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The Retire and Relocate Thread™

You guys weird as fuck, if you going to some random small town out of state, just move to some random small town in Cali.

Y'all acting like ALL of Cali real estate has gone crazy, a good majority yes but not hit as hard for those crazy rural places 1hr out of a major city
 
If I’m going to move back out to the sticks, it’s going to be back up north where there is no state income tax :p
 
Rural has another benefit if you really want to go budget, just buy a piece of land with decent privacy and build a small house/cabin without any permits. You can still put together a nice little spot for under 200k.
 
byke said:
Rural has another benefit if you really want to go budget, just buy a piece of land with decent privacy and build a small house/cabin without any permits. You can still put together a nice little spot for under 200k.
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You need a good spot to park the meth trailer so the fumes don't waft into your kitchen window.
 
I know it sounds absurd and I'd have thought the same ten years ago, but after living out here, any non-douchebag could easily do it. The county really does not want to kick people out of their homes, so as long as you're not giving them a reason(i.e. cops constantly visiting your meth trailer) and as long as you're not being an idiot about it(building a third world shanty in eyeshot of a nice house), you'd be fine.
 
Kornholio said:
As far as I can be. Nashville is to Tennessee like Austin is to Texas just like SF is to California. :laughing

In all serious though, we're about an hour and twenty minutes from Nashville.
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How hot and humid are we talking?

Mosquitos like frickin’ helicopters?
 
lizard said:
How hot and humid are we talking?

Mosquitos like frickin’ helicopters?
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In terms of the US, to me, nothing compares to Alaska. The mosquitos there are the biggest I've seen compared to most anywhere outside of South Korea.

As for the heat/humidity, I'm not going to pretend like it's not hot and humid here. However, that's really just in the summer months and even then, you get used to it. In the end though, it's not like Florida or Alabama and Mississippi. Those places are literally swamps and bug hellscapes.
 
Kornholio said:
In terms of the US, to me, nothing compares to Alaska. The mosquitos there are the biggest I've seen compared to most anywhere outside of South Korea.

As for the heat/humidity, I'm not going to pretend like it's not hot and humid here. However, that's really just in the summer months and even then, you get used to it. In the end though, it's not like Florida or Alabama and Mississippi. Those places are literally swamps and bug hellscapes.
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:laughing I am going to visit Southern Louisiana in about a Month. :laughing
 
Lot of interesting posts here. My wife grew up in Sunnyvale, and I in Palo Alto (before it was what it is today... lots of blue collar in my neighborhood, and we rode dirt bikes at Loma Verde and Frontage, and out in the baylands). After college, lived up and down the peninsula, with the final 20 years in Cupertino. We thought we'd live there forever, but it got to the point where we just hated it. Way too many people, most of whom can't drive (not stereotyping, but...), no sense of community. The final straw was when our daughter got hassled in middle school for being the "white kid". I retired in 2016, and both my parents had passed, so there was no reason to stick around.

We already knew about WA and OR, having been through both a number of times to see the in-laws in WA. Too wet, or too desert-y. ID and MT are nice, but too many bible-thumping Republicans, and we're not much for shoveling snow. Yeah, CA is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Started looking as far south as SLO, and worked our way up to Terra Linda. Marin was tempting - I lived in Corte Madera for six years when I was a kid - but the lots are comparatively small for the $$. Carmel Valley was nice, but too hot in summer. Liked Aptos and Soquel, but the Hwy 1 traffic is just like bay area.

Settled on Scotts Valley. No Hwy 1, 20 minutes to Los Gatos, half-hour to South San Jose. Lots of great roads to ride. People are friendly, speak English, and we got a gorgeous house on a one-acre flag lot in a gated community for a million less than we sold the Cupertino house for. It's consistently 10 - 15 degrees cooler than the south bay. We absolutely love it, and our daughter thrived at Scotts Valley High. Zero regrets, and unless something changes drastically, unlikely we'll ever leave.
 
My parents retired 6 months ago. Sold practically everything in Chicago and became “fair weather fowl”. Splitting their time between the vacation property in Wisconsin and their new custom home in Huntsville, AL.

Something to do with H’ville and space force :dunno
 
littlebeast said:
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 :rolleyes). 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.
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Thanks for taking the time to reply!
 
Kornholio said:
In terms of the US, to me, nothing compares to Alaska. The mosquitos there are the biggest I've seen compared to most anywhere outside of South Korea.

As for the heat/humidity, I'm not going to pretend like it's not hot and humid here. However, that's really just in the summer months and even then, you get used to it. In the end though, it's not like Florida or Alabama and Mississippi. Those places are literally swamps and bug hellscapes.
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Can't tolerate humidity. Lived in Honolulu for a year without AC. Developed haole rot in the middle of my back. Could not reach it. Great. Thanks.

Have spent a lot of time in Asia last 10 years. Humid. Shoot me.

So starting from the midwest all the way to the Atlantic is a no go for me.

Thanks for the reply.
 
OldGuy said:
Lot of interesting posts here. My wife grew up in Sunnyvale, and I in Palo Alto (before it was what it is today... lots of blue collar in my neighborhood, and we rode dirt bikes at Loma Verde and Frontage, and out in the baylands). After college, lived up and down the peninsula, with the final 20 years in Cupertino. We thought we'd live there forever, but it got to the point where we just hated it. Way too many people, most of whom can't drive (not stereotyping, but...), no sense of community. The final straw was when our daughter got hassled in middle school for being the "white kid". I retired in 2016, and both my parents had passed, so there was no reason to stick around.

We already knew about WA and OR, having been through both a number of times to see the in-laws in WA. Too wet, or too desert-y. ID and MT are nice, but too many bible-thumping Republicans, and we're not much for shoveling snow. Yeah, CA is expensive, but you get what you pay for. Started looking as far south as SLO, and worked our way up to Terra Linda. Marin was tempting - I lived in Corte Madera for six years when I was a kid - but the lots are comparatively small for the $$. Carmel Valley was nice, but too hot in summer. Liked Aptos and Soquel, but the Hwy 1 traffic is just like bay area.

Settled on Scotts Valley. No Hwy 1, 20 minutes to Los Gatos, half-hour to South San Jose. Lots of great roads to ride. People are friendly, speak English, and we got a gorgeous house on a one-acre flag lot in a gated community for a million less than we sold the Cupertino house for. It's consistently 10 - 15 degrees cooler than the south bay. We absolutely love it, and our daughter thrived at Scotts Valley High. Zero regrets, and unless something changes drastically, unlikely we'll ever leave.
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:thumbup

I love Scotts Valley. Lived there for a year off of Granite Creek rd. got married at the Hilton when it was brand new. Nice community. I could totally see myself there. Would just have to convince the wife that living in the trees is safe.
 
greenmonster said:
Depending on one's overall health I think there is a period of time after retirement where the person is still active and able to live in a smaller town, but at some point age and infirmity take over so it becomes important to live near good medical care as doctor visits become more frequent. Good medical care is usually found in larger metropolitan areas, which can mean another move.
As others have said - good medical care is an important consideration.
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great point. ‘retire and relocate’ meant something very specific to us - a first step in a multi step plan. definitely not a ‘one and done’ situation. we retired early, and the property we bought as our ‘retirement home’ is definitely not the type of place a geriatric could live (remote, physically challenging, and requires a ridiculous amount of land maintenance). we retired early, so this works for us. but we went into it knowing that at some point we’ll be downsizing to a condo or some such somewhere else (more practical as we become ‘elderly’), and after that (assuming we live that long) assisted living. i know a lot of elderly folks who can’t be dragged kicking and screaming into that, but we’re pragmatic about it (anticipate we’ll be exhausted at some point, and just want a place to sleep lol). so a large part of our progression of decisions has been the investment potential (making sure the properties are desirable enough to be appealing to future buyers at the point we are looking to sell).
 
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