How timely... I had some info for Earth Mother and it is Alternative Energy source in nature. Hmmm. First the info then comment:
www.bpsolar.com There is a solar energy energy (electricity) savings estimator at this site. NOTE: it is put there by the folks selling PV panels but it isn't toooooo optimistic. The California Energy Commission has rebates up to 50% of purchase price and BP (solar panel mfg) offers financing. It doesn't get much better than this and still it isn't cheap or unusually cost effective. Too bad if you are in NY.
Commentary regarding best place to live (with 4 seasons): I have lived in several places with 4 seasons, including Minot, North Dakota where it is said they only have 3 seasons, July, August, and winter. There is usually something of redeeming value in most areas, you just have to look longer and harder and expend more effort to develop a taste for some of them. I liked NW Ohio, the Llano Estacado of New Mexico, San Diego, and Oklahoma (east of a SW to NE diagonal line through the center of the state.
My wife, the retirement planner, bought several books on the top retirement locations in the US and some favored expatriot locations. We spent a few weeks of vacation time exploring many of these over a decade. At the time of the search we were living in a very nice neighborhood in San Diego just a block or two out of direct view of the Pacific Ocean, 3 miles (no freeway driving) from our work. (Yes, we were spoiled!)
Background: San Diego had a small town feel completely out of proportion to its large populaltion. Traffic congestion was initially quite low and many folks easily commuted large distances to their jobs. Populaltion reached a point where there was a rapid non-linear increase in congestion efects that easily outstripped all attempts to allieviate via additional lanes and new roads. This was accompanied by all the social ills of overcrowding and I don't mean just traffic.
There is a lesson here: Don't select a place for the way it is without giving considerable thought to the way it will become. At one time we could have bought some land in the countryside not too far out of San Diego and commuted but my decision was to not do it based on the growth that would have clogged the commute within 10-15 years. It happened as I predicted, or worse.
After over 10 years of looking and studying and comparing I took my wife on vacation to south central Oklahoma and let her do her analytical thing regarding demographics, annual income, taxes, support services, highway conditions, and on and on and on. There was only one location in Oklalhoma that made anyones list of "BEST" retirement locations and it was right on the Arkansas border but was not seriously a contender, for us.
She found the friendliness of the rural folks to be truly amazing (just as I remembered from my youth) We do have 4 seasons (nice fall colors) but you have to drive 2-3 hours to see fall foliage displays in eastern Oklahoma that rival anything in the Great Smokey Mountains or New England. Most winters we get snow but you can't count on it to get deep or stay long. Summers DO get hot and humid and you would want A/C. We get some fairly cold weather of modest duration but I have never found anyone with personal experience of the ground freezing down as far as a foot. Utilities are moderately priced but not the nations lowest. Food is plentiful, varied and well priced. Gasoline is usually priced below the reported average prices.
Oklahoma has more miles of shoreline than Minnesota and is a watersports (fish, ski, boat, look, swim) bonanza. Get a map that shows water and it is amazing how much of the state is blue (except for the pan handle which I would gladly cede to Texas), probably a kneejerk reaction to the great dustbowl event.
Rural land prices slowly ratchet up but stay well below those of places with higher populaltion density. The county of San Diego, California is mostly desert except for the coastal strip and a few small populalton concentrations near agricultural or recreational locations B U T it has more permanent residents than the entire state of Oklahoma. Fewer folks with more time to be friendly and yes we still wave at other pickups and if they didn't wave first they wave back.
In San Diego we had purchased a small rental property (tiny lot with two stucco houses on it.) There was a one and a two bedroom each with single bath. They were in a neighborhood that was being shifted from about 1/2 owner occupied and 1/2 rentals to large appartment complexes and condos. We owned ours after having made payments for 30 years. We traded it under an IRS rule (Starker trade) for the rural property we have now. I think the lot was 45x125 or something like that. We traded it for 160 acres with 8 ponds (we are up to 10 ponds now). The older 8 ponds are all teeming with fish, frogs, turtles, etc. and one of the new ones is stocked, just one left to stock and it will get catfish. The land is fenced, cross fenced, has a hay barn (steel pipe and galvanized corrugated metal), a metal shop bld (37x70 plus office) good well. It is keeping 40 head plus calves right now but will be reduced before next winter sets in.
The purpose of this detail is not to brag but to illustrate the vast difference in property costs. There is absolutely no way I could have EVER bought a 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile chunk ( 36 city blocks) of gently rolling park land with lots of pecan trees, a good producing pear orchard, 8 stocked ponds, wild turkey, deer herds, and a variety of other critters in or near San Diego or any of the highly touted (and usually overrated) retirement meccas.
This was not a fluke. I didn't hold a gun on the seller. Land is cheaper here than in any of the published retirement meccas. Land prices will continue to ratchet up. There is a phenomena, well recognized by real estate professioinals, where folks sell a residence in a high price zone and relocate to a modest cost area, reinvesting all the proceds into the new house. With the difference in land costs this buys a lot of land, puts a lot of $ into the house, or both.
I have met other expatriot Californians and refugees from other fast pace high price locations who are my extended neighbors (within 10 miles) We compare notes and have a group lament regarding lack of cable TV, DSN lines, pizza delivery, and such but to the last man (or woman) declare our inability to even consider returning to the crowded city and all that it has to offer.
We considered several things aout various alternative locations (Texas, Arkansas, ...) Arkansas is also a popular retirement magnet but the rural road situation is abysmal. Off the interstate you have motorhomes putting up steep winding roads. being passed by locals who have no patience (often on blind curves) and all this while you are sharing the roads with logging trucks who sort of make their own rules. I think Oklahma has a good rural road system, almost as good as Texas which in many areas is truly outstanding.
Hope this wasn't tooooo boring. I think it would apply, in part, to many other locations, not just south central Oklahoma.
P,S. We canoed through one of the ponds toward the creek feeding it and set a couple beaver traps. Got the bugger before he got any nice big old trees. About a 50-60 pounder with ENOURMOUS incisors.
Pat
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