Where Would You Move?

[ISONewHome]

Using a new profile to stay anonymous. Currently located outside the Portland, OR metro area. We love our home and the beautiful scenery, and we’ve invested a lot of ourselves in it, both in terms of time and money. But our state has changed fundamentally in the last five years and seems to be on a very troubling trajectory. The biggest factor in our state’s downfall seems to be the decriminalization of drugs, and while the state legislators have walked it back a tiny bit, things are definitely getting worse. There is virtually no law enforcement and it’s starting to spread out to rural areas like ours. So we’re starting the process of considering leaving.

Where would you consider moving if you had a budget of about 1.5M (flexible), could move anywhere in the US, and wanted a property with a very nice home with updated features (4kish sf) and a smallish but functional horse facility with a barn, arena and fenced and cross-fenced pastures? Say, 5 acres-ish? Safe community, good access to quality healthcare, good access to quality meats and produce, climate suitable for growing our own produce.

My spouse is semi-retired and I’m close to retirement age, so we don’t want to build a house or horse facilities (been there, done that, more than once, though not together - married later in life), want something mostly turnkey for both humans and horses. I’m the equestrian, am slowing down, so not so competitive anymore, but still have two really nice horses and would enjoy dressage schooling shows, lower level eventing, hunter paces, play days and trail riding.

Prefer a climate where it’s not any colder in the winter than it is where we are now. But negotiable if the right property and location were to come along. Especially if it has an indoor arena and has more winter daylight than we do here.

Places we’re currently considering (in no particular order): Ocala, FL; Saratoga Springs, NY; Santa Fe, NM; Colorado Springs, CO; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC; San Luis Obispo, CA; Knoxville, TN; Louisville, KY; Waimea, HI; Kohala, HI. Would love to hear about other places worth considering!

[moonlitoaksranch]

If you have that much flexibility, I would look at properties first, location second.

Just a note, you might want to ensure there community resources available as you age. Many states are very weak in simple things, like transportation and good local resources. Florida is a very tricky place to age, unless you’re moving to a retirement community. Rural Florida has no support services. We know, we’re trying to move my MIL out of Florida because she has no way to get to appointments or the grocery store and she isn’t that rural! You might also consider distance to hospitals and single story homes, if this will be your retirement place.

[StormyDay]

At 1.5M you probably could get that in most of the USA (except maybe Southern California or very close to major cities). As someone from Seattle Colorado and NY are going to be significantly colder than Portland. NY does warm up a bit faster than Colorado in the spring though. Moonlitoaksranch makes a good point about senior services; if you get too rural anywhere you’ll struggle with that.
I don’t see it on your list, but you might really enjoy the Asheville/Tryon NC area. It’s up in the mountains so the summers are more pleasant than the rest of the south. You’ll get some winter weather but the winter overall is shorter. Much more winter daylight. Lots of horses and horse people in the area. And it will be much less of a culture shock than a lot of the south.

You can’t beat the weather in Hawaii but you couldn’t pay me enough to move there with horses. When I was a teen my family considered it for a job opportunity and realized very quickly keeping horses there was a huge pain and extremely expensive.

[clanter]

@ISONewHome

Louisville, KY

look at Simpsonville in Shelby county or Oldham County on US42 both are just east of Louisville.

[Bluey]

@ISONewHome

Using a new profile to stay anonymous. Currently located outside the Portland, OR metro area. We love our home and the beautiful scenery, and we’ve invested a lot of ourselves in it, both in terms of time and money. But our state has changed fundamentally in the last five years and seems to be on a very troubling trajectory. The biggest factor in our state’s downfall seems to be the decriminalization of drugs, and while the state legislators have walked it back a tiny bit, things are definitely getting worse. There is virtually no law enforcement and it’s starting to spread out to rural areas like ours. So we’re starting the process of considering leaving.

Where would you consider moving if you had a budget of about 1.5M (flexible), could move anywhere in the US, and wanted a property with a very nice home with updated features (4kish sf) and a smallish but functional horse facility with a barn, arena and fenced and cross-fenced pastures? Say, 5 acres-ish? Safe community, good access to quality healthcare, good access to quality meats and produce, climate suitable for growing our own produce.

My spouse is semi-retired and I’m close to retirement age, so we don’t want to build a house or horse facilities (been there, done that, more than once, though not together - married later in life), want something mostly turnkey for both humans and horses. I’m the equestrian, am slowing down, so not so competitive anymore, but still have two really nice horses and would enjoy dressage schooling shows, lower level eventing, hunter paces, play days and trail riding.

Prefer a climate where it’s not any colder in the winter than it is where we are now. But negotiable if the right property and location were to come along. Especially if it has an indoor arena and has more winter daylight than we do here.

Places we’re currently considering (in no particular order): Ocala, FL; Saratoga Springs, NY; Santa Fe, NM; Colorado Springs, CO; Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC; San Luis Obispo, CA; Knoxville, TN; Louisville, KY; Waimea, HI; Kohala, HI. Would love to hear about other places worth considering!

With your request, I would go East.
Why?
Anywhere West any place with horses will involved more acres to be viable.
That will mean more acres to care for, maintaining and less ideal conditions for growing things, from grass pasture to what else you intend to grow and you seem to want to make that simpler as you age, not more involved.
5 acres is laughable West for any kind of pasture, all you would have is a nice large yard.
Example, in our area we figure 30 acres per each horse for half of the year pasture for a horse, if it rains.
With more acreage, maintenance increases rapidly and you don’t want to spend your retirement doing handyman work, or do you? I assume you want to travel some, even to horse shows, do other than manual work around the place. Aging can be great for both of you, or out of the blue complicate your lives in unexpected ways and our time shorter than we thought.
Providing up front for that pays later, ask how I know.

As already mentioned, further West is definitely longer to travel for any you want to do, from going to the corner store, maybe 25 miles away, to doctors or shopping even further and no public transportation, can be a very different lifestyle from living where everything is handy in minutes,

My suggestion would be to go spend some time and talk to locals wherever you consider first, then decide what you like and what you don’t but you can live with.

[luvmyhackney]

I’d look in Southern Pines NC, lots of growing season, plenty of horse things with access to good farriers/vets/trails/trainers. Medical care if pretty decent in that area as well.

Its a totally different feel than west coast so please go visit these cities prior to moving.

[Cowboy_Girl]

Colorado is on the same path as Oregon. And the weather is HARSH compared to what you are used to. Plus you will have to relearn how to cook everything. I just left after 20 years because I was tired of everything - an indoor is no good when its zero, and having a blizzard kill my garden after Labor Day 3 out 5 years was the last straw.
The southeast if you have not done humidity before is not recommended.
One not on your list is the front range in Utah. I actually moved from Hillsboro, OR to Farmington, UT. Distances and driving where similar. Access to the mountains and amenities - skiing, fishing, hiking, 4 season sports. The horse scene is thriving and you are a days drive from a lot of major places.
I would go back there in a heartbeat if I had your budget.

[StormyDay]

@luvmyhackney

I’d look in Southern Pines NC, lots of growing season, plenty of horse things with access to good farriers/vets/trails/trainers. Medical care if pretty decent in that area as well.

Its a totally different feel than west coast so please go visit these cities prior to moving.

I lived in Southern Pines. Lovely area, actually slightly lacking in some horse things (hospital for instance). But, the equestrian community is largely divided between people in the ‘clique’ and those who are newcomers. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that those in this clique tend to act like they own the Moss Foundation (where the trail riding is). If you don’t trail ride and mostly stick to yourself though this won’t have any impact on you.
Also, they have a severe institutional racism issue. If you search Jackson Hamlet NC it will bring up some of what is going on (as far as I know, still having not been addressed)

I also lived in Aiken and much preferred the horse scene there. The horse community was much friendlier (I kept being invited to come do stuff; it was lovely). there’s some real issues with poverty in the towns surrounding Aiken. Sometimes that means more crime. The hospital there is okay; I’d trust it for emergencies and routine stuff but for anything complicated I’d drive to Atlanta or Charlotte. There’s a huge retiree community there because of the golfing.

[Calvincrowe]

Well, Idaho is definitely on a different political and cultural trajectory than western Oregon so there’s a choice. Texas? South Carolina? Mississippi? Florida? Those states might easily match your cultural needs as well as horse keeping requirements.

[treebeard]

A friend of mine has a lovely place in North Carolina. She’s a couple of hours west of Charlottesville and about an hour east of Asheville. The land is rolling, not mountainy. She lives in a small development that is equestrian-minded. Each home has about 10 acres, lovely homes and barns.

She likes the weather, which is generally mild and not very humid, although it seems to me there are a lot of days with temps in the 90s.

The Tryon Equestrian Center is fairly close to her area.

[clanter]

@StormyDay

I lived in Southern Pines. Lovely area, actually slightly lacking in some horse things (hospital for instance). But, the equestrian community is largely divided between people in the ‘clique’ and those who are newcomers. The issue is exacerbated by the fact that those in this clique tend to act like they own the Moss Foundation (where the trail riding is).

that was just the same as it was in the early 1970s when I lived there for a year

[luvmyhackney]

I grew up in the area so maybe my experience is different. I never had any issues riding out on the Moss Foundation. Loads of people retire in the area and love it.

Why I suggested visiting.

[StormyDay]

@luvmyhackney

I grew up in the area so maybe my experience is different. I never had any issues riding out on the Moss Foundation. Loads of people retire in the area and love it.

Why I suggested visiting.

Riding out there was fine. But I tried to get involved ( just volunteering, not any sort of major role) and was treated very poorly. I paid to go to a fundraiser for the foundation and ended up standing around outside of the building because the ‘old guard’ had taken every table; when I would ask if a (clearly empty) seat was open I was told no. The other ‘unimportant’ people like me standing around outside included someone who I later found out had a lot of money they were considering donating to the foundation… I don’t think that happened.

There’s also were some issues with easements and access to the foundation. This didn’t affect me because I was directly across the road from a gate but I knew others who despite living almost next to it and having deeded access were blocked from getting there. On one property she put big logs out across the trail to the access point.

At the time I lived there it was also quite clear that the trails were in need of some serious maintenance. That was 8 years ago. Not sure if that’s been sorted now but I kind of doubt it.

There are things I loved about the area. Both tack stores are excellent. The feed store is top notch. Carolina Horse Park is wonderful. Great weather. I still have friends from the area. But it’s a toxic horse community.

[ISONewHome]

Thank you, good insights. Access to top quality healthcare is definitely one of our criteria.

[ISONewHome]

Thanks, appreciate the thoughts. I’ve been to Asheville before and liked it, will add the area to our list!

[ISONewHome]

Thanks, appreciate it!

[ISONewHome]

Thanks. We are in the “everywhere can be on the table” phase right now, and as we narrow the list, we are going to spend a significant amount of time everywhere on the short list, and in all seasons (well, the places that actually have seasons, that is).

Re: Acreage, we have 5 acres right now and it’s the perfect size for our current needs with two horses. We do have a handyman that we hire to help us maintain it, though. We also don’t rely on pasture to feed our horses, and carefully manage turnout to preserve grazing and minimize mud. They get turned out during the day, weather permitting, and spend the night in the barn. Right now, because it’s wet, their turnout is a sand lot. When the ground is drier, they get rotated through small grass paddocks. It works really well for us and them.

[ISONewHome]

Thank you!

[ISONewHome]

Thank you, we will check out Farmington!

That is an EXCELLENT point about the altitude in Colorado and having to re-learn how to cook, and I hadn’t thought about that. You are right about Colorado being on the same path as Oregon in terms of drugs. I just read an article this morning touting Colorado’s legalization of magic mushrooms.

[Mara]

Oklahoma might fit your ideals. A $1.5 million budget would probably get a nice piece of property.

The horse scene probably leans heavily Western, though.