Would you relocate for financial reasons?

I've moved 16 times since I left the family home at 21 - 6 of those were after my daughter was born and after leaving my last husband (an abuser), who is my daughter's father.

Thankfully, I've always been interested in the property market - so jumped in on it again when the market soared to get out of the council estate I landed up in after buying ex-council house which is all I could afford.

Property prices soared after I moved there and I took advantage of it - always made a profit, except once when I sold that ex-council house, I lost a grand.

It got me back to where I wanted to be. Always took the cheapest mortgage, usually the 'interest only' ones and life shone again. Funny thing is, one of those mortgages, if I'd stayed in that property, I would have finished paying the mortgage when I was 73, which was last year :D

I move here 12yrs ago, a 2 bed detached bungalow for my old age. Since the last 3 houses ago, I've been able to pay cash for those properties, just because I played the housing market.

In England, if someone lives alone in a 3 bed property bought between 25,30, 40yrs ago or even earlier, probably paid between £25-£45 grand for it, will usually be mortgage free by now.
Unless they have family or visitors staying regularly that keeps them there, what's the point of staying there?
The property will be worth anywhere between £400/£500 - £1million+ by now. I'm presuming it's the same in Wales and Scotland too.

My advice? Downsize and pocket the winnings! Cheaper heating bills for starters - it can only be a winner IMO. (where's the smug smiley) 😊
 

Reading through here, a lot of folks seem to have the most anxiety about making a move with all the changes. It isn't that bad.
We moved around for work, over the years, and this last move was the easiest one!!

We have the internet now! I chatted with several folks on several sites BEFORE we moved. We came up a couple of years before to look around and met these folks face to face. They showed us around, answered questions and took us to lunch. It was terrific. They introduced us to an amazing Realtor who introduced us to amazing contractors (for some kitchen updates and other work). All of a sudden, we knew people! I quickly found a Knitting Group, lace maker's group and embroidery guild and quilt groups. We've had more fun and gotten to know more people than any other place we've lived. Reach out - there are new friends who will be happy to help you out.
 
We have good faith deposit down on a home so these will be our expenses starting next month:
$85, Prop Tax, $15 Youtube, $25 Trash, $175 Transportation, $150 Power, $125 Dine out, $700 Groceries/Supplements.
$150 monthly donation, $100 WIFI/Cell $100 Unexpected, $175 Part B= $1700 a month. These expenses are over-exaggerated
allowing for some inflation.
Hubby receives his Social Security for $1725 a mo. I'm quitting my job next week. It was making me sick. We'll put this home up for sale while remodeling our new home.
 

LauraLoo said:
We have good faith deposit down on a home so these will be our expenses starting next month:
$85, Prop Tax, $15 Youtube, $25 Trash, $175 Transportation, $150 Power, $125 Dine out, $700 Groceries/Supplements.
$150 monthly donation, $100 WIFI/Cell $100 Unexpected, $175 Part B= $1700 a month. These expenses are over-exaggerated
allowing for some inflation.
Hubby receives his Social Security for $1725 a mo. I'm quitting my job next week. It was making me sick. We'll put this home up for sale while remodeling our new home.
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So curious where is everything so cheap?
 
Teacher Terry said:
So curious where is everything so cheap?
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Camptonville, California. BUT...it's off-grid and a MAJOR fixer upper. We have an RV we can stay in.
It's about 2 hrs from Verdi, Nevada (the border) and about 2- 2.5 hrs to Sacramento
It's pretty cheap due to the area resources. We'd be driving 13 min to North San Juan to their community center. We offered 80k, it could still fall through. Pray for us okay? If you look up north San Juan community center, you'll see their organic meals are very cheap. Free if you show an EBT food stamp card.
We plan on growing much of our food. We go to the North San Juan Produce Swap on Fri Nights too. I think you can find this on Facebook but we'd live 12 min away in Camptonville. I may be incorrect on the WIFI/Cell cost,, if we can't get service we are stuck with Elon Musks's $120 Satellite Dish.
 
LauraLoo said:
Camptonville, California. BUT...it's off-grid and a MAJOR fixer upper. We have an RV we can stay in.
It's about 2 hrs from Verdi, Nevada (the border) and about 2- 2.5 hrs to Sacramento
It's pretty cheap due to the area resources. We'd be driving 13 min to North San Juan to their community center. We offered 80k, it could still fall through. Pray for us okay? If you look up north San Juan community center, you'll see their organic meals are very cheap. Free if you show an EBT food stamp card.
We plan on growing much of our food. We go to the North San Juan Produce Swap on Fri Nights too. I think you can find this on Facebook but we'd live 12 min away in Camptonville. I may be incorrect on the WIFI/Cell cost,, if we can't get service we are stuck with Elon Musks's $120 Satellite Dish.
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I will hold a good thought that they accept your offer. I live in Reno so not that far from you.
 
I'd do it only if it was financially necessary. It's very important to me to like the place where I live. My husband and I moved across the country once for that reason; finances weren't a part of our decision, though housing turned out to be cheaper in the new place. Though that was certainly not the reason we moved.

Much later in life, we came back to MD, again nothing to do with money. We felt the time had come to live near one of our children. I'm sure there are plenty of cheaper places to live, but so what?
 
I have never relocated for financial reasons. Where I choose to live has always been my first concern.
 
I have a high school friend who has lived in North San Juan for 50 years-he`s a building contractor there.Still building custom homes at 74. He LOVES it there.

We left Northern Calif. 3 years ago due to dh wanting to retire and knowing-if nothing else-the fire insurance in California was going to kill us. Turns out we were right-most companies have pulled out of that part of California(many out of California altogether)and the insurance rates are through the roof!

Our daughter went to CA over the weekend to go to a Sammy Hagar concert and visited my niece,her cousin,while she was there. They live in Grass Valley-about an hour from Sacramento. She told her that their fire insurance just increased from 5,000 per year to 23,000!!!! Yes,they have a very large house and 65 acres-much of it wooded-but 23,000????

They can`t wait to get out of California. They have 2 businesses there-a candy/ice cream shop(my niece makes all of her own candies) and a Mexican restaurant. They have finally learned what we learned years ago-California makes it impossible for a small business to survive.They each have an elderly parent in poor health so they have to stay for now,but they are looking to leave when possible.
 
Muskrat said:
I rather obsessively shop real estate. There are some pretty darn cheap places to live out there. Anyone game to uproot in retirement and start over?
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I did just that. I moved, as a single, age 68, from Orange County in Southern California to the middle of Kansas at the end of 2021. I sold a single wide mobile home and bought a 3 bedroom house with full basement on half an acre, and my mortgage payment (including insurance and taxes, so PITI) is about 2/3 of what my space rent was. Best decision I could have made! I never would have thought in a million years that I'd live in the middle of the country, but Southern California became so crowded and expensive that I just didn't enjoy it anymore, and didn't see a future I could afford.
 
SueBee said:
I did just that. I moved, as a single, age 68, from Orange County in Southern California to the middle of Kansas at the end of 2021. I sold a single wide mobile home and bought a 3 bedroom house with full basement on half an acre, and my mortgage payment (including insurance and taxes, so PITI) is about 2/3 of what my space rent was. Best decision I could have made! I never would have thought in a million years that I'd live in the middle of the country, but Southern California became so crowded and expensive that I just didn't enjoy it anymore, and didn't see a future I could afford.
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I have lived in Kansas twice in Wichita both times because of mine or my first husband’s career. The people are nice but I had trouble finding my tribe because it’s a conservative state although Wichita is probably the most diverse of the state. I found the weather to be awful and it was really ugly. But it’s extremely cheap. I was there in May visiting family and will be visiting again in 2 weeks.
 
I am retired and I would not relocate for any reason! When I was working, I changed jobs and relocated a few times... when the right opportunity came along. They all turned out well and were good for me and my family.
 
CooCooforCoCoPuffs said:
We moved due to property taxes on our home in Texas increasing too fast; the migration from California caused home prices to explode exponentially, which caused property taxes to increase to more than our monthly house payment. Bye bye Texas.
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I'm living through it right now in Dallas. But, we moved from South Florida in 2006 during the height of the real estate bubble and bought a much nicer home in Dallas (which was still reasonably priced) for much less money. Yes, the market has exploded and the real estate taxes have as well, but when I turned 65 there was a cap put on our property taxes. It's still expensive but I just budget for it every year.

We still love living in Dallas and wouldn't consider moving at this point. If I may ask, where did you move to?
 
seadoug said:
I'm living through it right now in Dallas. But, we moved from South Florida in 2006 during the height of the real estate bubble and bought a much nicer home in Dallas (which was still reasonably priced) for much less money. Yes, the market has exploded and the real estate taxes have as well, but when I turned 65 there was a cap put on our property taxes. It's still expensive but I just budget for it every year.

We still love living in Dallas and wouldn't consider moving at this point. If I may ask, where did you move to?
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From Georgetown, just north of Austin to Tucson, AZ. Property taxes in AZ on two properties + income taxes in AZ are still much less than JUST our property taxes in TX. Isn't just the school property taxes that are frozen in Texas, not the whole tax bill? Know school taxes are the largest part of property taxes. SIL (age 77) in HOU property taxes were frozen, but now her property insurance is about to break her budget.
 
CooCooforCoCoPuffs said:
From Georgetown, just north of Austin to Tucson, AZ. Property taxes in AZ on two properties + income taxes in AZ are still much less than JUST our property taxes in TX. Isn't just the school property taxes that are frozen in Texas, not the whole tax bill? Know school taxes are the largest part of property taxes. SIL (age 77) in HOU property taxes were frozen, but now her property insurance is about to break her budget.
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Yes, so many Californians have moved to the Austin area for the tech industry. I can only imagine the increase in housing prices.

Arizona is nice. I've been there quite a few times, but I just keep reading about how long the 100+ degree weather lasts these days. I can barely stand it in Dallas.

I wasn't aware it was just the school taxes that were frozen. I just noticed the property tax bill was identical to last year.
Yes, the homeowners insurance has increased significantly as well but after talking to a friend in Miami who has a small house near the water and pays $11,000 per year I feel better.
 
seadoug said:
Yes, so many Californians have moved to the Austin area for the tech industry. I can only imagine the increase in housing prices.

Arizona is nice. I've been there quite a few times, but I just keep reading about how long the 100+ degree weather lasts these days. I can barely stand it in Dallas.

I wasn't aware it was just the school taxes that were frozen. I just noticed the property tax bill was identical to last year.
Yes, the homeowners insurance has increased significantly as well but after talking to a friend in Miami who has a small house near the water and pays $11,000 per year I feel better.
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Don't forget that the Texas Homestead exemption was increased last year which did lower property taxes.
 
For me, relocating allowed me to buy a better house with more property, and indeed living is cheaper also. But there was more; A smaller town, less population density, more privacy, and a time of my life where I was done with climbing steep trails, hunting, and skiing. Montana was beautiful. There is no question about that, but it had changed since I had first gone there 65 years ago. It had lost much of it's friendliness, and the environmental destruction was saddening.

But a cheaper cost of living was an unexpected plus. My savings and investments after ten years have grown to where I never expected them to be at any point in my life. Of course, I spend less. I guess because of my age, but I'm not sure how that could make such a difference.

But it was a good change, and I can't think of any drawbacks.
 
Europe and all over the US.
Our perfect retirement home in GA was barely finished when SO decided to put everything in one basket and turn a hobby into a career. He ended up in North Carolina for a year or so and I learned to do things I simply had to do. 9/11 he got stranded in New York and filled out applications to have something to do. Off to Alabama and our next retirement home which we remodeled but for the outside walls and one bath tub. Then Katrina hit and the team he volunteered with courted him to join them permanently in Texas. The house was simply perfect after some serious landscaping and rock work. Taxes were insane so were utilities. Same story five years later. An opening on a small team. This time he negotiated a complete move including per diem for the cats, return rights and tax difference due to move. The house is a mini version of the one in Texas. Cost of living is surprisingly high. He enjoys his work. OKC Gun Club is about 45 minutes. VA services are great! Medical and everything is within easy reach. My only gripe is the lack of grocery stores. He turned his return rights in. I took my jobs with me until a lay off last year. It was timely. Next? We have been looking at barndominions. He turned the same old story down two weeks ago to move to Wichita, KS.
I only objected to France and Casper, WY.
 
My property taxes are frozen per Texas law for those over 65, but I've spent a lot on repairs and maintenance. This house is bigger than I need, but if I downsized, the price of the smaller home wouldn't be enough less than what I could get for mine, so it wouldn't be worth making the change. The other alternative would be an apartment, but at the rent might become unmanageable at the rate prices are increasing. So, I stay where I am.
 

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