Help me find a new place to live.

[k4kafka]

Are Phoenix and Tucson likely to have water shortages in the next 10-20 years?

Wow, you really like to plan long-range. How’s your investment portfolio...stocks or bonds ?

 

[tursiops]

Wow, you really like to plan long-range. How’s your investment portfolio...stocks or bonds ?

I plan only one more move, at most. I want water wherever it is. Tucson's water table is suspect.

 

[StefinSB]

I travel all over the US and would pick, if scuba is not a deciding factor:

1. Boise. Great outdoors, nice downtown. Still affordable with growing semiconductor industry. The rest of ID sucks imo

2. Tucson. Hot but not super hot. You can go to elevation to cool down. Phoenix is a no.

3. Salt Lake City. Starts to grow on me and great skiing in the winter if that’s your thing.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Asking again how close do you want to be to a city? In much of rural America you can buy a shuttered retail building or shop on what was the main street (before Walmart and then Amazon killed them) for well under $100k. Housing is equally cheap although the quality is likely not great.

Here's a couple of examples of commercial listings in the little town in southern Illinois where my mother grew up and I spent all my summers as a child. The closest major city is St. Louis , which is 2 hours west. There is a Walmart and a Tractor Supply though

117 E. North Avenue,$59k 6840 sq ft, half block of stores on main street

114 B Camelia Road $62k, 2412 sq ft 4 bay shop

I don’t want to be out in the boonies but also don’t want to be right in the middle of a busy city either. The city I live in now is about 150K people and it’s the gateway to wine country. There are several small communities scattered around and I’m north of the City (SF) about 60 mi (an hour drive), but I never go to San Fran-psycho anymore because of the rampant crime, drug addicts, homeless, and people taking dumps in broad daylight on the sidewalks in front of everyone.
I like Santa Rosa and the area but it breaks my heart to see what’s happening to it and most of California. SR also has it share of scumbag drug addicts too. It’s considered a sanctuary city for every derelict that happens to show up. The cops have been issued a directive that the city has a hands off policy, and SR is also one of the places on the map that they come for free drug treatment. Most of the homeless here are not from here.
I’m not thrilled about leaving, but doing the math I don’t see a way to comfortably retire here.

 

[lowwall]

What's the minimum temperature you willing to put up with? Not talking the rare cold snap, but expected daytime temps in the midwinter.

 

[lexvil]

Maybe turn off the TV and radio, a lot of fear mongers out there but try looking up cities stats

http://www.city-data.com/

 

[drrich2]

The weather rules are no snow, no prolonged rainy wet dreary winters.

The snow thing is a problem if you are extreme about it. I live in southwestern KY. A typical winter, we likely get a couple of 4 inch snows, and a snow that's deeper - maybe 6 or even 8 inches? Just brainstorming based on living here; I don't keep track to actual numbers may vary a bit. Usually have about 2 mornings per winter where my short drive to work is nerve-wracking because of ice and snow on the roads.

Growing up in south-central Arkansas, one or two 2 inch snows per winter would be more typical...occasionally something bigger. There was a big ice storm with extended power outages once when I was a kid.

Head up to Louisville, and you're going to deal with some snow in winter.

But that said, in southwestern KY, we don't have snowmobiles, and while occasionally somebody needs to clear a drive way, that's not frequent. Not all snow is created equal.

Winters here tend to be fairly wet/rainy and at times dreary, but it's not perpetual drizzle. We get clear, sunny days, too. Very much a '4-seasons' kind of place.

Regarding an earlier poster's comment, since Arkansas and KY are both a little hilly, I, too, tend to be irked by very flat regions - it looks unnatural to me! I don't hate it and I could live there, but it looks like it's been steamrolled. I don't want mountains, but a little 'wave' to the landscape is nice.

I wouldn't want a desert. I'm not outdoorsy, but I don't want to flee from one AC-space to the next.

Would it be practical for you guys to rent for a year somewhere before you buy? I suspect you need to ground yourself at a destination and experience the fullness of it before you can make a true informed decision.

 

[tarponchik]

3. Salt Lake City. Starts to grow on me and great skiing in the winter if that’s your thing.

I've seen reports that SLC is one of the worst cities in US when it comes to air quality.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

The snow thing is a problem if you are extreme about it. I live in southwestern KY. A typical winter, we likely get a couple of 4 inch snows, and a snow that's deeper - maybe 6 or even 8 inches? Just brainstorming based on living here; I don't keep track to actual numbers may vary a bit. Usually have about 2 mornings per winter where my short drive to work is nerve-wracking because of ice and snow on the roads.

Growing up in south-central Arkansas, one or two 2 inch snows per winter would be more typical...occasionally something bigger. There was a big ice storm with extended power outages once when I was a kid.

Head up to Louisville, and you're going to deal with some snow in winter.

But that said, in southwestern KY, we don't have snowmobiles, and while occasionally somebody needs to clear a drive way, that's not frequent. Not all snow is created equal.

Winters here tend to be fairly wet/rainy and at times dreary, but it's not perpetual drizzle. We get clear, sunny days, too. Very much a '4-seasons' kind of place.

Regarding an earlier poster's comment, since Arkansas and KY are both a little hilly, I, too, tend to be irked by very flat regions - it looks unnatural to me! I don't hate it and I could live there, but it looks like it's been steamrolled. I don't want mountains, but a little 'wave' to the landscape is nice.

I wouldn't want a desert. I'm not outdoorsy, but I don't want to flee from one AC-space to the next.

Would it be practical for you guys to rent for a year somewhere before you buy? I suspect you need to ground yourself at a destination and experience the fullness of it before you can make a true informed decision.

I have friends who have spent time in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and they say it’s beautiful and the people are great. I’m somewhat of a history buff and I also like historic buildings and houses. I’m also a country boy at heart and used to live on a very remote ranch out in the boonies off the grid in a coastal mountain range in Northern California. I’m not saying that I necessarily want that again but I lean that way more that living in a big city. I spent a lot of time hunting and fishing when I was growing up. Mountains are something I need.
A little land certainly wouldn’t hurt, a small town would be wonderful, and being fairly close to a moderate size city for services and supplies would be great.

I think what we need to do is jump in the 4Runner, take the dog, and do a road trip to start seeing some of these places.
For temps, it matters more to her than me. Frost is fine, a few inches of snow is fine, long wet winters where there is endless rain with damp foggy soggy bone chilling grey is not fine.
Both our vehicles are 4 wheel drive so a little snow is nothing. To me wet cold rain is worse than a little snow.
Summers are negotiable. Heat might be OK. It can get a little debilitating at times when a lot of my work is outdoors.
It routinely gets over 100 here many weeks in the summer. This year we saw 108. Two years ago right prior to the Tubbs fire we saw 112. And it isn’t always bone dry heat either. Yeah it can get miserable but I deal with it.
The threat of firestorms is a big motivator for me the get the hell out of here.
Part of the reason I don’t just move somewhere else in California that’s safer is because as soon as I sell this place I have to reinvest the money back into property equal to or more than what I sold this for or else I get nailed with capital gains taxes on the difference. Plus I would lose my proposition 13 property tax protection on my current house and when I buy something else I start paying property tax based on the purchase price. So I would have to start paying property tax on at least 600K (give or take).
This is why it makes sense to bail out of the state like so many people in my situation do.

 

[dulinor]

For me, California (at least many parts of it) falls into the same category as New York City (where I grew up.)

For some people they can’t imagine living anywhere else and it’s totally worth it to put up with the innumerable hassles. Everybody else should get the heck out of there.