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A good place to live.

Superchief

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I agree that if you want to live in the Cincinnati area, avoid the city limits and Hamilton county. Our daughter lives in Batavia in Clermont County. Pretty quiet there and the people are very close and friendly. I might consider moving there.
We also actually liked the Mentor area of Cleveland, but the winters were just too long. It often snowed before Thanksgiving and we didn't see the ground again until late April.
 

rapmarks

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Just saying, I have had the heat on the last two days in south central Wisconsin. It is mid June!
 

DrQ

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It’s such a shame what it’s turning into. When I moved here in 1978 it was a great place to raise my children. There was lots of wide open spaces, much lighter traffic, FRESH air! The surrounding areas had lots of farmland and cute little towns. Sadly the farmland has succumbed to cookie cutter subdivisions and strip malls. My allergies have gone berserk! My doctor assures me it will get worse thanks to pollution. I am spoiled tho. We bought in so long ago, when real estate was affordable in comparison to Hawaii. (We could buy a whole house in WA for the price of a leasehold townhouse on Oahu.) I never had to travel more than 6 miles through town to get to work. We do have great medical systems in place here. People were friendlier back then. Not so much anymore, or I’ve gotten older and crankier. Not sure which. The traffic is unbearable. It takes twice as long to get anywhere anymore. When out on I5, I wonder why people aren’t at work in the middle of the day. Tho they are contemplating a new airport soon, we’re still stuck with just SEATAC which is a pain these days. Makes traveling a chore. I guess what I really want is something akin to 1978 Tacoma. :(
 

PcflEZFlng

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Just saying, I have had the heat on the last two days in south central Wisconsin. It is mid June!
Welcome to our world! It's been gloomy and cool here in SoCal forever. We call it May Gray and June Gloom for a reason - don't even think of visiting here at this time of year if you want sun! I can't even remember the last time we had a nice warm sunny day.
 

rapmarks

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Welcome to our world! It's been gloomy and cool here in SoCal forever. We call it May Gray and June Gloom for a reason - don't even think of visiting here at this time of year if you want sun! I can't even remember the last time we had a nice warm sunny day.
Never knew that
 

Umpqua98

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We have lived in 14 houses in 8 different cities across the country from Lancaster, PA to Concord, CA. Our favorite place was Greenville, SC for weather, location, and people. It has grown substantially over the last few years and has attracted a lot of people from Atlanta and the Northeast so it is more crowded and expensive. Cincinnati and Kansas City are really nice mid-size cities with a lot of good restaurants and things to do. Most people are friendly and open to new friends except in a few pockets. Kansas City is centrally located and has more blue sky days than Ohio cities, but Cincinnati has the river and beautiful hills with lots of trees. I think it has one of the nicest skylines in the country. We like the Cincinnati area because family is here, but would avoid living in the city limits or Hamilton County due to incompetent government and high taxes. Warren County is much nicer and better governed. We definitely like Cincinnati better than Cleveland or Columbus.

Lancaster, PA was really nice because of the character provided by the Amish farms combined with proximity to bigger cities (Philadelphia and Baltimore). Raleigh, NC was also a nice area and has Duke and UNC, as well as good health care. It was more expensive than Greenville, likely due to the transfer of technology companies from the Northeast. We really didn't like living in St. Louis or Chicago areas for various reasons.

We had originally planned to move to McCormick, SC when we retired, but ended up in the house where I grew up in Cincinnati. McCormick is about 45 minutes from Augusta, GA and slightly farther from Greenville, We bought a lot at Savannah Lakes Village, which is a nice retirement community with two golf courses and on Lake Thurmond/Clarks Hill Lake. It's a great community for those who like to play golf, hike, boating, and meeting other people from all over the country. Here is the website. If I was more serious about golf, I would definitely move there.

There are good things and bad things about every location. We prefer living where there are seasons, diverse nice people, low crime, reasonable taxes, and low government involvement in our lives.
We moved to Greenville, SC from San Jose CA back in 2008. It's a nice area and much better for our family than San Jose. My only real complaint about this area is allergies. My hayfever is much worse here than it was in San Jose, but controllable with a number of OTC allergy medications. I agree that it is getting more crowded and expensive her, but we'll probably stay when we retire in a few years.
 

amsunshine

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Welcome to our world! It's been gloomy and cool here in SoCal forever. We call it May Gray and June Gloom for a reason - don't even think of visiting here at this time of year if you want sun! I can't even remember the last time we had a nice warm sunny day.
LOL, we are weird, I guess, but we love our May gray and June gloom! I love keeping the windows open during the day and at night -- hearing the birds chirping and feeling the breeze. I love being out in the garden when it's still overcast and pleasant for working. July, August and September will be here soon enough and we'll have to close the windows and use the ac (sparingly, if possible). Don't get me wrong, I love the sunny summer days here in SoCal - I just don't necessarily relish closing up the house to escape the heat. On the other hand, we really have very little to complain about. I love where we live.
 

chapjim

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Williamsburg, VA
Chattanooga, TN
 

PcflEZFlng

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LOL, we are weird, I guess, but we love our May gray and June gloom! I love keeping the windows open during the day and at night -- hearing the birds chirping and feeling the breeze. I love being out in the garden when it's still overcast and pleasant for working. July, August and September will be here soon enough and we'll have to close the windows and use the ac (sparingly, if possible). Don't get me wrong, I love the sunny summer days here in SoCal - I just don't necessarily relish closing up the house to escape the heat. On the other hand, we really have very little to complain about. I love where we live.
We don't love the gloomy weather, and much prefer warm and sunny, which will undoubtedly come later (perhaps a bit later than usual this year). But I have to admit it makes for great sleeping weather and it shortens the fire season. I mention it only because most people outside our region have no idea it even exists. Other than Arizonans, of course, who come here to escape the heat. We also love where we live, and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else. Plus, we never have to deal with snow.
 

Ralph Sir Edward

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Sort of like the "January warm-up" in San Antonio/South Texas. Not known to people outside of South Texas. A period of warm, dry, low wind/low humidity that occurs on a regular basis in South Texas in the winter. You can never predict when it will occur, but it will occurs at least 9 out of 10 winters. Usually lasts 7-10 days. . .
 

PcflEZFlng

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Which is similar to the warm, dry weather we often have in the winter, in between brief periods of rain. This past winter, however, was one for the record books. A lot of rain, and hardly any sun. Months and months of below-normal temps. Was glad to get the rain to replenish our water supply, though.
 

vikingsholm

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As others have said, a lot depends on what things you like to do most and how various areas of the country accommodate that.

My main avocations are traveling, outdoor recreation and being outdoors in general, dining out at a variety of nice places with good food and drink, being around beautiful natural environments of mountains, deserts, and oceans, and having a very diverse and interesting population of different types, ethnicities, and cultures of people around with whom to interact and learn from. My favorite area by far is the SW US, which I define as CA, NV, AZ, NM, UT, and CO.

I've lived in Minnesota, North Carolina, Washington state, Idaho, Tennessee and California. Now live in the north bay of the San Francisco Bay Area near the wine country, the Marin hills and coast, and within a half hour to hour of San Francisco and Oakland/Berkeley. This is where I'd choose out of anywhere I've been. The climate mix of mild with lots of sun and low humidity but the variety of ever interesting fog and potential but limited heavy winter rains to make things lush and green is hard to beat for outdoor explorations. Hiking, biking, boating, you name it. One of the keys though is having been lucky enough to get into buying housing years ago before it became extremely expensive.

The other places that I'd most consider living in the US would be many parts of San Diego county, Flagstaff/Sedona AZ, or Santa Fe NM.

Internationally, I'd consider the Lisbon Portugal or Barcelona Spain areas (as easier to emigrate to and also very nice), or Wellington NZ or Zurich/Lucerne Switzerland if they weren't so extremely difficult and expensive to move to as a retiree.
 

Czahara1

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At my age, being near conveniences like Doctors, shopping, parks, entertainment etc are important to me. On the map, it looks like a small town.
You may wish to consider Spokane. The metro area is about the size of Tacoma, but it quickly becomes rural outside the metro area. Winters are colder. If that doesn't deter you, Spokane has excellent health care, easy access to an airport, a river running through it, many lakes in the vicinity and reasonably prices housing. Spokane's city parks system has been ranked by the Trust for Public Land as the 17th best park system in the nation for the past two years running. This prestigious recognition comes from a very comprehensive five-part ranking system.
Spokane neighborhoods are quite varied from urban to suburban to semi-rural. Here's a link to neighborhoods if you are interested.
Spokane Neighborhoods
 

winger

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You may wish to consider Spokane. The metro area is about the size of Tacoma, but it quickly becomes rural outside the metro area. Winters are colder. If that doesn't deter you, Spokane has excellent health care, easy access to an airport, a river running through it, many lakes in the vicinity and reasonably prices housing. Spokane's city parks system has been ranked by the Trust for Public Land as the 17th best park system in the nation for the past two years running. This prestigious recognition comes from a very comprehensive five-part ranking system.
Spokane neighborhoods are quite varied from urban to suburban to semi-rural. Here's a link to neighborhoods if you are interested.
Spokane Neighborhoods
The Spokane Neighborhood link does not exist. Do you have another link?
 

rapmarks

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Access to good Healthcare is an issue for me. At this point, I’m in good health but the older I get, more things keep popping up. I don’t cherish the idea of driving more than 20 minutes to get to a facility. When I was young, I wanted to live out in the country near a lake or River. I thought I could do that when I retired but my reality sunk in….
I went through limited access to healthcare this summer, 130 mile round trip to see a ent. Specialists visit one day a month, the pet scan truck coming one day a month
i live near lots of health care in Southwest Florida, but reading this thread, I recalled my husband spending 24/hours on a gurney in a hallway outside the er because of such high demand during season. A 12 mile drive may take 45 minutes in Florida, maybe 15 minutes up north.
I had my appointment with head and neck specialist yesterday, got in right away. Soon noticed that there were several others with the same time appointment. Spent two and a half hours there.
 
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