The Retire and Relocate Thread™

[Eldritch]

There’s been one or more threads with discussion on relocating out of the bay area and out of Kalifornistan.

ScottRNelson wrote about his decision on relocating to Idaho(?). Thanks, Scott.

Many of us BARFers are entering the September of our years. I’ve got 3-8 years until I hang up my spurs. I enjoy living in the bay area but am also tired of it - traffic, cost of living, politics, etc.

I’ve talked to friends and strangers about relocating to a less expensive area of CA or out of state.

A friend bought a house in Newport, OR. He said don’t come here (OR); tweakers and homeless even in Newport.

A friend relocated to a small town near Austin. $500K and his house looks like South Fork.

A friend and a few strangers I’ve met have bought in Meridian, Idaho.

A friend bought a condo in Porto, Portugal. Apparently that’s a thing among Americans now. Great.

I’ve thought of Mexico - searching for undiscovered beach town.

Yesterday, a friend suggested I look at Prescott, AZ.

Anyhoo, do you have plans to relocate outside the BA or CA?

I have traveled a lot around the US, and I have to say, I really liked Cleveland Ohio.

I was pretty much all fired up to manage my move there once my grandparents died, but due to crazy low interest rates, I ended up buying some real estate in CA, so now the move is less certain.

Nevertheless, the availability of quality medical care, low property values, and a community of diverse people from all different nations and backgrounds who seem to LOVE their city, really makes feel the pull to set down roots there.

There are three other families on my street alone that have moved here from California in the last five years. No one gives them shit for it and all three of them are blue just like we are. At least, I haven't seen anyone doing it and they certainly haven't been doing it to us. Although, I'm not wearing my political affiliation on my sleeve and there's not a single Trump of Fuck Biden flag anywhere within sightline of my front door. Sure, that shit exists here, but as with anywhere else, you get to choose your neighborhood. Both my nextdoor neighbors are clearly Republican, but they're not so fanatical that they need to fly a stupid Fuck Biden or Trump flag on their house. Civility is something I haven't had the pleasure of living around in some time.

This right here is so much of what I enjoyed in talking to people in Cleveland. Reds and blues hanging out and drinking in the same bars and no one gave much of a shit. The thing that i find so utterly exhausting about the Yay Area is everyone is so fucking perpetually AGITATED. It is bloody exhausting. When I was in Cleveland, normal people just worked normal jobs and worried about the economy and what the weather was going to be a bit, but just fucking normal, chill, not all worked up all the time about shit that was never going to have impact on them directly, jut trying to go about their lives and not bother anyone, not trying to prove to anyone that they were any certain kind of thing.

Just living life.

 

[Johndicezx9]

yeah, i'm with you on that. and did you notice that most/all the people that say they are so glad to have left California are people that we are also glad left California arty

Truth!

But, most of the people I know that left here miss it and take every opportunity they can to come back.

 

[Blankpage]

That's a big one for us. We like water, so we're going to live somewhere that has it.

Will be interesting for folks downstream of the Colorado River a decade from now, or sooner.

 

[lizard]

Prescott Valley is lovely.

Your higher than the heat of Phoenix, lower than the cold of Flagstaff, and you're off the mesa that hides the Grand Canyon, so I'm pretty sure there's actually water there.

You're not that far from Phoenix. You're quite close to Sedona, so you can get your Chakras tuned once a week
Oh, and Gunsite is there if you're into that sort of thing.

I was unaware of Prescott Valley so I gargled.

Good news: there's a Mickey D! Bad news: There's a Walmart Super Kryptonite Center.

Apparently lots of new homes under construction. I found this developer. Oddly their subdivision is called Shadow Ridge. Odd because there are no trees! Should've called the development "Flat Desert Ridge."

tldr; 1600-2100 SF, $530-615K more or less.

https://www.dornhomes.com/shadow-ridge

Street view: https://goo.gl/maps/xMnL2z8uFPTVR3qc9

FYI no Pritzker awards in their future.

 

[Johndicezx9]

Bleak...

 

[bikeama]

I like the ocean.

Like Tom Petty said, "California's been good to me..."

+2 CA has been good to me. Retired 12 years now and I am still here. Prop 13 allows me to stay in my home. Friends I know in other states first thing they do is sell the big house to get something smaller so fewer taxes. I have grandkids here and in Texas. I could never live in Texas! Weather and politics would drive me nuts.

Live where you are happy.

 

[Mike95060]

I like the ocean.

Like Tom Petty said, "California's been good to me..."

Same. Been other places. They are nice to visit but, this is home.


Still got an eye on you though Portugal….

 

[HeatXfer]

Retired 3yrs now. All plans for moving have been put on hold until my 95 & 93yr old Mom & dad pass. Mom had relatives who lived into their 100s, so I'm not sure where things will end up. But then there will be my wife's parents who are just now in their 80s and, like my folks, had made no plans for their declining years, so we'll probably be taking care of them too. So again, there's no telling how old I'm gonna be before I can move. (62 now).

My nephews live in Colorado; Longmont & Grand Junction. GJ is way too conservative for me, too close to Rifle. Longmont is beautiful and has great riding and camping opportunities, so it'll probably be Longmont. If I'm young enough to enjoy it...

 

[Bowling4Bikes]

would people say that their main driver of relocating after retirement is primarily due to societal or monetary considerations?

 

[Johndicezx9]

Most I know say monetary, cashing in on their California real estate investment. Dollar goes farther in other places....

 

[wazzuFreddo]

I’m most likely staying put but if I were to leave I would probably head back to eastern Washington. Spokane, Wenatchee or maybe Pullman.

 

[lizard]

Same. Been other places. They are nice to visit but, this is home.


Still got an eye on you though Portugal….

My friend bought a condo in Porto. Had to hire a lawyer, learn the language, obtain some “card” and is working on further documentation.

 

[littlebeast]

we looked for probably 10 years for our ‘retirement’ home. bought it prior to retiring, which we ended up doing early as a result of the pandemic (when both of our employers told us we had to come back to the office, we both told them to go fuck themselves - politely of course).

have mentioned before that my SO is portuguese, so a big part of our search was there (he wanted to move to the silver coast). we found some great properties, but it turned out that i just couldn’t do it - the logistics of moving our entire household over there alone were too daunting. so then we got focused on here, him wanting beach property (stand in for the gold coast), and me wanting mountain property (LOVE the beach, but can’t stand the ‘moist’ atmosphere inside beachfront homes. everything just feels damp and sticky. and stinks of mildew). anyway, after many years of searching, we decided we couldn’t leave california, and found an awesome place up in the foothills in a place that just haunted us with its charm from the first time we saw it - had visited it many times looking at properties, and finally found the perfect one.

that said, he recently informed me that he is going to go ahead and buy a place in portugal. whatever.

 

[Butch]

My pop is going to Spain and Portugal tomorrow for three weeks. I’ve been poking around sat pics and stuff. It looks beautiful.

Can I come visit you guys?
All you guys who move to awesome places I want to visit?

BARF travels, man.

 

[lizard]

… and found an awesome place up in the foothills in a place that just haunted us with its charm from the first time we saw it - had visited it many times looking at properties, and finally found the perfect one.
…

School me on fire insurance in the foothills (I sorta remember where you’re at).

 

[littlebeast]

School me on fire insurance in the foothills (I sorta remember where you’re at).

great question, but also complicated question (and answer). will preface this by saying that we are in a high risk area (zoned residential forest). according to the insurance companies, high risk means one of two things - either a forested area that has had recent fire activity, or one that has not had fire activity in a long time (they get you coming and going ). when we bought, our only option was the CA Fair plan. very expensive. only option to bring down the premium is to have no mortgage (you can set your own deductible if you don’t have a mortgage - otherwise the lending bank sets it - and they usually require a significantly lower deductible - at least to where we were comfortable setting it).

that said - california recently passed a law that requires insurance companies to evaluate risk on a unique property basis - not a region basis (which is how it was historically done). presumably this will result in fire hardened properties (such as ours) experiencing reduced rates. it also may mean that more insurers will write policies in these areas rather than be grouped into the CA Fair plan (the plan is basically group insured - spreading the risk over a large number of participating insurance companies). one thing on the horizon for us is USAA has stepped in - and we qualify through my dad (ex-air force). don’t know yet what this will mean for us premium-wise, but am pursuing it with them.

so bottom line - it can be expensive, but manageable. it’s a pay to play sortofa thing IMO, but definitely check before pulling the trigger on a property though.

 

[ScorpioVI]

Seems Idaho is a nightmare if you’re not white, religious, or conservative. Beautiful place, briefly thought about buying property out there myself when I spent a couple of weeks there a few years ago, but seems the nuts run the farm. Wannabe has a great story of wanting to buy property there only to find out the area was gonna be the capital of the KKK resurgence.


[YOUTUBE]pDWaa3NshyM[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ScorpioVI]

I don’t have to worry about retiring, I won’t live that long, but I needed to get out of California. I bought a house in Las Vegas (10 minutes East from the strip) in August 2020. Turned out to be the perfect time to buy. $360K got me a 2200sqft, 4br/3ba, 2 car garage, RV parking, and a swimming pool under palm trees. Value was up 150K a couple of months ago, it’s since plummeted to 130K over what I paid.

Buddy of mine visited my place, looked around the neighborhood, realized he too could afford a house there (he couldn’t in Silicon Valley even making tech money) and bought a house 3 blocks away from me. He couldn’t have bought at a worst time. He paid out the nose for a property I wouldn’t have even considered. What a difference a year makes. Still, he’s happy. He’s making more money, even after taking a 10% pay cut. Lower cost of living, no income taxes, rent money going into a mortgage instead in a foodie’s paradise.

 

[ScottRNelson]

would people say that their main driver of relocating after retirement is primarily due to societal or monetary considerations?

For me it was how far my money went. I knew that real estate was going to be quite a bit less expensive, but EVERYTHING is less expensive. It makes a difference. (One exception is plane flights, gotta fly to a major airport first before getting where you need to go.)

Seems Idaho is a nightmare if you’re not white, religious, or conservative. Beautiful place, briefly thought about buying property out there myself when I spent a couple of weeks there a few years ago, but seems the nuts run the farm. Wannabe has a great story of wanting to buy property there only to find out the area was gonna be the capital of the KKK resurgence.

Those guys are up north. Stick to the larger towns and cities and you won't run into those guys.

 

[DrSwade]

I have been thinking about moving to Baja for some time……..lol.

We are visiting Tennesse right now and the social graces are a refreshing change from most parts of the no-eye-contact, stare-at-your-phone USA.
There is a guy here in Crossville, from Encinitas, who bought 60+ acres and is making a sort of “eco camp”. Has three cabins available on airbnb at the moment.

https://abnb.me/xtZ2yFau6sb

He is well into social circles there and local people have been helping out but have made it clear that he is far from “in the loop” there. That takes decades. I thought my bloodline being thick in those parts gave me some cred but my cousin said “even being family only takes you so far”. Lol!
I imagine buying 60+ acres of pristine forest with a creek running through it is a dream for most Californians.
I will probably buy a tract there for future use. In any case, we will still live part time in Cabo if we build a place in TN, one way or another. This part of TN feels as friendly as Mexico to us.

My born and raised San Diego people who are in real estate talk about Prescott. They say it is the only place they really like besides SD. The massive changes in Kalifornia turn them off now.