>We’re in the wilds (burbs) of Fairfax too. Deer, fox, Canadian geese, oh my…</p>
<p>Geese have taken up full-time residence on the Annandale campus of NoVA community college and at George Mason. What a mess. </p>
<p>My wife did tell me she saw a fox last week.</p>
<p>originaloog, I’m in foreign stocks, euros and foreign bonds too. Also would like to relocate elsewhere eventually. Fond of NZ, BC, and England/Scotland.</p>
<p>What are your International Living choices?</p>
<p>As much a destination as Williamsburg is, the housing market there has to be relatively expensive, right?</p>
<p>High downtown–not bad in those dreaded newer areas.</p>
<p>City deer are worse than country deer, the price we pay for taking their land and planting it with an enticing buffet; none of the farm folk worry about their yards. H’s idea of the place to live is a high rise condo off Michigan Ave in Chicago- no way! I need some land, with trees and grass, not desert, to mess around with. We both want access to major university lectures and such, not just fine arts, a minimal-no snow climate. We want to be within driving distance of amenities. Tired of conservative (Republican) areas, and you don’t want me trying to change the Bible belt… I’ve already had melanoma once (cut and cured), cold bothers H and I’ve done my share of snow…joints are getting achy… Another thought, aside from earthquake fears, how’s N Cal, not too far from San Francisco/Berkeley…any housing under a million??? Hated the urban monotony of Orange Co CA. Traffic isn’t as bothersome in the middle of the day, when you have no deadlines. I’m tired of living in the blue collar boonies… </p>
<p>BTW, who cares where son is when we leave here, unless we decide east/west coast based on his location then… - we’re gently telling him his childhood home will be gone in a few years; we have to be careful as he doesn’t yet realize that he won’t care by the time we move. Anyone facing children shocked that, while they get to leave, their parents are expected to stay in the place they would never dream of staying in?</p>
<p>Some places are less than a million in SF and Berkeley in decent areas.</p>
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<p>Well, yeah, but we didn’t have deer problems until the county inscrutably let Weyerhauser build 1,500 houses, condos and apartments a mile up the road – in an area previously zoned for 5-acre lots. THEN the deer destroyed my rosebushes and I started hating deer.</p>
<p>I live in one of those 1500 homes. To you it’s a minor headache but for 1500 (and growing) families it’s a great place to live.</p>
<p>TheDad brought up Williamsburg as a retirement destination. I was going to suggest that as well. I lived there for a few years some time ago, and there were many retirees there. There would be many advantages to the area: Colonial Wmsbg., of course, along with the college. Richmond, Charlottesville, and D.C. aren’t too far away.</p>
<p>Sigh, sorry WashDad, I think I know exactly where you are talking about as we lived out that way many many years ago when it was truly still wilderness. A drive out that way now totally boggles the mind as I can’t believe the change! Back in the day the deer were around, but not too bothersome other than to occasionally raid my blueberry bushes. Are the seniors really buying up the housing out there? I believe parts of that are geared towards the older set, correct?</p>
<p>Barrons and Dogwood, this should probably be in a different thread…</p>
<p>The issue is that the county let Weyerhauser buy their way into developing an urban cluster in the middle of an area underserved by roads. That the county’s response to more than doubling the population of the area was to add a center turn lane to Novelty Hill Road is reprehensible. If they’d brought the end of the 520 out to Monroe, or even Duvall, I would probably not be so grouchy about it. Of course, that would have made the whole development economically impossible, which was the point of those of us who lived out there previously. Weyerhauser even went on record opposing widening Novelty Hill to four lanes because they wouldn’t be able to make money on the real estate development. It’s interesting to note that the incredibly stupid “UPD” law that enabled Redmond Ridge/Trilogy was repealed before any other development was started, and that it is the only one in the state. Weyerhauser got what they wanted. Lest I sound like a leftie, Weyerhauser had the option to platt the land into 5-acre lots and sell it off any time they liked. It just wouldn’t have been AS profitable. The UPD fantasy was a favorite of the Seattle mindset, and as long as Seattle runs King County, the burbs are not going to get equal treatment.</p>
<p>So, yeah, I get irritated when it takes me 30 minutes to drive the four miles to Avondale in the morning – a drive that used to take 5-10 minutes. I also miss the woods that used to be in Redmond Ridge, but that’s a minor thing – they weren’t mine. </p>
<p>I also have nothing against the people who live in RR/Trilogy. It’s not their fault that the county permitted this. I even eat at Ixtapa, get coffee from Sorrento’s, and work out at Redmond Fitness (or whatever the new name is). I’m just exercising every American’s right to get worked up over something that we can’t change.</p>
<p>I live in the other big W development–Snoqualmie Ridge. Traffic is bad over by you. The County does a horrible job of expanding roads because they hate roads. They don’t want to encourage cars. Yuk Yuk.</p>
<p>gadad, you might want to research an area we call The Palouse. It has two college campuses WSU (Washington State) and UI (Univ Idaho). WSU is in Pullman and UI is eight miles away in Moscow - no specific retirement community but tons of retired faculty. Pullman-Moscow is seventy miles south of Spokane - Coeur d’Alene. </p>
<p>The gentle hills of the Palouse are prefect for growing wheat, which is the main crop of the area. Crime is virtually non-existent but both communities have that “small town” feel.</p>
<p>I too was going to suggest Williamsburg. Lots of retired people around. =P It’s a fairly slow moving place. I had to get my car fixed, and on teh way back to the dealer, the old man who drove the courtesy van was talking to another guy who had a kid in elementary school, about “how crowded” the road was, and how it wasn’t like this when they built it. By my standards (nova kid), the road is practically empty. I’ve never seen traffic on it in 2.5 years!</p>
<p>In addition to being close to W&M, you’re about an hour from Richmond and VA Beach, so you can take advantage of those locations too.</p>
<p>A shout out for my current hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. Largest concentration of colleges after Boston, with schools from very large to very small. </p>
<p>Pro sports teams, real neighborhoods, symphony, opera, theater, extensive nautual parks system, rails to trials along the rivers and old steel mills revilatalized to mixed use residential/office/retail/dining.</p>
<p>Ability to walk to places and go carless if desired. </p>
<p>All four seasons, but less snow than Oberlin, Cleveland, Western MA, Update NY or Ann Arbor.</p>
<p>Diverse housing mix. Old and new, big and small.</p>
<p>Low cost of living, with close proximity to DC and NYC.</p>
<p>And among the best health care infrastructure in the country.</p>
<p>And a new multipurpose arena coming 2008/2009. Go Pens…</p>
<p>I haven’t been there, so I can’t vouch for the recommendation, but I have seen positive things written about Maryville, Tennessee. It is a small town with Maryville College in town but only 30 miles or so away is Knoxville with UT and its big time sports and cultural programs and all the shopping/dining healthcare that a larger city can offer. Plus, it is also very close to Smokey Mountain National Park.</p>
<p>I have been wondering, gadad… you already live in a small college town. Why are you planning to move?</p>
<p>Several months back I posted about my first visit to Durham. Spent most of my time in-town in the old neighborhoods. Loved it. Duke Gardens, the Medical Center etc. And if you know where to look, there’s an affordable neighborhood or two. I was tempted to grab a “elect Nifong” poster as a souvenir (no political sentiment, just for posterity, LOL).</p>
<p>WashDad, I think that King County politics is about personalities, for the most part. County Executive John Spellman was not Seattle-centric; he had a county-wide vision. Reasonably, he could be considered “the father of modern king County.” I don’t see that kind of leadership on today’s County Council. I don’t live there anymore, but the family keeps me informed, I read the Seattle papers online, and I’m personally aquainted with a few pols back home.</p>