Retirement/relocation destination?

Washington is actually a couple of hours from where I am. I've never been. I think my wife has. She went to East Carolina, which isn't too far from there.

 

Eh. Though YMMV.

It's OK, but I don't get where people call it the greatest thing ever. It has a couple of halfway decent places to eat, I suppose you could eventually find a decent house if you wanted to make the stay long-term.

But I really don't get it. Now, of course, you could come here and think otherwise.

 

I was there several years ago, looked like they had done a lot of upgrading downtown compared to when I first was there in the 1990s. My friend moved from downtown out to a house about a two-minute walk from the Yacht and Country Club, where he is probably the least-likely member of. He works right on the waterfront, at the Estuary.

 

Good thread topic.

What’s interesting is I have lived in a couple of places people move in retirement: Northern Michigan (in Cadillac, much more affordable than Traverse City, and in the U.P.) and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The latter is a beautiful area if you don’t mind winter, but it’s become very expensive and ultra-MAGA in the past 10-15 years as Trumpists flock there from California, Portland and Seattle.

We are recent empty nesters who moved to central Washington three years ago. Both of us, for different reasons, have wanted to move to western Washington for years, but we don’t have that kind of money.

We are in relatively decent financial shape on the “dry side” of the state, the weather is decent provided you can keep cool during summer afternoons and evenings, and it’s a good mix of cultures and politics here. Suficientemente bueno.

 

I’m ok with snow and cold.
Everybody seems to think heat is great. I’d ask this: How many deaths each year are due to extreme heat and its companions, hurricanes? How many are due to extreme cold and blizzards?
The point about access to medical care is a good one. People who want splendid isolation have to be willing to take a disproportionate risk that, for example, they’ll die of a heart attack because the EMTs are 25 minutes away.

 

Those upgrades would be mighty expensive places to live.

 

Not just emergency care, either. Access to specialists dealing with everything from colonoscopies to chemo to physical therapy can be a long drive away.

 

I've talked quite a bit here about the struggles I've had dealing with the decision to buy my parents' place and head south. But now it appears more likely that they won't be able to build their downsized home in the timeframe we'd originally discussed. So we're back to square one.

That said, I like Virginia .. a lot. Northern Virginia is obviously expensive, so we won't stay here long term, but will likely stay until littlest tbf graduates from high school.

Places in the Shenandoah Valley are near the top of the list. Harrisonburg, Winchester, Blacksburg. All small towns, purple politics, cheaper than NOVA, few tornadoes, no hurricanes, no 115 degree summers. We've talked about central Pennsylvania, too -- somewhere around State College or Harrisonburg. Highly likely we end up in Shenandoah, though.

 

How many people die from extreme temperatures, and how this could change in the future: Part one.

Hint: How many people say, "I'm moving to Arizona for my health" vs. "I've moving to North Dakota for my health?"

 

Damn. I stand corrected.
Looks like the cold-related deaths are from accumulated everyday stuff. I had thought only of weather deaths in terms of extreme singular events.
I still ain’t moving to Florida or Texas or Mississippi.

 

New Market, Lexington and Strasburg might be even more affordable. Had a friend who lived in Charles Town and really liked it. If you are thinking about Central Pennsylvania back in the day when we drove US 15 a lot Lewisburg and Selinsgrove looked nice too, smaller college towns, maybe even Lock Haven.

 

I have too much emotional baggage from the one winter I lived up there as a young one, but I don’t think I could handle Pennsylvania. Someday I ought to go to Pittsburgh, which I’ve only seen in the back of a car during a one-off road trip in the 80s. But that’s the only place I could imagine possibly being. I’ve been to Philly and it didn’t do it for me.