Retirement - Small Town Living is more Affordable
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10/22/2008
My husband and I were ready to retire. The problem was that we knew we could no longer afford property taxes in Waterloo, Iowa when we retired as we had very little saved for retirement and planned to live primarily on Social Security. Our taxes were $1,800 per year. We decided to look at more affordable housing. We found our new home in Belle Plaine, Iowa.
We purchased our smaller home for $23,000 from a bank. We completely gutted itm made it handicapped accessible for our later years, and renovated it for about $40.00. We had equity in our home in Waterloo, so when my husband (retired real estate agent)sold our house, we paid off our home in Belle Plaine. We were very pleased with the property tax rate for about $400 per year with homestead and military exemption.
Our friends asked us "Why Belle Plaine?" The answer is that we have the same services that we had in Waterloo, but it costs significantly less. We have a grocery store, Dollar General, Pizza Hut, places to eat out, medical clinics, churches, a downtown shopping area which includes a theater, pharmacy, and hardware store, a library, community center, a museum, friendly neighbors, and a very low crime rate. We have everything we need. We can live very comfortably on our moderate income.
This has been a good decision and I would encourage other "City Dwellers" to consider the move to small town living, especially when retiring.
Bernice | Belle Plaine, IA