Moving when ER for tax, COL, quality of life

[Potterquilter]

In another thread I had mentioned moving when ER and was asked a question about it. Thought I would start a new thread to get opinions

Did you consider moving when ER?  What did you take into consideration?

We left the snowy upstate NY with it's high taxes and moved to Florida. It is hot in the summer but you can bike year round, property taxes are much lower and I feel our quality of life is better. No state income tax, roads are so much better without the frost heaves, can grow stuff year round and overall high quality of the life we want to lead.

We have some full time RV friends who established residency In one of the Dakotas for tax purposes.

[Trudie]

There have been other threads on this topic.  One thing that keeps coming up is that it's wise to visit several places you might like living in.  Rent and experience the place first while you narrow down your choices.

Once you decide where you want to be, try to rent for a year first.  Take your time to find a reasonable property.  Many people wrote about overbuying or getting swept up in making a decision and getting into a property they regretted later.  So, just think it through...

[dabears847]

I'm so interested in this topic, the weather is horrible in the midwest and we would really like to move somewhere warmer in the next few years.

Suggestions, on threads to search? Relocating search climate etc. Anybody getting database errors when trying to search the threads?

[Bearded Man]

I am considering relocating to a lower cost of living area in Washington (where I live) or Idaho, Indiana, Florida. Real estate prices are dirt cheap there. Florida has the advantage of great weather (been to Miami for vacation before in the summer) and no income tax. Idaho is more my kind of people. I might just get a place in Idaho and another in Florida and travel back and forth when I need a break.

[mandy_2002]

It was definitely South Dakota that has better state taxes; ND taxes from the first penny, but lower than some other states. 

I've been looking at something similar for the time I plan to spend overseas in retirement.  I currently work and live in CA, and if I left from here, I would still have to pay state taxes, which are ridiculously expensive.  There are several places that you can learn about the marginal tax rates (like this - http://www.tax-brackets.org/); the following website give a list of places to consider for their application of ZERO, and places to avoid because they will hunt you, track you down, and give you your tax forms to fill out if you have any connection to the state (from the perspective of someone looking to move international):  http://www.taxesforexpats.com/articles/expat-tax-rules/state-taxes-expat-tax-return.html

[Retired To Win]

... Did you consider moving when ER?  What did you take into consideration?...

When we were ready to ER, one of our objectives was to drastically reduce or eliminate entirely our mortgage payment.  In fact, the thinking sequence was in reverse: if we could reduce or eliminate entirely our mortgage payment, then we could pull the trigger and ER.  So moving was key.

We did internet searches for housing markets significantly lower in cost than where we lived.  Then we overlaid on to the results other search criteria for weather, social infrastructure and quality of life factors that mattered to us.  We site visited our top suspect locations until we found one that fit our bill.

And here we are! We basically were able to duplicate our former house on a better location and size property for about half the cost.  That was a great liberator.  And we're really enjoying our life here.