I've come to the realization a long time ago that I dont want to retire in my current state. For those of you who have moved and found a great place, what was your process?

When I considered fleeing Dayton:
I looked at what I considered to be desirable places. Then I subscribed to local papers and news stations to get a feel for the area.
Then I visited each location and just wandered around.
Now live in Marquette, the Queen City of the Lake.
No regrets.
The toughest part of the move was narrowing down the choices of places to move to. And thats driven by your personal desires for quality of life, work, recreation, and (in my case) health care.

check gunshow list and pick a state that has a lot.

I've been thinking about this for a long time, also. Not anywhere close to moving, but priority one will be the reddest of state. Will never set foot in commie lands.

When much younger, I'd look for a place that had a bar within walking distance. Settled in retirement now, I looked at tax, crime, demographics and military retirement considerations. A town population of about 25K is about right for me.

Fellow Western Washingtonian here and with retirement about 4 years out for me, I am in the same boat. Currently have a short list of about 6 areas chosen based on political climate, weather, 2A friendliness, cost of living, and such.

Starting next year, vacation time will be spent visiting the options to get a feel for the areas. Hopefully we will have it decided a year or so in advance so planning can be done in earnest.

Always buy a house on top of the hill.

Why here of course !!

Couple of years ago I began talking about retiring elsewhere. Wife wasn't totally on board, but agreed to look. So I decided we should start taking 3 day weekend trips to explore different locations.

From my reading here, St. George, Utah was the first place I wanted to go. Wife had no interest, I said fine I'll go by myself. Well she hesitantly decided to come along. By the second day there she was ready to move.

That was in October of 2016. After 6 more trips we found what we wanted in July of 2018. House should be ready in early June and we will be out of his Shit Hole shortly thereafter.



Washington City, Utah

This message has been edited. Last edited by: TomV, April 02, 2019 04:21 PM

Your building a LEGO house.... cool.

Seriously at a glance it looks like LEGOS. BEAUTIFUL house though.

Narrowed it down pretty quick for us:

no snow. That cut out about 3/4 of the country if not more.

Didn't want to live in LA, been there and done that. No thanks.

Sure as well wasn't going to live in CA.

Wanted a place that was red. Narrowed it down to FL pretty quick.

Not retiring, but was looking at moving to Idaho. Some good friends of mine moved their whole family to Montana, so that is looking pretty good.

quote:

Not retiring, but was looking at moving to Idaho. Some good friends of mine moved their whole family to Montana, so that is looking pretty good.

They raise good dental Floss in Montana.

After I married in '70 I uprooted my wife and we moved to OK for about 3 years, then to Europe for 6 years ('73 to '79), next the UP of MI for 3 years, followed by Three Forks, Mt for 4 years, and lastly Kingman, Az for 5 years.

I then retired from my job after 20 years and since the wife's parents were getting up years relocated back to her home town in PA. I got a job with the PA State Corrections and retired from the State after 21 years. My wife was able to spend a good deal of time with her parents before their death and she's happy in PA so I guess I'll be living here until one of us dies.

If the wife goes first I be out PA in record time back to Three Forks, Mt or Kingman, AZ; if it's me that goes first I want my ashes spread to the winds in Three Forks or Kingman.

If I were to move, I would avoid like the plague liberal, progressive democrat areas and all the negatives that goes along with those areas. I would look for a conservative, firearm friendly, fiscally responsible state, county and city/town. Once those conditions are met, the other positives will follow. Democrat driven areas will bring you depression, added expense, a poor quality of life and a general nauseation for life. Personally, I wish that a big fence would be built around those areas, keeping the parasites there instead of moving and infecting the rest of us with their liberal, progressive crap.

Interesting thread. My wife and I retired 4 years ago but still summer in NW Montana. We have lived in SE Idaho and in Eastern, Central and Northwest Montana for a total of 50 years. We love NW Montana July - October but hate the winter.

We also are looking for the ideal place to settle for the duration. We may just stay in Montana in the summer and find warm weather in the winter.

quote:

Originally posted by TomV:
Why here of course !!

Couple of years ago I began talking about retiring elsewhere. Wife wasn't totally on board, but agreed to look. So I decided we should start taking 3 day weekend trips to explore different locations.

From my reading here, St. George, Utah was the first place I wanted to go. Wife had no interest, I said fine I'll go by myself. Well she hesitantly decided to come along. By the second day there she was ready to move.

That was in October of 2016. After 6 more trips we found what we wanted in July of 2018. House should be ready in early June and we will be out of his Shit Hole shortly thereafter.



Washington City, Utah

Friends of ours moved to St. George from Indy a couple of years ago. They really, really like the high desert.

CW

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

Not retiring, but was looking at moving to Idaho. Some good friends of mine moved their whole family to Montana, so that is looking pretty good.

They raise good dental Floss in Montana.

I'm to fat to ride a Pygmy pony.

Right where I’m at or close to it. I live in Fort Lauderdale, fl.

But I’ve thought about it several times, if I were to move. First would be a red state, second would be weather, third would be near or very close to salt water, fourth would be a place easy to fly in and out of. Also low taxes and a variety of things to do.

I looked for access to government services, medical services, and grocery stores.

I live in a pretty rural area and have in a few areas. To generalize, I choose the county seat. Largest I’ve had to go is population 9500.

Real estate is usually kinda depressed in rural America, so it’s cheap. It never fell much and didn’t have to go far to recover the recent market woes.

I'm starting to think this way. The leftists have always ran NY, but it's getting exponentially worse. A lot of new shit is coming in 2020. It might be time to go. The question is where.

I have some reasons to stay generally in the NE. Somewhere in PA would work. Even with its issues PA is exponentially better than NY. But I've said for a long time I was going to move to Las Vegas. It's gone through some negative changes, but it still may be better than PA.