Where to move Goldilocks? Not too hot, not too cold... BUT LOTS OF SUNSHINE

Best weather I've ever encountered, ever.  Bay Area.  Sunny as heck, but never above 80.  Amazing.  

Never snows, never gets super hot.

Amazing.

Especially when you see local areas that are just over a pass, and it was 100.  One of the best cities in the world, and next to some of the best wine making area in the world.

Sadly, by now, you are about 50 years late to the party.  I had a Grand Aunt/Uncle who bought a home in Novato (north side of the area, still really close to SF), and sold it for $500k back in 1989.  I'm sure it's a $2M bungalo now.

But I've never had better weather than living there (I lived in Richmond for a summer)..

Other than that, it's either too hot in the summer (or year round) or too cold in the winter (for most).   Most people I work with can't wait to retire and get the heck out of SE MI.  We'll not be doing that, Ann Arbor is really nice.  Even with the crappy weather we get.

secretariata (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to RX Reven' :

My outlaws #2 moved to NM about 5 years ago.  Santa Fe to be specific.  The only research they did was they had taken a trip there 5-10 years earlier.  Within a month they were bitchin' about it.  Yes, the scenery and weather are beautiful.  Cost of living and taxes are high and there aren't much if any tax breaks on retirees. Also, health care seems to be a challenge as in not enough resources to serve the needs.  FIL couldn't find a family doc where he could even get an appointment in less than a year from the date he called.  While they were complaining to my wife, I did a quick google & found a listing of the worst states to retire in.  #2 was NM.  Only lead by Alaska...YMMV etc...

Hi secretariat,

Thank you for the information. I’m running flat out on a plan I developed 27 years ago (divorce) and I really haven’t done much to challenge my initial assumptions since then. Perhaps I shouldn’t have contributed to this thread given my lack of current, validated knowledge. I’ve always liked New Mexico…pretty desert scenery, reasonable weather, low cost of living, wide open spaces. But, you’re right, crushing state debt, poor health care delivery systems, high poverty, etc. make the Post Cards irrelevant.

Honestly, California has amazing weather, amazing diversity of culture, scenery, and activities, and it’s my life time home state so unless Prop 13 (measure that limits property tax increases) gets revoked in full or in part, I’ll probably just live out my life here.

Wellington New Zealand! Err that's not the us. But it sounds like an awesome place to live. And I enjoyed my time there. 

Wow guys this thread exploded.

I guess I lumped all of the Southwest into “Arizona” and it looks like there’s more to it. Personally, I (oddly) feel a little claustrophobic being east of the Mississippi, but in addition to Knoxville I’ll have to look at SC and NC a bit more and see if the humidity is tolerable. I remember as a kid driving home from fam vacations to Texas and each stop along the way north just got more disgusting every time you opened the car door until it got full wet blanket in KC. THAT is what I’m trying to avoid.

And I’m about 40, work in IT and yes I need to work for a living and buy a house there. 

EDIT: Man, Knoxville looks promising. 204 days of sun (I looked it up and Lansing is 175), Avg winter high is 10 degrees or so warmer than Lansing, humidity is the same as KC tho so there’s that. 

We never ever wanted to live somewhere without family but perpetual gray skies are no joke, and both sides of the family just happen to make poor climate decisions...

Bend, OR. 300 days of sun per year.  They do get real winter, but they are prepared for it.

Portland is pretty nice too, highly rated international airport, lots of activities nearby from the coast to the mountains, the Columbia Gorge, access to Northern Cali/SeaTac, WA.  Local road course is a City Park and holds quite a few events from bicycling to motocross, drag and road racing.

We get actual seasons, including some humid summer for a few weeks and of course rain/gray during the fall/winter with the occasional ice storm that shuts us down for a few days per year.  It's pretty mild for the most part and the amount of greenery and trees is a nice plus compared to the southwest.

cost of living is going up though, so I'd suggest looking at suburbs like Tualatin/Tigard/Vancouver, etc. unless you want to live in a condo closer to town.

My Mom and younger brother moved to New Mexico.  He's in Albuquerque and she's in Belen.  They are E36 M3 holes.  Period.  He's only there because he has a support system with the state/city to help him live on his own.  Transferring that here would be pretty difficult.  She's there because she's stubborn and refuses to accept help to move back here.  We liked Sante Fe when we visited last, but it wasn't a place you wanted to live, just visit for a bit.

Honestly as bad as Vegas is, if I were to live in one of those places I'd probably live there.  At least there would be E36 M3 to do and see outside of shades of brown land, scrub trees and heat.

P3PPY said:

In reply to BoxheadTim :

So even like TN, WV or KY don't foot the bill? Too muggy there?

I'd love to live in eastern TN or western NC near the Blue Ridge. The higher elevations there help you avoid some of the oppressive humidity you can get in the summer. I did a motorcycle trip through that area in August and it was really pleasant while the low-lying areas were muggy and awful. Problem is there isn't much in the way of bigger population centers other than pricey and full-of-itself Asheville.

My wife and I enjoyed Prescott, AZ.  About 100 miles north of Phoenix, but higher in elevation so you get three seasons and not the heat of Phoenix.  Lately we've been heading to Santa Fe, NM area.  At 7,000ft. you get snow, but the air is so dry you can wear a T Shirt, it melts in an hour or so.

We looked at a house in Prescott once, 4BR, detached 3 car garage all up on a mountainside, all one floor and a very open floor plan.  $430,000.  BUT!  School, sewer, water, taxes:  $1300/year.  Welcome to not NY.

In reply to Type Q :

I left Lansing not realizing it's Podunk attitude. While I only live 75 miles away in a town of 800 the difference between here and there is huge. I live in Kalamazoo county between Battle Creek and Kalamazoo, it's a very different world.

We are going to Chattanooga, TN in about 10 years. I will be retired and my wife still has to work about 12 more years than me. Eastern TN is pretty sweet all year long and you can hide from the worst of the humidity. And then there are the roads...those roads...

300 days of sunshine here in Denver.  Costs have gone way up since I moved here 15 years ago but they're still nothing like California or areas on the East Coast.  It does snow here but not a lot and it doesn't stay.  Summers here can be very hot, I disagree with the previous post that said it rarely hits 90 here in the summer, it hits 90 here in the summer ALL the time!  Several days of 95+ aren't unusual at all, make sure you get out on your mtn bike early in the morning.

Otherwise pretty much everything else is here and we have a large airport that makes it easy to fly anywhere you wanna go.

I grew up in San Diego, if I could pull it off financially I'd move back there in a heartbeat.

What I've discovered from online research, talking to people, etc for retirement relocation is that everywhere I want to live is full of people I don't want to live near.

I am also trying to get away from summer heat and humidity, without getting into cabin-bound-5-months-a-year winter.

In reply to ddavidv :

I was going to suggest Asheville. That is an area I'd like to live when I am done living at the beach.

dculberson (Forum Supporter) said:

Wellington New Zealand! Err that's not the us. But it sounds like an awesome place to live. And I enjoyed my time there. 

We recently purchased a home in Waihi Beach NZ.  Slowly starting the whole process of selling everything here to relocate there for retirement.

I'll add north Texas along the Red river.  

In reply to 914Driver :

Oh man, I'd love to have a house like that for only $430K with all of that. 

When looking at taxes, look at the whole picture. They all get you in one way or another. Just in my recent move from TX to Colorado everyone was like you are going to pay so much more in Colorado. In reality, Colorado is really about the same. I pay Income taxes here but property taxes are so much less here than Austin. New car registration is a lot more here in Colorado. But when I added it up, If I was living in a like for like house in TX and Colorado, My tax load would be about the same. Only reason it's more here for me is we bought a bigger house when we moved so my property tax in TX was less than the increased income tax here. 

In reply to docwyte :

I will admit that I could be wrong about the summer heat and that you would know a lot better than me how the typical Denver summers are. I have only been here a couple of years...

I have been told that the past summer where it hit 90 several times in the city were unusually warm and not typical so I believed it. Also, I am used to east coast humidity so it is probable that it just doesn't feel very hot to me. A little shade and a breeze and the summers are quite comfortable to me.

The main point that is indisputable is that it is very, very sunny here! 

KC is OK, I guess. I don't believe we've seen a bad tornado in the metro for something like, 40 years now.

Last couple years though, the weather hasn't been that great. For instance, last year we had maybe three weeks of actual spring and around the same for actual fall. For the most part, it went from one extreme to the next.

Summers here still suck as they can be pretty hot and pretty humid. Winter of course get cold and only made worse with all the damn wind.

I love Asheville. Decent weather in the mountains.

But that just might be my preferences talking cause it is great for offroad biking and craft beer. It has a definite hipster vibe but I am a bit hipster-ish myself so I am cool with that.

In reply to pontiacstogo :

I thought NZ had very restrictive laws regarding moving there?  That they basically won't let you move/live there unless you're already a NZ citizen?

tb, yeah, those people lied to you.  In the 16 years I've lived here it's always been over 90F during the summers here for stretches at a time, sometimes over 95F...

P3PPY said:

... I’ll have to look at SC and NC a bit more and see if the humidity is tolerable.

Having spent the vast majority of my life in VA, NC, and SC I will say that if you aren't in the mountains or on the ocean the heat and humidity here sux!  And lasts longer the further south you go.  When I moved to the Columbia, SC area 20+ years ago it was great to wear shorts and wash my car in January.  Now it is miserable that from mid-May until the end of September the temps are well into the 90's with the humidity about the same as the temp.  At the beach you generally have a fairly constant breeze to help cool things down and make them bearable for most of the 8 months of summer.  In the mountains, the high temps and humidity are lower and the super heat lasts much less duration.  The trade off is colder lows in the winter, but the daytime highs still get pretty tolerable with lots of sun and the snow generally doesn't last more than a few days if you are under 4000 ft.  Just a summary of my many years living in these parts...

docwyte said:

In reply to pontiacstogo :

I thought NZ had very restrictive laws regarding moving there?  That they basically won't let you move/live there unless you're already a NZ citizen?

That is my understanding, both Australia and NZ don't let foreigners permanently relocate unless you bring big $$$.  Like paying millions or bringing a business that generates millions in tax revenue.  But I haven't looked into them lately as I was discouraged by what I saw as the price of entry 10-15 years ago.

P3PPY said:

 a lot of the sun and don't get too cold/snowy, but not too oppressively humid in summers (I'm looking at you, central GA)? We'd prefer somewhere near a decent sized city...

I have been looking extensively if not obsessively at where to move when we retire in, I hope, just a few more years. I've looked everywhere in the U.S. 

You have just described Prescott, AZ.  Spend some time playing around on the weather comparison sites (I'm not linking them so as not to appear to be paddle-powered, since I'm still new) and find your best compromise.  

Oh, and I see that Don49 ID'd Prescott as well. 

docwyte said:

In reply to pontiacstogo :

I thought NZ had very restrictive laws regarding moving there?  That they basically won't let you move/live there unless you're already a NZ citizen?

Wife and I were both born in NZ.  I'm a US citizen and my wife is a permanent resident.

pontiacstogo said:

We recently purchased a home in Waihi Beach NZ.  Slowly starting the whole process of selling everything here to relocate there for retirement.

Sounds amazing. NZ is really an incredible place. I don't know if we'll ever actually move there but it sure would be nice.

I own commercial real estate and unfortunately buying in the cities there is so much more expensive than here that even if I sold everything I had here I wouldn't be able to buy a big enough property to live off the income. Probably. My wife's got skills so maybe she could be my sugar mama.