Thinking of moving to a more temperate climate
 

I can't believe I'm actually thinking of moving out of Texas! I've lived in this great state for 45 years. But after this summer and drought I find myself longing for somewhere the summers temps don't get so brutal and there is some green, either pastures or light woods. BUT I hate snow and ice.

So, is there a place where the winters aren't too bad, the summers a bit more temperate (90's instead of 100's), and property values cheap? I don't want much land as I'm getting too old to take care of a large place. Perhaps an acre on the edge of a small town where I can have a decent garden and poultry. Mobile/ manufactured home is OK as long as it is well insulated.

Help me brainstorm some possibilities, please.

You could move to Oregon, which is where we are thinking about. There are some very mild climates out there. For example, Coquille rarely reaches above 75 and also rarely drops below 55 in the winter. As opposed to here, where is reaches 95 in summer and plummets to 15 in the winter.
What you need to do is use city-data.com to research individual towns climate and people, etc, and also weather.com's monthly averages. That will give you a good idea. In OR, you can probably find a couple acres with a good, small house for around $90,000.
Don't move here to MO if you hate winter.
Also, OR is almost ALWAYS green, on account of all the evergreens. (Except for the deserts of course.) And if you move to Coquille your growing season could be most of the year! You'd also have basically no heating or cooling bill.

Funny you should post this. My oldest brother called me last week. He has been in Texas for years....and has decided to move back home to MN. He, also, has had enough. Good luck in your journey.

Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas. There ought to some place for you in one of those states.

Temperatures can be moderated by large bodies of water. The southeast coast of Florida rarely gets above 100 and has mild winters (and the bugs and lizards that go along with same). San Diego is what many people consider ideal in temperatures.

We found north Alabama to have a balance that works for us. We've had colder winters the past couple of years, but nothing like the northern tier. While Texas has been dry, we have had a wet and somewhat cooler summer.

TN- there is winter...but it doesn't stick around for long. You will have to live with the humidity though.

Where in Texas do you live?? There are more temperate areas of Texas too. I live just outside of Kerrville in the Hill Country. Its green here most of the time and still pretty green if you count the trees in this, the worst drought on record. Our temps are usually about 4-5 degrees cooler than San Antonio. Something to think about is also TAXES. Most other states have a state income tax. Is it worth losing 10% of your salary to state income taxes?? I moved here from the Seattle, WA area. It took about 6 years of living there to realize that I couldn't handle the constant gray gloomy days. That and the really short winter days. Think about it, the state of Texas is a BIG PLACE and the drought won't always be here. The Kerrville area averages 32 inches of rain a year. That's the same amount of rain as they get in Seattle. Difference is that in Texas we get 285 sunny days a year and in Seattle they don't. Most sunny days there occur in the period July - October.

This is the first year since I moved south (19 years ago) that I have thought longingly of MN and WI -- but then all I have to do is remember January in MN or WI and I think I'll stick with Texas.

West coast would be nice, but...

Don't do it!!!!! there is *snow* further north.......

You've been warned lol....Wish i'd been warned...lol!

Maybe I should keep our land in MO. as a backup.LOL

well here in Mi we have snow and ice, but we also had a pretty bad drought this summer..but not as bad as TX..lots of places for sale here

Thanks all for your input. I'm just in the "wondering" stage about moving and wanted to see what the possibilities might be. I hadn't thought about state income taxes. I guess I'll have to look and see how those would impact me. One problem is I really don't have much $$. I figure my current property would sell for around $45,000., so that is all I'd have to sink into another place. Not much at all.

And maybe I'm just overreacting, but this summer has been brutal -- I never got any kind of harvest since our first 100 degree day was in April. And from what I've been reading this is going be our new norm. Really discouraging.

I lived in western Oregon for two years. I would like to know where you can get any kind of decent house on two acres for $90,000. I would go there in a heart beat.

When my brother called me to say he was going to move back up here, I reminded him about the winters. He said, "Whats the difference if I get cabin fever here in Texas in the summer or back in MN. in the winter. It is still cabin fever, but I figure I can get out ocasionally in the winter if I dress warm." :shrug: :)

http://www.c21bestrealty.com/propert...ny&listing_id=

You will get a trailer, but it's doable.

I get a kick out of folks like Heritage Farm who wax about how tough the winters are in Missouri (and he lives south of where I am)..both months of them. We survived the great "Blizzard of 2011" here and didnt even break out the winter coats...that 6 inches of snow that stayed around for almost 2 weeks was a real bear though. Of course we moved from a place in Alaska where there was 6 months of winter and 6 months of fall...its all a matter of perspective.

I went to HS in Oregon in the Willamette Valley and its a beautiful place but not all Oregon is green by any means and the economy there has been in the tank for a very long time. When the Mrs and I spent a couple weeks there in 2007 on my mid tour leave from OIF looking for our dream place we quickly found it is a relatively expensive place to live and we couldnt afford much of anything we wanted. I still love Oregon, would live there in an instant, .....if I had lots of money.

But having said that if all you want is a small house on the edge of town with a large city lot you can find places in your price range but be very careful about taxes, restrictive zoning and regulation, and a large chunk of Oregon is very liberal...even to a moderate like me.

A couple years extreme weather should not dictate a move IMO and if you have lived somewhere for 45 years I would think you would find yourself not happy if you went too far in the extreme. Maybe its just me..I am not from anywhere and grew up as a child and lived as an adult all over the world so I have never felt a particular place was "home" until I lit here. I have always been envious of those who can look back on decades of friendships and family ties to one area. I would be very reticent to give that up if I had it.

I'm thinking about moving north myself.

Missouri winters CAN be tough. We had 24" of snow here in Central Missouri in the Blizzard of 2011, 4-5' high drifts, the National Guard had to be called in to transport people to the hospital. We had an ice storm about 10 years ago that left us without power for 10 days (some areas longer) another snow and ice storm that kept everyone snowed in for 2 days, not able to get out.

On the flip side, summers are brutal too, very hot, high humidity, tornadoes, flooding, drought, you name it. We have seen temps here that ranged from -25 in winter to 115 in summer (actual temps, not wind chill temps or heat indexes).

So yeah, the winters AND the summers can be tough here in Missouri. Having some very nice weather this week though - temps in the 70's, with lows at night in the 40's! Nice change from the 100 degree temps we had last week.

Maybe Tennessee, Kentucky or West Virginia?

Taxes...

Texas has no income tax, but we do have property tax to make up for it.

My 11 acre place is 2100 per year, and will go up significantly when I build a house.

It would seem to me that Texas is a great place to live when your working age without the income tax, but when you're retired and your income is likely lower and fixed it might be best to move to a state with income tax and low or no property tax instead. But I haven't compared states or done the math.

Right here is the finest place on earth.

Well, like you said, it's a matter of perspective. I'm a warm-weather person, I really would not mind living in Florida most likely (aside from the bugs and swamps). However I am fully willing to trade "HOT" for "weather that doesn't always kill your garden and pasture."

I was pretty much funnin ya because we are still chuckling about the great blizzard this year. We used to get over 200 inches of snow and bitter cold for months at a time so we thought this last winter was very mild...we were fencing in shirt sleeves in January.

But this summer has been brutal hasnt it? I keep hearing that these are all records but if thats so...when do we ever get normal?

If I had gone through a hundred year drought like you have, I would be thinking the same way. But, forty-five years is a lot to give up. I keep thinking about "the grass is greener" thing, and I would hope you would feel differently, come next year. Hang in there....

geo

Kansas has been a hard place to live this summer. I live in the far southern region just 30 miles from the Oklahoma line. We have the drought and the two months of temperatures over 100 degrees this summer. It has had me wondering if I live in the wrong place too. I don't want to move as I am a native Kansan. I have invested all my energy and money into this itty bitty farm, planted an orchard, fenced and cross-fenced. We have every kind of weather but the bad weather used to only last a few days to a week. I do not think there is a safe haven anywhere anymore. Good luck in your search.

Erie, Pennsylvania, snowfall for 2010-2011 was approximately 107 inches. Interpret that as you will :) Pretty green and lush the rest of the year, with a gorgeous golden autumn.

Thanks again for all your perspectives. Just to clarify, I've lived in Texas for 45 years, but have moved around a lot -- no more than 8 years in any one place. (I was a minister's wife.) And I'm getting older, so this summer's heat really did me in, along with the high electric bills. As I said in an earlier post, I'm just in the "wondering" stage right now.

Well, here in California, and in fact, the entire West coast, the closer to the coast you are, the more moderate the temperatures.

I know. ;) And that is a lot of snow. Makes me feel better about our winter.

"Well, here in California, and in fact, the entire West coast, the closer to the coast you are, the more moderate the temperatures. "

AND the higher the cost of living and land prices are, and the more Progressive Liberal Wacko's you have to contend with.

In my Navy career I lived a lot of places and I chose Texas to retire. Yes it has been hot the past 13 years I have been in Texas, but things are cyclical and we won't have La Nina conditions forever. AVERAGES are just that and the averages say that we are due for some wet and cool years. It is especially important as NASA, et al indicate we are going into a very low sunspot activity time where they indicate GLOBAL COOLING is coming (think Maunder Minimum type cooling also known as the Little Ice Age). It doesn't take much global cooling to make places in the north really hard to deal with and the global cooling could conceivably be around for 20-100 years. If we really get into the global cooling there are a lot of people in the world who won't have anything to eat. Imagine a world with all the people there are with the bread basket of the US unable to plant any grain.

Of course it's also possible that you're mistaken about global warming. If so the La Nina condition might be in Texas to stay.

Check out the Treasure Valley (between Boise and the Oregon border) in Idaho. High desert, only a couple of days each summer month over 100, if it snows, 90% of the time it doesn't stick, etc. If we get a tornado, it is so small they usually call it a microburst. You'll have to irrigate everything (high desert, 13" rain/year), but that isn't a problem on established land. Since the real estate market is flooded with foreclosures, you can easily find something for under $70K. Check out Emmett, Idaho. It is north of the Treasure Valley, very pretty area, a bit less desert-like. You have to go over a pass in the winter that is nasty, but if you work at home, it would not be an issue. If you don't have to work outside the home, then there are a LOT of great places in that area.

Yes, but we've had some pretty nasty winters in northern Nevada too.

Most winters the snow comes and goes, but I recall one winter when it snowed in late November and we didn't see the ground again until spring. But you can count the nights that go below zero each winter on one hand. You can't compare it to living in the deep freeze up on Montana.

Sorry Nevada - I had not read your post when I made mine; I was just responding to the OP.
More weather info: Our coldest month, January, has an average daily low of 22. July's average daily high is 90. "It's a dry heat" ;-) We have 4 seasons, but winter isn't that bad and neither is summer. There are a lot of fruit trees in the Emmett area as well as the west Treasure Valley (wine grapes!)

A good reason to go. ;)

But.... I love it here, rarely over 85, cools off early at night, 40 degree average winter temp, lot of green (lots of rain) 4 seasons, a week of snow every 3 to 4 years. Ocean 40 miles west, skiing 50 miles east, lots of rivers. Mountains all around. What's not to like....James

My Son just bought a 1.29 acre parcel (5 1/2 lots) with 2 septics, 2 water meters, a nice double garage with an old dumpy trailer, a single carport and a nicely kept 1992 14'x66' mobile home for $20,000. City water is $14.00 a month all you can use. He will demolish the old trailer and build a small cabin on 1 acre. Then sell 1 lot with the mobile, septic and carport. It has a beautiful southern, mountain view out across his own nice spring fed pond. Land CAN be bought cheap here....James

Personally if I were to change locale, it would be up to Arkansas in the Ozarks I think.

But I'm pretty much set on Texas, if it gets too hot or dry here in central Tx I'll just mosey on down to south Texas by the coast where it's more tropical and doesn't get so hot and drought includes 30-40 inches of rain a year.

I've been through many hot summers like this, it's just the dryness this year that is really unusual. Come December I'll be loving being here instead of up north.

Florida panhandle. Good prices on property, low population density, gulf breezes keep heat down. Green all year with few days of freezing.