Originally Posted by Tom Bombadil
There are so many factors to balance. What temps do you want in the winter? How much rain? Access to beaches? Mountains? Large Cities? High Density population? Medium? Low? Do you care about the political climate? Cost of Living? Crime Rate? Access to the Arts? Sports? Beautiful scenery? Forests? Do you speak Spanish? Do you want to Fish? Surf? Hunt? Raft? How important is closeness to family?
Answers to these and dozens of other questions will guide your choice.
I've been to the Charleston and liked it a lot. Can be kinda expensive. Nice moderate temps. I love the old historic section.
I would love to have a split arrangement, north in the summer, south in the winter.
Yes - all good questions. My wife wants to insure there is a community wherever we live. We moved into a neighbour hood that has great schools but was not very friendly so she is kind of bummed and wants to insure this doesn;t happen again. We were thinking of one of those active lifestyle communities since everyone is over 50 - which isn't the point; but all folks have moved in so making connections is easy - and they all have great facilities. We want to be close to a nice size city so that there are some good restaurants some sights etc. My family is in Toronto area so we will spend 6 mos a year there. One thing someone once told me is to pick a location where your children would want to visit. I have 2 daughters in college and they will likely move around so i don't think it feasible to try and be near them - but what would be a nice location where they would want to visit. They keep telling me Italy - and that would be great except for the social piece. We wouldn;t really know anyone there and it is difficult to "break into" a community.
thanks for your perspective