Did You Have To Leave An Area You Loved Because You Simply Couldn't Afford To Retire There?

08-21-2015

Hi there, "not sure" about the place you love Cape Cod, MA.

It's true I have many relatives who live in Florida, including my elderly mom. It is also true the more crowded the State with the same type of people, mostly retired & elderly, the less quality care you may get from the State of Florida.

I recommend that since you have your sisters' in Florida, and you been living so far away for so long from them in Cape Cod, why don't you move to Virginia, Georgia, North or South Carolina? The quality of care may be the same, but there are less people living in those states.

Hope my advice helps you.

This is a good topic and thought to dust it off with a fresh post about it;

So where did you move to or did you stay? 

Did you move to a 55+ community and do you like it?

What advice would you give to someone having to make this choice now?  Have read that Florida and New Jersey have the most 55+ communities do you live in either State?

Thank you all for sharing!  Marie

I am retiring in two to three years and hope to relocate from southern New Jersey to central Florida.  I am looking at 55+ communities in the Winter Haven, Haines City, Davenport area.  I am currently exploring communities.  Sun and CRF seem to be two of the biggest owners of these comunities.  I am also looking at some mom/pop communities.  Any input would be appreciated.  Thank you.  njgia

I left Rockport TX to move back to Corpus Christi TX so that I could save enough money to buy a manufactured home. I bought my home in January of 2017 and wanted to move back to Rockport TX but it was too expensive to live there so I chose to put my home in Aransas Pass TX which is 15 miles south of Rockport-I moved into my home in April of 2017 and on August 25, 2017 Hurricane Harvey hit Rockport TX among other small communities including Aransas Pass, but Rockport got the eye and a lot of tornadoes. God put me in Aransas Pass for a reason and I was blessed that my home only had minor damage even though I had neighbors in my MH Park that lost everything because of Harvey. I know I'm where I need to be.

I lived in a beautiful part of Northern Calif for 30 years where I raised my daughter and lived in the same loved house I purchased new when my income could handle it. I got lucky with tons of built up equity but could not afford to even "buy down" to remain in the area in retirement. So I took my equity $ and moved 600 miles away to a retirement community where I could afford a nice small new home at a fraction of what I used to pay.

It's very cheap to live where I do, in deep southern Illinois, but I fought for much of my working life to remain here due to lack of employment opportunities. By making excellent grades in college, and performing in my jobs in a stellar manner, I managed to land 2 consecutive positions at companies with a large union presence, owned by big corporations with headquarters out of the area. The pay and benefits at these positions were more in line with those in larger metropolitan areas than in this rural area. While it worked out extremely well, making big city pay but living in an area with low cost of living, I was constantly worried about job security and pressured to take promotions to the big city headquarters. I presevered and managed to stay in this area.. Sadly, both of those companies have now eliminated the positions I used to hold, but not before I managed to retire comfortably at age 55.

We were living in NJ, Plainsboro. We were renting. When the new hospital moved into town the rents soared. I couldn’t find anything affordable within commuting distance but then when I lost my job & ended up taking early retirement we ended up moving to southern DE. It’s great here but too far from my grand children & daughter’s family! NJ is ridiculously expensive and next to no affordable housing, it can take years to get into affordable housing.

I lived and worked in Northern California for over 30 years. The housing market exploded and building was occurring everywhere around me.  I sold my condo and still couldn’t afford to buy another place in CA. and traffic is a nightmare! I decided to move to Florida where I bought a beautiful, brand new house and I’m close to the beaches.  I miss family & friends, but not much else. 

I am living in  FORT WORTH TX. The, prices  are getting  to a point  where I don't  like it. The apartment take all your money. You can't do anything or have visiors. I believes  if you pay you should be to have company,l if they don't have storages you CAN'T put things  on your patio..i don't like it. Make you want to live in a,tent

Where we are living now we are in kind of a bind as well. What we are paying in rent we are fortunate for the most part, but the house itself has issues such as some mold and retaining moisture. But also the town we live in we are paying an outrageous water bill and trash bill for just the two of us and they just keep on raising the rates to pay for their nice little park or what ever else. So by the time we pay everything and what I get in my social security there is nothing left to pay for supplies or other groceries that what they give us in food stamps doesn't cover. It would be nice to get into a senior housing project but waiting lists are long and their hard to fin.  Seems like a no win situation sometimes.