Beautiful places to live in the US

*i work from home

Santa Cruz California is nice. Also from RI to Maine you have some nice spots along the sea that are NOT at sea level.

Mount Rose, MN

Santa Barbara

You beat me to it, R4!

OP, what's your budget? We need to know whether we're talking about Santa Barbara or Lake Michigan.

Key West

Do you need to be near a major city? Do you want four seasons? What are your interests? Requirements?

Santa Barbara is fab. When the old society women queef, it plays this song.

Ocean Grove NJ. National Geographic said it contained one of the ten best blocks in America. It’s next to Asbury Park and really is what they claim “A square mile of Heaven”.

I work from home. I made a HUGE mistake of moving to Long Beach to be close to friends. Im breaking my lease. Fuck .. what a ghetto.

Id love to live in the town where: “the good witch ‘ is filmed

Sonoma County is pretty sweet.

Traverse City, MI

Talk to me of Mendocino . . .

R14 is Cincinatti Patti.

Let’s try to suggest places that are not in California and not gay resort towns. There’s a big country out there people.

Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It’s affordable, gay friendly, and cute.

Santa Cruz is really expensive.

Lake Tahoe

Tiburon, California. Posh, expensive, exclusive, gorgeous, and just half an hour from San Francisco if you want some city time. Robin Williams settled there in his later years.

[quote] Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It’s affordable, gay friendly, and cute.

It's also in Arkansas.

Manchester by the Sea, Massachusetts. Where Jizz Max had been living.

West Palm Beach, where Trump and Epstein raped 13 year old Katie Johnson and admitting to making 12 year old Maria disappear.

Have you considered Beauty, Kentucky?

I have a feeling you would like Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

If you're interested in the east coast at all, I've visited friends in leafy suburbs north of New York City, where they have the best of both worlds: lovely homes amongst the trees and grass, with easy access into one of the world's premier capitals via commuter train. The mighty Hudson River divideds Westchester from Rockland Counties, personally I prefer Westchester, but you can buy homes on either side with views of the river, which is huge and has strong currents and waves. Piermont, NY, a small scenic town nearly on the banks of the Hudy son, is very pretty, but you can get the same thing on the Westchester side in places like Irvington, NY.

The north shore suburbs of Chicago (Evanston, Wilmetter, Winnetka, etc.) as well as parts of inland Oak Park. The suburbs of Cleveland along the Chagrin River from Gates Mills to Chagrin Falls and the inner areas near the Shaker lakes in Cleveland Heights and Shaker Heights--you don't have to look to glamorous places to find beauty--just nice settings and tasteful architecture.

Charleston, SC

Bucks County PA

[quote] lovely homes amongst the trees and grass, with easy access into one of the world's premier capitals via commuter train. The mighty Hudson River

The OTT purple prose found on even the most banal threads is what continually makes DL so much fun to read.

Don't change DLEGs. Don't change.

[quote]I have a feeling you would like Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Like Disneyland without the drugs.

People always say Carmel. It's GHASTLY.

Marin County, CA

St Petersburg Florida is a surprisingly charming place - founded by Italian immigrants in the 1890s, it has a different ‘feel’ than the rest of the state. If you live in the upscale neighborhood by the pier you don’t need a car.

I hate the pier.

Thanks all!

You're welcome, honey!

[quote] People always say Carmel. It's GHASTLY.

It's not ghastly, but aside from the weather, its charms are limited. One gets bored very quickly. And it's too expensive to live there and travel often to other places.

The atmospheric fog enveloping the quaint fairy tale houses can get suffocating in Carmel.

For years I was told -

"Gurl, go to Carmel!"

"You aint seen nothin til ya bin to Carmel"

Then I went. 30 minutes and I was outta there.

It's Carmel BY THE SEA!

My Latin boyfriend always calls it "My Culo By The Sea".

Naples, FL

We moved here from California for the warm ocean temperatures. Much better than St. Petersburg up the street.

^Naples is lovely. I was going to suggest Captivate.

^Captiva

Forgot to add, Bucks Co. is not near the sea but not too far to drive for the day/weekend. It is on the Delaware River which is absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn't buy directly on the river, it does flood.

The old pier has been closed since 2013 and was removed in 2016; presumably that is the one R36 is referring to. A brand new pier opens next year.

Following up on the post re settling near the Hudson River, I should note that in that area, towns are divided up into "river towns" (meaning along the Hudson River), and "Sound towns" (meaning those like Mamaroneck and Larchmont on the area that instead runs along the Long Island Sound, a/k/a the Atlantic Ocean). All these are upscale areas with distinctive looks and character, and and as my friends moan constantly, the property taxes are outrageous. So, these areas require deep pockets. NB: the property taxes in Connecticut are much lower, so the Gold Coast of New Canaan and places like it might be worth considering.

But then, Carmel and similar West Coast equivalents also require deep pockets.

As noted by another poster upthread, Charleston is an exquisite city - but the weather between May-end of September is unbearable, in my opinion.

Burlington, VT, a charming small city, has a large trendy waterfront area on Lake Champlain.

And, there's always Boston, right on the Atlantic, with beautiful neigh bourhoods like Beacon Hill. Also not for shallow pockets. Marblehead, MA, just 16 miles from Boston and right on Marblehead Bay, at the mouth of the Atlantic, is a stunning little town (they filmed "The Witches of Eastwick" there, although it is supposed to be Rhode Island). However, the winters thereabouts are not for the faint of heart, just as the summers in places like Charleston are not.

I found the Saugatuck/Douglas/Holland area to be charming for a lower cost of living than some of these coastal places. However, I imagine they are probably not terribly livable during the worst of the winter months.

I'll add a few:

Livingston, MT (near Yellowstone and Missouri River).

Bethel, Maine

Watertown, Maine

McKenzie River, Oregon

[quote]prefer to live by water?

Who are you asking, OP? Don't you know?

R43 Edmund Wilson first visited Naples in the early 1970's. His opinion mirrored mine:

"This pastel hell, this sunlit nightmare."

He was not a fan.

Some beautiful suburbs in Westchester, NY as well as suburban Philadelphia. But property taxes are high. Some nice New England towns in Berkshires and Litchfield County, CT. CA has some beautiful places but they are all so expensive. Arcata was mentioned as an option - but it’s pretty remote.

OP, anywhere that's beautiful and even reasonably accessible and interesting is either already incredibly expensive or ridiculously overdeveloped and more or less unlivable.

Surfer's Paradise, 50 miles north of Brisbane on Australia's Gold Coast used to be paradise - great waves, gorgeous empty beaches - with unspoiled scenery and minimal development. It was just incredible. The first high-rise, a ten-story building, was built in 1959.

Now it looks like this.

R48 For the most part, "The Witches of Eastwick" was filmed in Cohasset, MA, south of Boston.

My parents lived there and were extras in the "Girls What Are You Doing?" scene when Jack Nicholson's character van Horne is blown across the Common in a hurricane of feathers into the First Parish Meeting House.

New London CT

Avalon, Catalina Island, California

"Arcata was mentioned as an option - but it’s pretty remote. "

Eureka and Arcata are in a lovely location, but the towns are kind of shabby and a hell of a long way from anywhere. It's not a place a rich person would settle in.

Avalon is strictly for second getway homes.

I bet OP can barely pay his rent, and you bitches are suggesting Carmel, Santa Barbara, Naples and Marin County. Maybe if he plans on living on the street.

Princeton, New Jersey

La Jolla (especially now that Cunanan is no longer with us.)

Bishop, CA is beautiful if you like mountains.

Sonoma Coast, bitches.

Baltimore - plenty of crabs. You'll need a translator to understand their sophisticated version of English.

Saratoga Springs, NY. Lots to do especially in the summer. Skiing resorts nearby in the winter. Close enough for a weekend trip to Montreal or NYC. Calm, peaceful country life, yet still glamorous.

Telluride

Westport CT - leafy suburb - close to NYC

I heard they put up some new shiny apartment towers in NYC with pretty views. Why not try there, OP? Midtown so convenient to everything.

"Telluride "

I think the OP meant liquid water, not snow.

Camden was one of my favorite places in Maine.

I hear there's lots of land in Paradise, CA

[quote] La Jolla

La Jolla is beautiful and I love it.

But a fucking shoebox there is 750K.

It's hysterical, though. If you ever go, go to the Goodwill in La Jolla. It looks like a Saks, for real.

Big Sur

Jeez, now I want to go to the Goodwill in La Jolla.

Old Saybrook, CT

Ridgefield, CT

Southport, CT

Cold Spring, NY

Hastings on Hudson, NY

Sarasota, FL

Aspen, CO

Telluride, CO

Monterey, CA

Sausalito, CA

Mill Valley, CA

Bellingham, WA

Tacoma, WA

Del Mar, CA

It looks like I'm going to San Diego in October. Definitely checking out the La Jolla thrift store! Because yeah, the secret to top thrift shopping is to go where the rich people donate stuff.

As for beautiful places to live by water, Monterey, California is lovely. Cool and beautiful, with miles of shore paths, it's a large enough town to have all the services a person could want, but small enough to be charming. Close to Carmel and Big Sur (where nobody actually lives BTW), an hour from San Jose, full of lovely old wooden houses where an eldergay could live in suitable elegance. Yes, it's touristy in summer, but the town is large enough that only a few areas get crowded, the life of the town goes on undisturbed even on summer weekends.

Not for nothing, but wouldn't it make sense for eldergays to retire to more urban areas, places where they would not be as reliant on cars and could walk places?

The ideal would seem to be the "snowbird" life, where you had a place somewhere warm (California, Florida, Caribbean) for the winter and then someplace near a city or a beach or a lake for the summer.

My grandparents did this--they had a condo in Sarasota they lived in from Thanksgiving until April, an apartment in NYC and they'd rent a place out East for August.

If I could recreate that, it would be ideal

Not to mention, R77, access to services older people sometimes require, like health care.

Not everyone likes to live in an urban area. My parents moved to Florida (they love suburban life) and when they got too old to take care of themselves, they went to assisted living.

Agree R77 . Seeing my mother live isolated lonely and dependent in a suburb in old age has taught me I want to be in a vibrant city with easy car-free access to everything including good health care in my old age. But also be able to escape winters for 2-3 months and get some nature in the summer (but I would probably choose Northern CA for summer where it’s cool and beautiful).

The fantasy of retiring to these small towns in the middle of nowhere is not logical. Do that in middle age - in old age you won’t want the hassle of a house and yard work as well as the isolation and car dependency.

The Carmel/Monterey area is lovely to visit, but I've had wealthy friends who lived there and they couldn't wait to leave. They said it was surprisingly depressing and dull, which seems to be a hallmark of these tourist towns.

The wind and salt air wrecks havoc on your home. They were constantly having to do very expensive repairs on their home because of the weather. Home maintenance costs in that area are significant.

It depends on your personality, I think. Introverts could probably get away with living in these small, faraway towns much better than extroverts.

"Not for nothing, but wouldn't it make sense for eldergays to retire to more urban areas, places where they would not be as reliant on cars and could walk places? "

Actually, my idea retirement home would be in a small-ish town, one large enough to offer healthcare and some mild entertainments, where I could live within walking distance of necessary services. I'm in my fifties and already feeling the urge to downsize and simplify my life, I'm already losing my tolerance for the ugly, crowded, stress-loaded, socially problematic big cities of the world. So yes, if I could afford to, I'd retire to some place like Monterey.

But that's just me, other people LOVE big cities, and aspire to step over homeless people and dodge traffic when they're old. Whatever floats your boats, city boys.

What's sad is when elderly or late middle-aged couples move to these remote places. One dies and they're left on their own in the middle of nowhere.

[quote]The Carmel/Monterey area is lovely to visit, but I've had wealthy friends who lived there and they couldn't wait to leave. They said it was surprisingly depressing and dull,

Surprisingly? I could tell in 30 minutes.

R85, I get Carmel mixed up with Cambria (now that's a boring town).

As usual everyone is so far up California’s ass they can’t find their way out. Everybody’s drinking the fucking Kool-Aid if they think it’s some Shangri-La out here. There are 49 other states go explore.

Sorry, but if you're sensible and don't want to deal with snow, humidity, or excessive heat or cold, the California coast is the only part of the country worth living in.

R77/YMF, if you can't drive anymore, you probably can't walk very far, either. It doesn't make sense for an old person to live in a remote village or a cabin in the woods, but not everyone wants to live in a big city. Some people like to see grass, trees and open space out their window or on their walks.

The most important thing, as others have said, is access to good health care and the things you need for daily living, which will be fewer when you're in your 70s than they are when you're 60.

I live in a beautiful Philly suburb that’s walkable (grocery, drugstore, restaurants, delis, library, theater) and has a direct train to one of the top 10 hospitals in the country, a large gayborhood, every possible cultural activity. No need for car - but also a single family home with 0.5 acre for gardening, birds and privacy. Really pretty ideal for aging in place.

r90 As long as you'll always be able to afford to pay someone to take care of that 0.5 acre when you can't or don't want to.