Moving from California to Arizona someday

Western Texas is much drier than Eastern Texas, but I don't think we want to go that far East (to Texas.)

I’m moving to Montana soon.
Gonna grow me a crop of dental floss.

Good luck with your search…

Tahoe is beautiful, but there is a lot of snow in winter. Reno has cold winters too. And the Reno/Sparks area is the blunt of an old joke: Reno is so close to hell you can see Sparks.
AZ an NM sound better for her.

Another Frank Zappa fan!

I moved from California to Prescott, Az, 26 years ago. Prescott is about average on the usual criteria; you have to bring your own lawyers, guns and money.

Funny you mention Sparks! I have been to the gigafactory and have seen the entire area in detail. While I like the area, the snow was indeed starting to fall and driving wasn’t great with my rental car (on summer tires).
Some sketchy folks running around as well, which is expected in cities with a strong gambling/entertainment focus. But overall a great place…. let’s see, maybe I will get that cabin one day :slight_smile:

I hope you find a place that works well for your mother :slight_smile:

I moved from SoCal to New Mexico 30 years ago.
Because it costs less to buy a house.

I would like to see Montana.

I haven't mentioned it yet, but it's more than just my mom and I.

My sister and niece will be coming, too.

We should be able to afford a larger and nicer place in Arizona than our place here.

Our current place is worth quite a bit because we have a spectacular view.

We probably won't have that when we eventually move, but we'll be fine without it.

The elevation is what saves ABQ from being as hot as PHX. It does mean there is more of a winter in ABQ, they even have occasional snow.

My mom has arthritis and I think Albuquerque might be too cold for her (even though the summers would be much more mild.)

There are many places in Arizona and New Mexico that rival and surpass your area of California for views.

Montana is really nice, but winters are hard. Missoula, the only city in the US with the word soul in it, is progressive while much of the state is not. We saw ancient wall paintings in caves and found nature to be plentiful. There are great restaurants and shops. We visited a Buddhist garden with 1,000 statues of Buddha in of all places Montana. The rivers and mountain are impressive. But you might need a winter cottage in Hawaii.

Probably not good for arthritis but Toronto is the “Raccoon Capitol of the World”

If your mother is elderly, she might need a lot of help in the future?
What are the social services offered in the county where you live?

I am sure you can find a spectacular view in many places, but you might look at the county services as well.

A little off topic but I saw that some parts of Arkansas are offering $10k bonus for moving there.

It was paradise! Which is why so many moved in with the accompanying unchecked development and IMO ruined it. Kinda like the Golden goose I guess. As a 3rd gen. Angelino I have an view of changes there since the 1880’s. I’m not sure there will ever be another place like So. Cal. Was in the decades after WWll.

Wherever I’ve been in my life since I’ve always gritted my teeth when I see that kind of runaway development happening, some folks call it progress.

That may be so, and I never said otherwise, but a place with a good view generally costs a lot more, and that's a luxury that we don't really need.

In other words, we won't be looking for a place with a spectacular view like we have now.

I would like to recommend Buffalo, NY. We have great summer, spring, and fall seasons. Housing is affordable. We have chicken wings, beef-on-weck, Sahlen’s hotdogs, and the Bills. People here are great. It’s true that we also occasionally get 7’ of snow, but we have lots of snowplows so the roads are good in short order. Driving home from work in whiteout conditions is something everyone should experience at least once.

We sold our 1200sq ft condo in San Diego and moved to a 4 bedroom house on 1/2 ac in Atlanta. After 8 years in Atlanta, we moved to rural North Wales, UK.

Looking at the price history of our condo in San Diego

$161k 1990 Our Purchase (brand new)
$244k 2001 we sold it
$585k Current estimate

Our 250 year old house in Wales is worth about ÂŁ200,000 - $260,000

Prices in NW Montana have gone nuts in the past year. We looked at lots last Christmas with the idea of buying something to retire on. Now that we have a deposit saved up, we went back and looked on line. One we looked at in December was $44,000. Someone bought it in March to flip. Now asking $75,000. They are all like that :frowning:

And drive I think an SUV…… RED OCTOBER

Same here. I was looking for a place out east a coupla years ago, everything decent was going for 160-180, maybe 200 tops.

Now? Pfft. 250 is bare minimum for something that “needs work”, and anything decent is 300 or more.

I was toying with the idea of getting something that was going for (I think) 220, but everything else in the nabe was mid-to-high 300s. Ie, buy it, fix it up just for me to live in a few years (and obscene taxes, unfortunately), then flip it if I’d find something more to my liking.

But this damned corovirus and people (who can) working from home, they realise they can move out into the ’boibs and still keep their jobs. So it’s a f’n feeding frenzy as far as real estate.