Comments on: Best Places to Retire http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:11:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Spencer http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/#comment-217 Fri, 07 Oct 2005 07:14:17 +0000 http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/#comment-217 Max, I went to college in NC--so I lived there for 4 years (OK, Durham, not Ashville). Frankly, I like NC but it's got its weather issues too. I'm speaking mostly of ice storms: couple inches of glare ice covering everything. Nearly broke my butt more times than I can count. Max, I went to college in NC–so I lived there for 4 years (OK, Durham, not Ashville). Frankly, I like NC but it’s got its weather issues too. I’m speaking mostly of ice storms: couple inches of glare ice covering everything. Nearly broke my butt more times than I can count.

]]> by: Max http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/#comment-208 Sun, 02 Oct 2005 21:43:02 +0000 http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/#comment-208 After 4 summers in Green Valley, I have to admit the bloom is off the cactus. It's just too darn hot. If I had an independent choice, I would probably live in Asheville, NC. It gets quite a bit of rain and the humidity is a little high in the summer but the elevation keeps things cooled off. The mountains are beautiful and the real estate prices very reasonable. The city seems to sport a liberal lifestyle and it is the center of education and medical care for Western North Carolina. After 4 summers in Green Valley, I have to admit the bloom is off the cactus. It’s just too darn hot. If I had an independent choice, I would probably live in Asheville, NC. It gets quite a bit of rain and the humidity is a little high in the summer but the elevation keeps things cooled off. The mountains are beautiful and the real estate prices very reasonable. The city seems to sport a liberal lifestyle and it is the center of education and medical care for Western North Carolina.

]]> by: Spencer http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/#comment-206 Wed, 28 Sep 2005 07:15:54 +0000 http://www.greenvalleymoments.com/best-places-to-retire/#comment-206 You and I have discussed this in person, so you know where I'm coming from (actually, I'll soon be coming back to Green Valley from "near a major fault line" as you know). But since you brought it up here and invited comments, I'll comment. You know my parents and sister are retired in Florida. I'm the only one in the family to migrate away from the east coast, but I still feel an attraction to the tidewater and I often wonder if I'm as happy in the desert as I would be somewhere in the southeast. As you may recall, I think I told you a year or two ago that I had even looked at condos in New Orleans while visiting there and before I bought in Green Valley, Houma, Louisiana was also under consideration. I really love nearly everything about that area except the hot/humid summers I have actually thought about it a lot and I am convinced that if concern about hurricanes is a major consideration, it would be quite possible to build a near-hurricane proof home in the hurricane zone. You just have to site it on reasonably high ground (not, unfortunately, directly on the water) with no nearby trees and have it designed to withstand high winds (if you don't mind the design, various types of domed structures would work well) which architects and engineers know how to do. Anyway, there are lots of reasons to want to live in these places--many of them a quite delightful--and reasonable prudence can reduce the risks in various ways. Among the personal precautions I've taken here on the fault line, aside from earthquake insurance, is a big mortgage (at 5.375%)--the money that could have gone into paying off that mortgage is invested in more liquid things. Since my home is relatively solid, if it is destroyed I assume much of San Francisco will have been and the lawyers and courts will have better work than tracking me down for the unpaid balance on that mortgage (I'll mail the keys to the rubble pile to the bank from Green Valley where I'll be while FEMA is sheltering my neighbors in tents). You and I have discussed this in person, so you know where I’m coming from (actually, I’ll soon be coming back to Green Valley from “near a major fault line” as you know). But since you brought it up here and invited comments, I’ll comment. You know my parents and sister are retired in Florida. I’m the only one in the family to migrate away from the east coast, but I still feel an attraction to the tidewater and I often wonder if I’m as happy in the desert as I would be somewhere in the southeast. As you may recall, I think I told you a year or two ago that I had even looked at condos in New Orleans while visiting there and before I bought in Green Valley, Houma, Louisiana was also under consideration. I really love nearly everything about that area except the hot/humid summers

I have actually thought about it a lot and I am convinced that if concern about hurricanes is a major consideration, it would be quite possible to build a near-hurricane proof home in the hurricane zone. You just have to site it on reasonably high ground (not, unfortunately, directly on the water) with no nearby trees and have it designed to withstand high winds (if you don’t mind the design, various types of domed structures would work well) which architects and engineers know how to do.

Anyway, there are lots of reasons to want to live in these places–many of them a quite delightful–and reasonable prudence can reduce the risks in various ways. Among the personal precautions I’ve taken here on the fault line, aside from earthquake insurance, is a big mortgage (at 5.375%)–the money that could have gone into paying off that mortgage is invested in more liquid things. Since my home is relatively solid, if it is destroyed I assume much of San Francisco will have been and the lawyers and courts will have better work than tracking me down for the unpaid balance on that mortgage (I’ll mail the keys to the rubble pile to the bank from Green Valley where I’ll be while FEMA is sheltering my neighbors in tents).

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