Moving can be scary but you only live once! Go with your gut and trust that you'll make the best choice for you. My husband and I loved living in Columbus Ohio and now we love living at the beach in central FL & we're loving life. You could build a brand new home down here for $200,000 (ours took only 3 months to build! DR Horton Express homes. New Smyrna Beach), never have to worry about fixing frozen pipes again, never have to worry about renovating! The weather is always warm (winter this year was 60's-70's). Cost of living is lower, taxes are lower, you dont pay state tax down here either, and the people are friendly. Amenities are endless, as are the number of sunny days in the year! Whether you like FL or Cali better, there are amazing communities waiting for you with a comfy lounge chair and a shady palm tree to sit under.

Thanks CJ, I would like to hear about your new location. If you get a chance, and if its possible, could you PM me please?

I'm still trying to figure all this out for myself!

I'm the type who likes permanence, & owning, & having 'roots'. If it were my husband and I , we would just downsize. Rending is too changeable for me. The owner of the building could sell, you could wind up with neighbors from hell, it's too much of a gamble. We would only rent for a little while just to see if we like the area before buying and then buy. Hubby and I will be facing questions like you doing now some day. Where you live also depends on weather you can deal with the cold and winters in Ohio or not. Sandiego is more temperate I believe. Good Luck!

You need to do your due diligence. Visit at different times of the year. Is there a "high season" with thousands of tourists? (Good luck getting into your favorite restaurants!). Where are the iffy areas? Are you right now living in an urban, suburban or rural area? If your rural, and want to try urban, rent. If your going for the same, like suburban to suburban, buying may be the way to go. We also moved from up north to sunny Florida, but visited our selected area for 5 years, and house searched, by internet, for one year. We considered not just the cost of living, but cultural and activity amenities, medical, transportation, colleges, restaurants, on and on. If you’re buying, be aware that different areas have different negotiating ways. We lost out on our first house by asking the sellers to pay closing costs, common in our area, but rarely done here. Our agent didn’t tell us that, we would not have included it. So ask questions, then more, then more!

The move to another state - how would that impact the management of your properties? are you planning to sell any?

Needshave, sorry I just noticed your comment. I have no idea how to PM, but I'm more than happy to talk. If you know how, PM me and we'll chat =)

CJ, I guess I misspoke. I belong to several forums but this is the only one that does not have an obvious way to PM another member of the same web page or forum. I incorrectly assumed it was possible. So if anyone knows how or if that can be done, I would appreciate hearing how....

needshave, I think you can leave a message on someone else's Houzz profile page, but pretty sure it would be public for all to see, can't say that for sure though. I don't believe I've ever received or left one myself. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

I think you're right, at least that's what I think. I was going to leave my email address but thought better, Thanks

set up a private idea book and only give access to your own "friends." Then chat away!

jmm1837, sounds like that could work and I may try to do that as well, so I can chat with my sister about Houzz stuff. I used to be able to mark idea books 'private' last year then they went and seemed to have changed the format of Houzz idea book pages and I no longer can figure out how to mark any of my new idea books private! Any idea how to do that? Sorry needshave--I shouldn't be hijacking your thread by asking my own questions!

THANKS, 1837. I will see if I can set that up. Appreciate you taking the time to write ME.

CJ......Thanks to 1837 I have set up a private idea book chat line that we can converse on, regarding retirement/housing. You can go to my idea books but i did send out a private ideal book invitation. If you have time, please visit. Thanks, 1837.

Since you don't know the territory, I would rent. You mention you might move to another part of the country also. I would subscribe to local papers to get a feel of each area you are interested in so you know prior to visiting what is going on. I remember doing this and finding out there were severe water problems and pipes that were going to raise property taxes by quite a lot. Also consider mobile home parks many have all the amenities you desire and are reasonably safe..

We have made several trips to the area we are most interested in the San Diego Area. We were fortunate in that we had the time and opportunity to spend a lot of time at all different times of the day in this area. This is a very nice upscale apartment home within a gated community with all the amenities we are looking for and more. In one of our recent trips, we were lucky to meet some very nice folks, just a bit older than us, that were living there, and have for the past three years. These folks are so nice that we recently lived at there home and was able to share all of the amenities that they experience on a daily basis. We got to see the area in the late night, early morning, rush hour and meet residents on a daily basis. It was such a unique experience to be able to spend that much time at a place and really get a feel for it. We love the climate, the people in the community are very nice and they have their own community that they share with each other. So we have been very lucky to be able to really experience life there.

Right now we are thinking San Diego would be the first year, maybe Santa Barbara the next year. I would still like to get CJ's thoughts on Florida. Any others? It's a lifestyle change.

I hadn't realized you were talking about a retirement community, not a regular apartment building, my mistake. The place you describe sounds very nice. My parents are in Port Charlotte Florida in a private home on the gulf coast and love it. They had down sided to a smaller on level home with easier upkeep. They now hire someone to come and take care of the grounds.

My life partner and I just love Sarasota up the coast from Port Charlotte.

Opps --just now realized my previous review above has spelling errors. It was supposed to say 'downsized' {not down sided lol}, and supposed to say 'one' level home {not 'on' level home} ; -}

Gina Kokkonen, I'll have to ask my parents if they've visited 'Sarasota' yet since you like it so much. If they didn't yet I'll recommend that they check it out!

artsyphartsy_home_maker, I wasn't talking about a retirement center/building/housing. It would be an apartment home. Often found on the west shore with all the amenities including pool, sauna, work out fitness centers, outside barbecues, dining and events centers and halls, but any age could live there, The one I just looked at was all different age groups and those above 55% was about 15%.

I am retired and living in a beautiful older home that my husband and I purchased 3 years ago in Dayton, Ohio! Most of my family still lives here, including my 83 year old mother and I will not live anywhere else. I love the change of seasons!

.

Bev, nice to hear that someone else is also loving the change of seasons on the East Coast! I love them too. There are plenty of people who would rather have eternal summer 360 days of the year but NOT ME!

.

needshave, that place sounds great. Sorry for all of my confusion about what type of place it is!

Bev< Not too far from You. I"m In the Columbus North Area, family in Beavercreek. Describe your house...I like older houses as well. Is your's two story?

We are native Texans, but lived in Richmond. Indiana for 12 years. We moved back to Texas 2 years ago and rented an apartment near our son for a year. We put almost all our belongings in storage and lived fairly Spartan in a very nice apartment complex. We did not use the amenities like we thought we would. That year gave us the chance to decide where in the city we wanted to live. During that year we found new doctors, signed up for Medicare, drivers licenses, etc. We are 67 and my husband is working for our son. We ended up buying a smaller home, but not too much smaller. We have about 1900 square ' and are happy with that size. I do miss the seasons and South Texas is not as green as the Midwest. But otherwise, we love San Antonio. It is highly rated for retirees as is FL and .CA. I wish you the best in your new journey.

Hello Marion, thanks for writing.

I'm 67 as well, wife a bit younger. It's a tough choice. We are definitely struggling with making a decision as to where we will retire. we are both very active, I'm very much a gym rat, so the amenities available to me, especially the gym and pools, are very important and the ability to be outside is a natural draw to both of us.

One of my concerns is the ongoing maintenance and unknowns of property maintenance. So the idea of a maintained apartment home (1900 sq ft) is also of interest. But we're paying for the maintenance free lifestyle. The one we have determined we like the most will cost, for one year, as much as we paid for our first house in 1978. We have a lot of property here and no family in the area so we are pretty much free to move about the country.

The temps are a bit concerning, but the humidity is also very concerning. i feel it more in Florida than I do anywhere. Never been to San Antonio, so maybe that's a consideration that should be made. Thank You.

My plan is to move somewhere warm and cheap with a good reef to dive on. Roatan, Utila, Ambergis Cay, etc. I plan on renting so that I'm not tied to any one place. It will really depend on the political climate is like in different places 20 years from now.

None of the above. I'm kind of semi-retired already (56), but in 10 or 12 years or so, I'm going to seriously consider moving somewhere where it's warmer more of the year. My plan will be to rent - I don't care about the equity or the inheritance, and I will want the flexibility in case my needs (or whims) require another move. I really like the idea of Portugal, but if I go out of the country I might need to settle for several months of visiting, rather than moving -- and if I do that, I'll move here into a smaller and more frugal place than I have now.

Retire? You might have to explain that one to me, LOL!

Retirement; Retired from Engineering to find that I now have more tasks that I need to get done on a daily basis, not enough time to get the task done, resulting in longer hours, less sleep, no free time and less money to do it with!!....Yep, that's retirement.

needshave, have you met 'wannabath' ? ;-)

unless yours is NEEDS and have ....

?

It's a joke, but you should clarify if you want to get the joke, if your username means "I need a shave" [and that's no reflection on you or any user on Houzz!]

I'd buy a bigger home in OH, have a lots of rooms for family and guests to visit and stay. Downsizing is an old fashion way, the new trend is upsizing...... :-)

We live close to the southern California coast and are still in our house we bought almost 40 years ago. We like the house because all the kids and their families can visit and sleep over at holidays, though all the beds might be in use and the grandsons on the floor. The 5 bedroom house is paid off. If we bought a one bedroom condo here, it would cost as much or more than we'd get for selling this house because new construction costs are so high.