Nevada?

We could see I-80 from my cabin, but it was about a mile away. If we were on the front porch having a glass of wine in the evening we could sometimes hear trucks and motorcycles on the freeway, but you had to listen and the wind had to be blowing the right direction..

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We have a big beautiful homestead here in the coast range of Oregon. Every year around February, when the snow melts and three month of rain starts, we begin to hate it. Another thing - Oregon is going to start taxing the heck out of the retirement we worked our buns off to save. We have at least one kid who will continue to live on the place in his own house, take care of it while we're not here. We want to change our state of residence for tax purposes and because we both love the high desert climate. We don't want to start over, we want to relax. The boy will keep our place in Oregon just as we would, and we can go back there during the hot desert summer.

Id think you would be looking at the south then. Perhaps just a Nice 5th wheel trailer and a trip to your mailbox residenvce starting just after the Holidays and staying till spring?
Quartsite AZ comes to mind.

Oh LORD! I used to live about 30 miles from Quartzsite. It's a huge RV Mecca, but I wouldn't like it for myself. Those people buy $400K motorhomes, then get packed-in to RV parks like sardines. From my prospective they live like 3rd world, yet pay a fortune to be there.

If I were to move to that region, I would prefer to get a 1/4 acre lot in Salome. There is a residential subdivision there where you can get a lot with septic, paved streets, and utilities to the lot for under $15K, then put a mobile home on it. You can even stay in a travel trailer until you are ready to build. The subdivision is called Indian Hills.

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I don't want to be a snowbird, I want to change my official residence to Nevada specifically for the tax reduction. I don't want Oregon bleeding my retirement fund. I also want to be 4-6 hours max from central Oregon, where my kids/grand kids are. We already have an RV and travel quite a bit. Do love Quartsite - it's like a giant flea market.

most snowbirds get the year round mailbox for just that reason.
Is this tax a new thing coming to OR?

Just a thought, and I know that it's a little far south for you, but Las Vegas being ground zero for the housing crash presents itself as an opportunity. Housing prices are historically low across the board around here, and on the low end you can actually find a 3-bedroom home around here in the $25K to 30K range.

I know that Las Vegas doesn't come close to meeting your criteria, but it's an opportunity worth mentioning. It's been a long time since living in Las Vegas rent & mortgage free was attainable.

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Las Vegas is about 6 hours farther than I want to be, aside from it being Las Vegas. And Fantasy, you're missing the point - I am not selling my 25 acre farm in Oregon - so I don't need a mailbox, I need to be a resident of a lower tax state AND I don't want to be more than 4-6 hours from my grandkids/kids. That means northern Nevada. Oregon has one of the highest income taxes in the country. We have several hundred thousand dollars in our retirement account that we've accrued over the course of our adult lives - and when we start drawing on it, Oregon is going to tax the crud out of us. We need to be residents of a state without income tax, and not too far from our kids. Washington is a possibility and we've been looking in eastern Washington (drier winters than where we live), but they have higher total other taxes (just not income) and it's farther from our kids. Nevada has one of the lowest total combined tax rates in the country, plus, not far from our "real" home (8 hour drive). We go total retirement in 3-4 years.

LOL Houndlover I think your just so honest you are not getting the point of what m saying.
Lots of people live in a mailbox for purposes of residency.
Sorta crooked but it lets them spend their time ANYWHERE they want while their money spends its time EXACTLY where they want it to.

Well, that's basically what we want to do, but on the other hand, the high desert winter would be a nice change from the ones we've been having in NW Oregon - killer wind storms, floods, 4-5' of snow, rain for months at a time... I want to skirt the law, not openly defy it, I'm sort of a big chicken.

Id never recomend defing the law,
They always get you in the end.
But theres nothing wrong with doing just a bit more than barely enough. Id actually think about a very small house in a very small town in a suitable state.
LOL that pretty much puts you back to those places in Nevada that we have recommended.

A few years ago, the IRS made a mistake on figuring our taxes. Within a few months it had escalated to them saying we owed them $50,000 (we'd made about $120K that year, had a bunch of kids at home, and documents for EVERYTHING). We got a tax lawyer and hoped for the best, but for A YEAR it took to get cleared up, they demanded $600 payment a month. Got it cleared up, finally, got a fat check back from the IRS (which was our own money + paltry interest), but I NEVER want to have a problem with them again. The anxiety was worse than anything else I've experienced in this life.

I have always liked the area around Walker Lake. Round house and manhatten are nice and desolate, which I also like. There is lots of great areas, just not always available land.