OT - Tell me about where you live

[DebnPhx]

I live in Cave Creek AZ! Just north of Phoenix. My husband and I are getting close to retiring and thinking about the same things. Here are some thoughts...

We are originally from Colorado and are used to cold and snow. Although the summers here are brutal the winters are heaven and we (he...) have not shoveled snow or slid off the road in 20 years!

Flag is nice, sortve alpine BUT it is a college town, NAU, and very pricey. Also, traffic between Flag and Phoenix is ungodly. We tried to go up last weekend to see the fall colors and spent over an hour in gridlock before we gave up and turned around. For those reasons we took it off our list.

Some other places to consider are Sun City, which is designed for retirees, Prescott, pretty, also pricey, and Payson, very pretty but hella out of the way.

Consider too that the heat in Arizona is extreme and lasts from April to October. Even if the temperatures are not that high the sun is brutal beating down on you. I had some friends move here from Florida and they couldn’t take it and moved back.

One other big thing we are thinking about is as we age and our families age, there may be times we need to get to someone quickly or they get to us quickly. That means close to an airport . Flag, Prescott and Payson are all too remote.

Maybe you should consider Cave Creek. It’s a very funky western town, smallish but right by Phoenix, just slightly cooler. It is pricey though. You can check it out on Zillow. Or if you can afford it, Carefree. Right next door, gorgeous but expensive. And all the people LOVE animals! We have four dogs and we’re about average. I’ve never seen a hunting carcus either.

For retirement we’ve decided to explore central Texas around San Antonio and Austin. Mostly due to the lower cost of housing. We can sell our house here and very easily downsize there.

[Gams]

I had a customer who highly recommended Carrizozo, NM, but I haven’t found much info on it yet.

[manleym]

Originally Posted by DebnPhx

For retirement we’ve decided to explore central Texas around San Antonio and Austin. Mostly due to the lower cost of housing. We can sell our house here and very easily downsize there.

I was going to suggest the Texas hill country - Boerne, Fredericksburg, Marble Falls. Lots of neat little towns down there. I live in the burbs outside of Dallas and love going down to the hill country. Another pretty part of Texas is around the Big Bend area. Probably not as much to do in the Big Bend area though as in the hill country, which is closer to Austin and San Antonio.

[Tugger31]

I'm assuming the above mentioned parts of Texas are humid, especially in summer? I hate humidity which is why we're looking to get out of the Midwest, that at the dreary long winters. On the flip side we don't like extreme heat either so we've yet to find our "perfect" place! So we're looking for 2nd best

[manleym]

I don't think central Texas is as humid as other parts. San Antonio, Houston, east Texas - VERY humid, but the more you go north and west, it's less humid. I don't think Austin is as humid as SA. I can handle the Austin area, but drip when I go to San Antonio.

[geojill]

Originally Posted by Pat58

I hope someone will chime in about New Mexico. I love the part of Connecticut that I live in, but fear that it won't be feasible to stay here after retiring because of our taxes and cost of living. I've been considering a relocation to Santa Fe or around there. I would miss the beaches and living on the coast terribly though.

I went to high school not far from Santa Fe. Some people love it but I didn’t care for it (I moved away from the desert into northern Colorado). It is dry and about 7,000 feet in altitude. It snows during the winter but it’s definitely not like what you experience now. Summers are hot and dry but tolerable. It’s about 45-60 minutes from Albuquerque, which is where the airport is. Santa Fe is kind of far from everything though. Albuquerque is the nearest city of a decent size, and that’s it. Smaller towns with lots of nothing but desert in between.

If you’re interested, I suggest taking a long weekend and do the tourist thing. Preferably in the middle of winter so you can see what to expect. Like I said, summers are hot but dry so it’s tolerable and the altitude makes it cooler than the surrounding valleys.

[bzar]

Originally Posted by Demeris

To someone down thread--they had snow in late May this last spring. That was a little unusual but not unheard of.

that was surprising to us as well! we keep tabs on the weather over there, and DS mentioned the snow, and we were just cracking up.

it is a college town, but it's big enough to have a Sam's but small enough to be able to get around. Honolulu can be grid-locked during rush hour, so in comparison, Flagstaff is a drop in the bucket with respect to traffic!

Pratima also mentions the traffic between PX and Flagstaff. she currently lives in PX.

[DawnP]

Gams,
You've gotten some great advice so far here. There are lots of "top retirement locations" type articles out by Forbes and US News & World Reports, if you Google them.

I recommend going to this website and reading through threads posted by locals for the areas you are considering moving to.

It's a plethora of local insider info. They will tell you about weather, traffic, property taxes, and so on. They will even tell you the politics of a particular town or neighborhood, the diversity, weather animal hunting is popular.

It's helping DH & I investigate our retirement choices near our daughter - a lot can vary even within a 30 mile radius.

I wish you the best on your retirement search!

[killoffsonny]

I live in Houston. I'd not recommend moving here. Summers are brutal. Winters are mild and they are our reward for putting up with hot/humid from April to October. There's plenty to do here though. Galveston is 30 miles away. No mountains close by. Just hot and humid. And lots of bugs.

[Leonana]

I'm east of Phoenix in Tempe. Love the winters, and can stand the summers. The only part that bothers me is trying to walk my dog at 6 a.m. when it's 85 degrees. But I grew up in the desert, so it doesn't bother me as much.

My brother and sister both retired to Prescott. It's milder weather than Flagstaff and more of a retirement community. It is getting crowded there, however, and house prices are climbing. There are other smaller towns in the mountains of Arizona that have people buying retirement homes, such as Payson, Strawberry, Overgaard, and Showlow.

A friend's parents retired in Silver City, New Mexico, and I thought that looked like a nice place, with mild weather.

Originally Posted by annette

I live in SW Ohio. Our winters are all over the place - can be mild one day and brutal the next.

Not looking forward to winter and driving in the snow. It used to not bother me but I had a couple experiences last winter that left me a little rattled. No accidents, just sliding a lot and not feeling like I was in control of my vehicle.

My husband and I have talked about how we'd like to be snowbirds someday but we always have so many pets I feel it would be impossible. Also, we have a colony of feral cats we trap, neuter and release that I now feel responsible for feeding. Some have decided to take up residence in our backyard.

I came home from an outing last weekend to find DH had purchased a large deck box (the kind you put cushions in) and had cut an opening in the front for the cats to slip through. It has a cozy heated house inside and the food bowls fit nicely and aren't out in the weather. Love that man!

I feed a feral colony too. About five years ago, I TNR'd seven cats and a neighbor did four. Seven of them are left, and I also feel like I have to stay in this house until they are gone. Being in the Phoenix area, I needed shade the most, and my husband built a long shelf with a roof. I keep their bowls there.