Hotscot

Anyone on the East Coast love where they live?

Tired of California, want to move @ 2 years. Heat, sun, congestion, traffic wearing us down. Plus easier flying to Europe, my main customers are Brookhaven Lab on Long Island and Argonne Lab in Illinois, and we want proper seasons again.

We'll need to decide first if we want to be on the actual coast or a little inland on a lake. Or as far back as Ithaca, Syracuse for example.
Relatively quiet town, tending towards retirement. Good health services etc
Reasonable politically. Decent local govt.

Maine/New Hampshire/Connecticut?

or Maryland and South Coast?

To begin with.

Nutmegger

Connecticut: handy for NYC (if one stays in Fairfield County), intelligent populace, excellent schools and attractive towns (good for resale, even if you don't have kids), hot summers, beautiful autumns, often very snowy winters, lovely but very short springs. However, because of NYC proximity, it is expensive, especially property on the sound (the coast is Long Island Sound, not the ocean). For cheaper lakefront, try inland in Putnam County, NY -- I used to have a summer cottage on a lake there, and most of those cottages have now been converted to year-round use. There are lakes in Fairfield County -- Candlewood, Zoar, for instance -- but property is expensive there. The upper part of CT is convenient to Boston, but I'm not familiar with that area.

Hotscot

Thanks Nutmegger...sounds encouraging. This will be a decision made over the next two years. As we narrow our list we'll probably go and spend a few days in each location to get a feel.

Nutmegger

Fire away with any questions as you go through the process.

HumphreyC

Didn't see Massachusetts on your list? The east is affluent, manic and expensive but the western parts are more laid back and affordable.

I love where I live (in the MA 'route two rust belt' near mount Wachusett) but I think it's probably too redneck for you.

If I could live anywhere in the state it would be a bit further west in the Pioneer Valley near the five colleges. Not sure it has what you are looking for in terms of lakes, access to the coasts etc but it is very scenic out there and there are some great towns; Northampton,, Shelburne Falls, Montague etc... The populace is highly educated and extremely quirky. In parts you may even find it too liberal.

Southern New Hampshire around Keene/Jaffrey/Peterborough might be a good fit too. I think there's even a Highland Festival up at Loon Mountain in Lincoln if you miss the sound of bagpipes.

Sally Redux

Retirement? Have you decided against going to Scotland?

Hotscot

No still coming to Scotland..but just looking for a quiet retirement sort of place to go for four or five years before then.

Sally Redux

Oh that's cool. Probably makes sense.

Uncle_Bob

Cape Cod, MA

Hotscot

Damn...that looks a nice area...

rpjs

I really like where we live, Sleepy Hollow/Tarrytown in Westchester County, NY on the Tappan Zee in the lower Hudson Valley. It's a beautiful and historic area (we live a stone's throw from the Old Dutch Church of the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" fame), has great amenities and has good connections into NYC and therefore beyond. It is a very expensive area to live though.

Putnam County, further north, is a bit cheaper although it's catching up, but does have some lovely places like Cold Spring. Winters tend to be very severe once you go inland though. Back in 2010, the city of Beacon in Putnam Co. had a snowstorm that caused it to lose all power and natural gas supply for two days!

Whilst I have to say a lot of further upstate seems quite rust-belty and depressed to me, we spent Labor Day weekend in Saratoga Springs and it seemed like a very pleasant place to live.

A bit further afield, my wife's home area of "South County" Rhode Island - the mainland part between Narragansett Bay and Connecticut - might be worth looking at. The cost of living is relatively low for the North-East, and unless you insist on living right on the ocean-front, it has some really quite nice houses available for reasonable prices. Whilst it is New England, its winters usually aren't super severe, the weather line for harsher winters generally runs through the north of Rhode Island.

Bob

We loved where we lived in Maine. Have lived in the lakes area and on the coast.

Great cost of living, lovely environment, lot of nice outdoors stuff to do.

Not great if you need a job, but if you don't, there's good housing options and depending on where you go, decent shops and the like.

Can be quite rural in places, but a lot of small towns.

Winters can be a bit harsh, but they're really not bad on the coast, certainly if you head towards the south of the state, say around Portland.

It's not a bad state for old folks, lots of nursing and elderly care. Not bad healthcare over all, but not world class, but you're not far from Boston if you're in the Portland-Bangor area.

Government, isn't to bad. Governor is a bit batshit crazy though.

For a bit of home for you, Belfast host a massive highland games competition and it's really decent. Also a superb town and area to live in.

Much of the above applies to MA, except the cost of living, it's generally much more expensive here, but healthcare is also much better.

Can move western MA and it's much more rural and quiet, around the Berkshires such as Northampton etc. Northern MA isn't bad either, Andover, Amesbury and towns like that.

NH - Look at Dover, Exeter, Portsmouth and around those hubs, they're lovely towns. Manchester, bit shit to live in, but it's not a bad area to not be far from as it's got a lot of fun things going on and you're still close to Boston.

Also loads of mountain ranges, not that harsh in winter, lots of water locations and no income/sales tax. Monster property taxes though.

Vermont, probably more harsher winters but another state that could be worth considering, seems to have reasonable CoL and be a fairly quiet state.

Bob

It's a bit of a cock living on the cape during the summer though, with all the tourists, plus the winters can be a bit hairy.

The vicinity would be good, without being on it I'd think. Definitely if you're thinking spots like Marthars Vineyard.

Pulaski

You're getting a lot of recommendations for the North East, but you might find many attractions a little further south.

In my neck of the woods we get four seasons, with freezing temperatures overnight from time to time between November and March, but the summers are often no hotter than Bob reports in MA. In central NC you can be only a couple of hours from the beach and also from the mountains. Inland the risk of damage by hurricanes is low, tornadoes are rare, and usually do only minor damage to buildings or trees, snow is rare, one or two storms a year on average and then melted by lunchtime.

There's a major hub airport at Charlotte, with direct flights to the UK and several cities in Europe. And did any mention the cost of housing and property taxes in the NE?

Nutmegger

Yes.