Central Florida is my favorite place. We lived near the Sebastian Inlet for 17 years. We love to fish. It has a river that is brackish and also is the intercoastal waterway. It's fun to sit and just watch the different boats go by during the season. I would think you could find a nice house in Vero Beach or Sebastian for that price. The only problem is everyone else has moved there. Since Hurricane Andrew and lots of advertising, it's not the quiet town it used to be.If you can stand alot of traffic, it's a great place to live. It's laid out on a grid. Everything is very easy to find.

Bonita Springs or Naples, Florida!
It's my husband's dream to live in Florida, at least 6 months of the year. Two years ago we bought a condo which is actually a single family three bedroom home. After rending condos, we realized we would like like the idea of people living above or below us.
At this point in time, we are still renting it out, our tenants are very happy there.
My suggestion would be to look into this type of arrangement.
The gated community isn't just for seniors, although that is the majority.
We considered many other warm weather locations but the distance and air fare just made them not practicle for us.
Another suggestion is Asheville, North Carolina. My sister moved there after living in Florida for 30 years. She is in a regular neighborhood though. You get all the seasons but the winters are milder. Not near water though, but great mountain views.
This is such a major decision. First you need to narrow down your area.
We used to get a Where to Retire magazine. It had charts and comparisons of cost of living, medical for seniors etc.
Good luck. Moving is very hard!

I think Asheville. NC, is a great suggestion. Supposed to be a wonderful town.

Blacksburg/Roanoke, VA
Asheville, NC
Charlotte, NC metro area/includes Ft. Mill and Rock Hill in SC
Greenville, SC

When you say NY I assume you mean NYC.

If this is the case, you may not like to be in an area where driving a car is the only way to get anywhere.

Even if you do drive (now), I would look for an area with walkable neighborhoods so that as you age and want to drive less, you can get to most basic services without the need to travel on divided multiple lane streets at 40+ MPH.

Look to college towns near major cities, as they tend to have good health care and stimulating cultural activities.

Zackey-Thank you for the suggestion, I will google. We don't fish yet.
Julie- We are 90 miles north of NYC in the Hudson Valley, middle of no where.
Tibbrix & Ellendi, & Gscience- I've heard good things about Asheville.

This post was edited by sixtyohno on Fri, Nov 28, 14 at 20:11

I can speak to the Asheville suggestions a bit. We just - as in 2 weeks ago - sold our suburban Chicago home and moved to Asheville-ish. It's not a retirement move for us, though, DH is 56, I'm 60. We spent 3 years coming here at different seasons, exploring different areas thinking we would find THE place. Didn't happen, but we love the area enough we left the only place we'd both ever lived (I never lived more than 4 miles from the house I grew up in other than college) so it's a big change. We've rented a house for a year while we really dig in and figure out where we want to be. I will warn you, the cost of living in Asheville is not modest retirement friendly, IMO. That's something you REALLY want to do your research on before committing to even a test run somewhere - no point in falling in love with a place you can't afford.

You don't have to go far from Asheville to get much lower cost of living over the TN line or the SC line - both are more affordable and have retirement perks that NC does not have. Of course, there are intangibles that can't be cost analyzed that make up your personal quality of life and only you can determine what that is worth to you dollar wise. For instance - you say you'd like to live near water - any water or something specific? Ocean living is different from inland lake which is different from river life - lots of properties in WNC have creeks on them and as nice as that can be I sure wouldn't call it living on water! I have a friend who has retired from suburban Chicago to a lake in Nashville and is deliriously happy there, finds the moderated but still 4 seasons perfect, housing is far less $$ and was able to buy a huge home to host the kids and grandkids that also live there. Gas is much cheaper there, too.

May I suggest you make a list (perhaps you've already done this) with 2 columns - Wants and Won't Tolerate. For example, I would never live in a desert area, don't like that dry feeling and never want to be in an area where water availability is an issue - that's a won't tolerate for me. I also refused to move anywhere that has less average days of sun/year than Chicago so the PNW was out even though I do love it there. And of course there are more. For me, the won't tolerates quickly narrowed the regions of the country I'd consider and limited the research. City/town size narrows it further. And then you have a huge range of resources at your fingertips. I like the Sperlings Best Places Website. They give over view info on climate, crime, religion, housing, education..... I'll link to their Asheville info. You have a huge decision to make but it's such an exciting time, too. Just think of the adventure ahead of you!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sperling's Best Places - Asheville

Check out the area in Myrtle Beach called Market Common. Lots of new construction of one family homes and townhouses. Low property taxes, close to the airport, great shopping.

My brother retired a few years ago to the Venice, FL area on the gulf coast and loves it. Great beaches, very low cost of living, major medical in Tampa about an hour or so away, not far to Disneyworld when the grands visit, etc. Other brother has visited and wants to retire there also from Vegas. We are also thinking of FL but have not visited yet. Also considering the Charleston SC area, perhaps Hilton Head. I know some people who have retired to Myrtle Beach and love it.

Yes, make a list of must have's...that will help clarify things and narrow the choices.

We personally prefer the east coast of Florida because it is much cooler in the summer. The breeze off the Atlantic ocean keeps it cooler, but the Gulf is more stagnant, hence hotter in the summer. Miami, Ft. Lauderdale (lived there 20 years), and Palm Beach are very busy. Jupiter, Palm City, Stuart, St. Lucie West, Vero Beach, Sebastian and Melbourne are places I would check for homes. Go to Realtor.com to see prices, which are starting to inch upwards now. We also lived north of Ashville in Tennessee, which we enjoyed, if you want more info on that area.

We are nowhere near retired (I'm 31) but we have a winter place in FL. No way, no how, no day would I stay here in the summer. We came down here for a week in the summer once and just NO.

We owned a house in Clearwater on the intercostal that we lived in for the past 3 winters. Lots of retirees. Lots of strip malls. Touristy/beachy restaurants and close to the beach. It was very nice but we wanted more privacy/land, so we bought a house in Lutz that is 16 minutes from downtown Tampa on a beautiful lake. The restaurants and location are way nice here so, far.

The whole Tampa/St Pete area has so much traffic. I think the population of FL is really expanding (it's going to surpass NY in population soon) and there are just so very many people. If I was making the decision w/o any input from other family members, I would pick a different location that is not so crowded to have a winter home. That said, there is a lot to do here.

You could get a mostly decent house for $200K ish in the Tampa/St Pete / Clearwater area, be close to the water, and have a relatively low cost of living (lots of early bird specials!), a long as you aren't trying to be on any body of water and don't mind being in close proximity to other neighbors.

This post was edited by beaglesdoitbetter on Fri, Nov 28, 14 at 22:04

Voila. .....I had no idea the east coast of FL was cooler in the summer....good to know!

Laura, a good friend re-located back to Alabama last spring from DC (Falls church). She was also downsizing and was able to get a really nice house for a little over $200k in a great neighborhood. She is single but has a lot of 'stuff' including a huge book collection, is a gourmet cook, and had some other requirements, most of which were met. She had first considered Asheville and Chattanooga, but both were considerably higher in the real estate market to be close to city activities. Huntsville is on the Tennessee River as is Chattanooga and Knoxville. There are several other smaller towns nearby where the real estate is reasonable, especially if you aren't right ON the water, for which you will pay premium prices. And I can tell you from experience, there is considerably more upkeep being on the water than just having access with a boat, etc.

Or then you could consider a condo on the water as someone mentioned, where you don't have to worry so much about exterior maintenance yourself.

Keowee Key SC

Another here who could give you some info on TN, which is the perfect place for us. We plan to stay on here after retirement. Lived here all our lives, although we live away from the city we were raised, have moved closer to the mountains, to a smaller, rural area. My husband and I would never be happy in a big city. We are close enough to good restaurants, good medical facilities (teaching hospital within 30 minutes) and many outdoor activities (important to us) such as national park, lakes. etc. Moderate seasons although we can get pretty hot/humid, winters are generally mildish. Cost of living is good in this part of the states.

I lived in the Vero Beach, Florida area for 17 years. I miss it. It was home to me. It was a quiet area until after Hurricane Andrew. Then people started moving there in droves. They also advertised Sebastian as a quaint fish village. Another wave of new people arrived. Lots of traffic. Lots of large developments that were built on old orange groves that sold out. It's been 3 years since we been down there for a visit. Lots more cars on the roads and they still have several two lane roads. We boarded up and stayed for 3 hurricanes in 6 months, so that has to be considered. Great fishing, boating lots of gold was found off of Wabasso Beach by divers. Great restaurants. Excellent hospital in Sebastian. Scenic drives along the Indian and Banana rivers. About one hour from a military base, if you are retired military. Lots of events in the parks. It was a fun place to live.

Very interesting thread. My husband and I have been trying to figure out were/we might go if we move from the NY metro area.
We have spent many vacations visiting quite a few of the areas you mentioned.
We did really like Asheville (but it's a bit too remote so to speak, small airport) and Roanoke seems like the perfect small city (and for some reason, there seems to be a ton of $$ pouring in to rejuvenate the place ) but maybe too small for us.
We both adored Nashville area as well as outside of Memphis.
Wilmington NC might be a good one for you as it sure it coastal. It too was lovely.
We really did like most places we visited, but I think coming from the metro area, realistically speaking, we are very leery of the distance to major airports and major hospitals...

Palm Beach County in Florida has a lot of NYC expats. If you are interested in Florida I recommend taking the Auto Train down there so you can have your car with you and check out some towns.

Laura:

My wife and I moved to Sarasota, Florida, two years ago from Ohio/Michigan. It was the best thing we've ever done. Budget for flybacks to visit family and friends.

The heat of the Florida summers is highly exaggerated, especially near the coasts where the sea moderates the temperature and humidity.

When house shopping, we ran into several 75+ couples that were moving back to north to die with the grandkids.

There is still lots of very affordable and desirable real estate down here.

My niece and her husband live on Oak Island, NC. It is near Southport. The area was recently discovered by retirees. The beaches are lovely and still uncrowded. The cost of living is not high and I can recommend two really good doctors to you -- my niece and her husband! You might be able to afford a beachfront condo, or a house on a lake.

My sister lives in the Sarasota area and there is no way I'd visit in the summer. I live at 7500' ft. and low humidity. It isn't the heat as much as the humidity in Florida that keeps me away in the summer months.

I always thought the same as funnygirl. A friend's mom who now lives in Florida all year said that not going outside that much during the summer is equal to not going out in the winter when she lived up north.
I never thought if it that way!

I went to college in Sarasota and about died as the dorms had no air conditioning. The school got a 150 million reno the year after I left. (And just the beginnings of multiple reno's)

Thanks, DLM, for posting on your transition to Asheville. It is probably one of the higher COL areas of NC, but gorgeous.

Maybe you could also look at Nashville area? That is another area that is really popular.

In SC, my last choice would be Myrtle Beach, but maybe going further south a bit to Pawley's or Murrels Inlet. MB and North Myrtle Beach are pretty touristy, although I'm sure home prices there are better compared to Charleston and Hilton Head. Another thing with MB that I don't like is that it is so sprawling, but that Market Common area from a PP above looks interesting.

If you are retiring and budget is tight, look for other things like how generous the state is with health benefits, what doctors and medical care facilities are nearby, what is the annual cost of energy, taxes, other required expenses, do you have an opportunity for non-driving transportation should it become an issue. My uncle who is pretty savvy about such things moved to PA. He now winters in Costa Rica.

Mom had a house in FL where the taxes were dirt cheap, but she had to pay really high fees on insurance and garbage pick up...almost like what we up here pay for taxes.

MIL lived in NYC and even though blind and hard of hearing was able to maneuver on her own quite well (buses, taxis, everything within walking distance) vs. in the burbs she was dependent on others exclusively for transport needs.

I also agree with looking for educational/cultural/college activities.

Before moving to the deep south, I too would spend some time there in the summer before making a commitment. Dad went to FL in July one year to tend to one of their rental properties...no A/C. He couldn't stand it any more and went to the beach to cool off...stepped up to his chin in 85 degree water. So much for cooling off! They did the snowbird thing for a couple of decades, but both came home to the north to die.

My former secy moved to FL but came back within a year or so....they missed their family too much. I think it's hard too to live without the seasons if you grew up on them.

"not going outside that much during the summer is equal to not going out in the winter when she lived up north."

Exactly! I've said that for years; in the heat of the summer, you just try to avoid being outside in the most intense part of the day just as I assume those of you who are nuts enough to live up north try to avoid those icy winter freezes :).

As for winter, I simply could not exist in that kind of environment. What a nightmare. I put the heat on this morning when the chill from our recent Miami cold snap left the house at 69 degrees when I woke up. It's just unpleasant and nasty to shiver. I'll take warmth, thankyouverymuch!

If I was going to ever relocate, the gulf coast of Fl would be my choice as well. Those who have mentioned Venice, Sarasota, etc...it's really a nice area of the state.

Ann

That is so funny, Ann! 69 in the house is a warm spell here in winter! I turn the thermo down to 59 at night and the briskness makes for easy sleeping. Chilly in the morning but the fireplace warms things up enough and I might be reckless and turn the heat up to 66. I love it.

Running....my brother in Vegas does the same in the summer....you go out in the early morning or evening....never during the day. I suspect it's the same in Arizona.

I sure wish the retirement forum was more active!

>Go to Realtor.com to see prices, which are starting to inch upwards now.

Inch nothing. Palm Beach County is at height of the frenzy prices again, and Martin and St Lucie are officially classed as "unaffordable" now in COL vs income studies. In my area prices are literally three times what they were a year ago.

Of course, coming from NYC, the Treasure Coast area will seem very inexpensive, but definitely Vero/Sebastian have avoided a lot of the run we've had down here.

I would like to discuss this part first "the words retire and downsize have entered our conversation. Not happy."

To me, this part of your post should be the focus of discussion, not geography. Why retire, then?

A lot of posters are responding as though you are in NYC or in a commuting area of NYC, but you are not. If you are 90 miles outside of NYC, then i would think you are not in a terribly high priced area, or at least that, you could move a town or two over if you are ... unless I am mistaken, other than some of the touristy areas, NY state outside of the ambit of NYC (which 90 miles certainly is), is rather depressed and not terribly expensive. So I would think you could reduce housing expenses without a drastic move.

While not traditional retirees, our family was able to choose where we wanted to live and we did consider many areas. We looked at college towns because we assumed we would find kindred spirits and activities. One thing we discovered is that the places we really wanted to be were never terribly cheap. Cheaper than metro NYC, where we were, yes, but not compelling. The cheap places, we didn't like.

In the end we were probably going to stay in our community, when by happenstance we came across our house in CT (an hour from our old town). I love our home and I think this community and it's wealth of private schools have made it a better place to raise our family, but I underestimated how much I would miss our friends and how valuable the time we had spent becoming part of that community was to us.

I have friends that have moved to other areas of the country, particularly the South, and are surprised by how different the culture is versus this area, and were not happy there. I'm sure the feeling was mutual!

All of this it to say that I think one of the most important factors in your happiness is community, friendships, family. Make sure your decisions optimize those parts of your life. or at least strongly weigh them.

After a long weekend of talking, we decided that this is a decision to be made slowly, over the next year. I think I panicked, thinking we had to act fast, which is not so. Today I started looking on the net at houses several towns west of here where prices are lower. I am thinking that what might work for us is to get a smaller, less expensive house, and perhaps be able to get away in January and February, which are the difficult months here in NY. DH is complaining that he is getting tired of snow and ice and cold. Perhaps we could rent a condo in a warm place and not have to give up our lifestyle.

Laura my parents did that for many years, stayed close to the town they had always lived in but skeedaddled for about 6 weeks in the worst of Chicago weather. It's a great option if you can change you COL enough to stay where you're familiar and have friends/family but escape in winter. They'd stay till about a week after the New Year then go to a condo. For a few years they went to Scottsdale, AZ because they knew people who had moved there from Chicago but after a while wanted to try something new so went to CA - Palm Desert I think or somewhere in that area. They never cared much for FL, the east coast snowbirds were too brash in those years for their taste and the west coast back then was just too sleepy although I know it's all changed now.

Yes, do take your time, and take vacations! No better way to get a taste of an area than by visiting it and seeing what's what.

The snowbird option is a good one for many people. But if you think you'd like to do that, then carefully look at your housing maintenance situation. My parents and in-laws were very lucky to have us. In-laws went to NYC apartment for the winter and we were here taking care of their house. Parents went to FL for the winter and we were here taking care of their house and their rentals. They were lucky to have us. Once Mom moved into her condo, it got a lot easier on us as she had electric heat (no furnace) and lots of neighbors so the burden on us got a lot easier. But before that, we were in "property management" whether we wanted to be or not.

We have no one so if we did the snowbird thing, then we'd have to hire someone or use electronic monitoring or something to make sure our house was safe and warm while we were gone.

Pets are a consideration too if you have them as not all places will take them.

I like mtnrd's suggestion...if you move into a less expensive place locally, you can take the proceeds and invest it wisely to help generate income for your retirement.

I'm trying to convince a neighbor to do that...she wants to go south, but she has no family or anyone there. She's single, her kids are adults, and though she is outgoing and friendly, making new friends, esp when you don't have children making connections to other parents for you, is a lot harder.

Certainly lots to consider, so take your time, do your research, explore all your options, and you'll be certain you make the right choice in the end.

Sixty, I'm glad you are taking the time to research. Just to give you an idea, condo rentals in places like Estero or Bonita Springs, go for $3,000 per month (probably higher now as last time we did this was two years ago.) Most places want a minimum of a two month stay.

However, if you don't mind a studio which is right across from the beach in Bonita Springs, check the Bonita Springs Beach and Tennis Club, there are various options there.

All arrangements need to be made a year ahead.

If you are considering a long term rental, don't forget websites such as Vacation Rentals by Owner (VRBO.com). My sister has had great success renting her house on St. George Island, FL. She has had the same couple book her home for 4 months each year for the last 3 years.

ML

Sounds like a good plan, SixtyOhNo.

So your mission would be to rent a house or condo for say, 2 months, every year, in someplace warm or even just warm"er". If you are looking for bargains, maybe Vegas? Or the Alabama Gulf coast?

It might be fun to try different spots.

It's a good idea to decide slowly. We want to do what my parents did for years before they were too old to travel. They escaped for 3 months to the mountains of New Mexico during the hottest part of the summer. It's only a day's drive from here. They always rented the same place, never wanted to own a second home.