Gotta retire somewhere

[myoung]

I've found the Retirement Living Information Center web site very, very helpful for researching retirement options. The tax summaries by state are comprehensive. Depending upon your circumstances, sources of income, and spending patterns, some states may be more economically attractive than others. Some may surprise you as they did me. For example, the state income tax exemption for retirement income in South Carolina ($30,000 for joint filing) looks very attractive. Not surprisingly, many states look economically attractive relative to California.

The site address is http://www.retirementliving.com/index.html.

We feel fortunate to live in California where we will someday monetize the value in our home for a home somewhere else at probably half the price with at least the same amenities, while pocketing the difference in untaxable disposable income. Such a deal!! We retirees are often cash poor but housing rich. Sure housing is "consumed" but under some circumstances it can be a useful investment.

[Goin camping]

Originally Posted by myoung

I've found the Retirement Living Information Center web site very, very helpful for researching retirement options. The tax summaries by state are comprehensive. Depending upon your circumstances, sources of income, and spending patterns, some states may be more economically attractive than others. Some may surprise you as they did me. For example, the state income tax exemption for retirement income in South Carolina ($30,000 for joint filing) looks very attractive. Not surprisingly, many states look economically attractive relative to California.

The site address is http://www.retirementliving.com/index.html.

We feel fortunate to live in California where we will someday monetize the value in our home for a home somewhere else at probably half the price with at least the same amenities, while pocketing the difference in untaxable disposable income. Such a deal!! We retirees are often cash poor but housing rich. Sure housing is "consumed" but under some circumstances it can be a useful investment.

I call it the California condition. You live in a house you can no longer afford to buy because the values seem to go up by the minute. Even in a Real estate "Rebalancing" the prices only go up slower. Of course its a great thing if you already have the house but a bit rough if you are trying to buy.

As residents in a suburb of Los Angeles we are looking for a polar opposite to where we are now. Retirement communities don't appeal to us. We like the climate and lack of flying/biting bugs and space of the desert areas. The trick is to find such a place with amenities like shopping, dining, medical care and favorable tax rates. Not to near or too far. The real upside to this is all the time we'll get to spend A/Sing while we look. The downside is that the prices of such areas are climbing at a pretty good rate too.

[myoung]

Originally Posted by Goin camping

The downside is that the prices of such areas are climbing at a pretty good rate too.

Nonetheless, the basic math tends to favor those who already own in high-home-value locations like California. For example, if prices in some other nice place are half what they are in California (a very real possibility), then the annual growth in prices in that other place would have to be more than double the annual growth rate in California for the California owner to be disadvantaged in absolute dollar terms, ceteris paribus.

$1,000,000 x 5%/year = $50,000 (California)
$500,000 x 10%/year = $50,000 (some other reasonably nice place)

In fact, in compound terms, the 5%/annum rate on the higher starting amount would put you ahead of the 10%/annum rate on the half-priced home.

[Tarheel]

I would have to go for the rolling hills of Virginia or North Carolina. I chose NC because I don't pay taxes on my federal retirement a 5 1/2 % boost for me as I used to live in Virginia. There is pleanty of still reasonable land / acreage for sale at a reasonable price and if you are off the coast both the price of land and the threat of storm damage goes down. I live on the coast and have had storm damage once in 40 years of my adult life here. We don't have the high winds and hail storms associated with mid United States and very little snow. God loved this part of the country so much he chose Carolina blue for the color of the sky.