I like Phoenix, but forget 5 and 6 for May thru September (although I like riding those months here).

I love the double centuries in California

Very interesting thread! In the interest of keeping it going - I'll offer my thoughts, which I consider often being a financial advisor.

Our priorities would be as follows:

1) To be closer (without being too close) to our son, who is currently in Lexington, KY. This would be even bigger if we would be blessed by grandchildren.

2) Low taxes/cost of living.

3) I agree that it would be difficult to uproot from the area that has been home for our entire lives. We both live 30 miles from where we grew up. The social aspect is extremely interesting. While we would be moving away from friends/church/family - we would also have the opportunity to make new friends and church acquaintances, as well as be closer to our son. All-in-all, a mixed bag. Perhaps we could persuade some family to move with us??

4) A longer biking season would be welcomed. For me - between climate and job - about 90% of my riding happens from June to August.

5) Small town living with metro amenities within driving distance would be terrific.

Based on all of that, so far, I find DGlenday's consideration of Fairfield Glade, TN fascinating. I would like to see other folks continue to add their thoughts so as to further refine mine.

FWIW Boise has the same weather as Reno, just a day later. Nice town. Another one that took a huge swat in real estate prices.

Spent a fair amount of time in Fredricksburg, and have a friend who lives there. Nice place to visit but...you know the saying.

Last year they had 70-something days over 100 (including 34 straight) and several over 110. It's hideously hot and humid during the summer. Not terribly cheap on the real estate side either.

This is a fun thread with lots of interesting ideas. I'll just add my $0.02.

Check the medical community out very carefully before you leap off into the void. I didn't and it has created a bit of an inconvenience at times. OR is like a third-world nation in terms of the quality of health care (I used to teach at a medical school, so I know a thing or two about what is going on.) When I finally get close to my use-by date, I anticipate moving in order to be closer to decent medical care. Based on family and personal history, I should have a couple of decades before that is an issue, but some of you may have more immediate health issues that would make this more urgent.

I really loved Bluesdawg's comment about home is home. I feel that way about the Pacific Coast Range. As long as I am withing sight of these hills, all is right with the world. When I have lived elsewhere, I always yearned to return. Fortunately, it is a really loooong mountain range.

Having lived through the largest reduction in tax rates in history, I am amazed at all the people who want to live in places with the lowest tax rates. I remember high quality public schools, free and inexpensive state universities, smoothly paved roadways that didn't cause my bikes to break, traffic law enforcement, clean parks with restrooms, cities without homeless people sleeping in doorways and oh-so-many things that more civilized Western societies take for granted. A few more bucks in my account won't improve the quality of my life nearly as much as those things.

I'm not so sure, Bcarfree. The neighboring (To MA) state of vermont has crushing taxes, but many roads are poorly maintained, and services are sparse, once you get away from the larger towns. Once you get up into the Northeast part of the state, the nearest LEO might be a half hour away. In summary, I'm told that Vermont looks lovely on a post card, but if you have to live there, you better be independently wealthy.

Boom.

And from the perspective of someone who has spent most of their life in temperate, maritime climates, it is amazing to me that people can describe places with sub-zero winter, and 90-plus summer, temperatures as "neither too hot nor too cold". LOL.

Good thread, though, keep it coming. Any Americans here apart from BarrettsCV that plan to retire outside the US?

Looking for the location takes patience, insight and timing. Kimberly is a mining town in the Canadian Rockies. When the mine there shut down, it made the national news. Viewers from accross Canada saw the opportunity in what was also a skiing village. Housing prices went up from cheap to affordable.

Asheville is a bit of a tourist mecca (Biltmore) and has pockets of new agey stuff, which might be nice if you like it.

Greenville is not a tourist spot, but it is a very clean town with a largely upscale population. The highest end cycle shop I've ever seen was in Greenville. It isn't particularly newe agey at all.

Probably a 90-95% chance I will. As I said before, first and second choices are Appenine Italy and/or Andalucia Spain. Third and fourth choices are Aquataine France and/or coastal Uruguay.

Would love to go to Christchurch, New Zealand or Perth, Australia; but getting into anywhere in the Commonwealth as a retiree is next to impossible, unless one is independently wealthy. That is understandable as retirees are more of a drag on an economy than a contributor. Once into any Commonwealth country, it is a simple matter of going elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Too bad Canada doesn't want us draft-dodgers anymore.

Ahem....Vermont will be implementing single-payer health insurance, i.e. universal health care*. That could mean 10's to 100's of thousands of dollars per year to a resident. This is why hearsay is not admissible in court.


* This is not meant to spark any kind of political or philosophical debate. The op asked about low cost of living. Health insurance is a major expense for virtually all.

I'm intrigued by the idea of retiring to Tucson, AZ. I'm getting more enamored with warmer weather and less accepting of the colder weather. Hot and dry might work very well for me. The non-weather aspects of living in Tucson, at least as far as my ideals, which include a life filled with cycling, seem very appealing.

Of savings or taxes?

I thought it would have been obvious, but maybe I should have specified that I meant money an individual would not have to spend on health insurance, or health care if otherwise not insured.

Marquette, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. College town, never had real estate boom or bust, top 50 hospital, Single track everywhere, 9 months of winter and 3 months of tough sledding. Nice airport - used to be a SAC base with B-52s and KC 135s and FOUR Presidents have visited. Obama, Bush 43, T. Roosevelt and Taft.
Lots of great local beer and funny accents. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/...mag/index.html

Some intriguing thoughts. I have to travel to Minden NV from time to time, the town is not for me - a desert. I will look harder at S. Lake Tahoe, I may spend an extra few days there on my next trip.
Boise Id or Idaho Falls are interesting. Never been there but will give it a look.
I like NH but property taxes are pretty high and services are a little scarce.
If the property taxes in NY were not out of control I would stay here but like som many others, they are going to tax me right out of the state.
The peoples republic of Vermont is a none starter, although beautiful - it would be hard to retire there.
Health insurance is somewhat of a factor but not much - I am lucky, I will have worked for the same company for 40 yrs and still have a defined benefits plan.
I do want to be close to my kids, my older daughter is mobile and can work anywhere, my youger daughter is too young to know where she will be, but if we have settled on a retirement location she will have that option as well.

Texas & Az are not even on the radar screen. I lived in Tx and have visited Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth & Houston, none appeal to me, I know nothing about West Tx but can't see as it will appeal, too far south - like Az or NM.

At some point I am going to need to determine a process by which I can narrow choices and decide.

Cyclinfool, I just noticed you're in upstate NY. I'm not sure where you are, but I'm near Albany. My town has very reasonable taxes and great services. As a matter of fact, most of your criteria is met here. I'm just getting weary of the winters. I want to be able to ride my bike regularly 12 months of the year.

Nobody has even mentioned my #1 criteria - presence of family.

There's more to life than being on an extended vacation. 4 of our 5 kids live in the St Louis area along with 12 of our 15 grand children and all 4 greats. Nothing makes me happier than spending a few hours with any of that group. No matter what badness may befall Mrs. Grouch and me, I can't imagine our extended family not circling the wagons to watch out for us. I'm not going anywhere.

Tax rates haven't changed all that much in recent years. Take a look at the charts and adat in this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxatio..._United_States

Many of those examples you cited aren't broken or can't easily be fixed with higher taxes - the performance of public schools keeps going up, higher education costs are skyrocking due to many factors, road maintenance lags because more cars on on the raod and people drive more that cause the surface to deteriorate in half the time, and all the homeless people are seen for many other reasons. Traffic law enforcement produces revenue but isn't increased for other reasons

Many areas do very well with lower personal taxes and make up revenue through other means.

But there are so many more reasons to pick an area for retirment than just lower taxes.

I've learned what appeals to me doesn't necessarily appeal to others, but given that, I've always been greatly attacted to this part of the country:

http://www.alpinetexas.com

Not necessarily just this town, but within a ~90 radius there are only a handful of other towns, most if not all smaller. I just love the area in general. It has its own particular conditions, issues, etc., but so does everywhere else. Besides, their website has a photo of cyclists riding by a local mountain. Can't be all bad! :lol:

Location

As to the list:

1. Low taxes, low cost of living
2. Good medical access
3. Community with shops within walking/riding distance.
4. Outdoor activities
5. Cool climate - moderate humidity (not too dry, not too hot)
6. Clean water, clean air.
7. Mountains, lakes - easy access to good skiing, biking and hiking
8. Good airpor

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes
5. Reasonably, depending on what you call cool. But humidity is one thing it does not have.
6. Yes, but it's not a 'wet' area; on the contrary, it's fairly arid.
7. Mountains, yes. Lakes, no.
8. Yes, but not airline-connected.

One reason (of several) this whole area appeals to me is that while I've not lived in huge metropolises, I've always lived around lots of other people within close distance. I like the idea of open spaces, mountains, blue skies and dry air... and it's here a-plenty. I just don't know if it can happen for me.

Except for the last sentence, there isn't much here that I could agree with, or is even true. Do not worry. I won't go there...

Love the area also...raced there numerous times. The last two were burned out by wildfires.

Medical care there is iffy. Alpine Med is a pretty basic, anything beyond that and you either life flight or drive two hours to El Paso or Midland. Same with commercial flights.

In the past it had been a huge people/drug smuggling corridor. Not sure what the situation is now.

Great scenery and wildlife. The road riding is great though limited to the few roads in the area.

I suspect there are enough Californians in Bend that the natives won't cause too much of an issue. I am a native Oregonian and think of Bend as paradise. Oregon also has no sales tax. I love skiing at Mt Bachelor.

It still amazes me that so many assume that everybody has produced offspring or feels the same way about family as they do. I've no children. I've got 5 siblings, and numerous nephews & nieces. I'm glad they are around and care about them very much, but I don't feel a need to be geographically close to them.

I could back up everything I said with data but I doubt you'll accpet facts