So my daughter graduates high school in a year...I want to move somewhere where I have beach in the summer and snow (skiable snow) in the winter....what do you guys think about Lake Michigan? Anyone live there?

 

No great slopes in that part of the country. West Coast has the best opportunity for both; skiing on the east coast is pretty dependent upon Vermont..... overcrowded from NYC day-trippers.

Lake Tahoe gives you both; beautiful water and reasonably decent skiing, from what I hear.

 

Lake michigan is crap. tahoe was a good idea but also try Taos NM. no beach but warm summers in the desert and lots of skiing during the winter.

 

yeah come to the bay area

 

yur right about Tahoe...best of both worlds... ...bring cash..cali is expensive to live in...

 

We got some good slopes here...not much of a beach though, unless you wanna smell like a pickle.

 

When you live in the bay area..you're about couple hours from the snow slopes. At the same time..your right near the ocean beach on Santa Cruz, Monteray, and San Francisco..it's really nice over here. But like DarkSithCl said..it's damn expensive here. We're talking about small houses with the value of over 1 million dollars.

 

Move out to Arizona you got mountains and some lakes, michigan sucks.

 

I'm thinking NM or AZ sounds good. Thanx for the ideas!

 

its unreal there. thats my next stop in life. you really have the best of all worlds there.

 

Not a lot of skiing territory in Michgan unless you're in the way far northern U.P. and you don't want to live there in the winter.

 

dont get me started on bay area prices...unless you got lots of money or can make money its hard to get started here.

but the life quality is really nice.

 

AZ is either Phoeniz or Tucson, both of which have a high retirement population because of - you guessed it - the weather. Arizona is a gorgeous state with some of the most varied topography in the US, ranging from the high desert to the forested mountains just east of Phoenix. Phoenix itself is a big, flat city with lots of traffic, Scottsdale is a nice elitest enclave.

New Mexico is an interesting state. Abuquerque is the biggest city in the state, trying to be bigger than it really is. Santa Fe is a very wealthy retirement and artist's enclave that has discouraged rampant development in order to retain it's "tone". BOth can be very interesting places to live. Don't know wht it is like now, but years ago, they let their airstrip deteriorate in order to discourage major airlines from flying in. SF is the jumping off point to the Sangre diChristos, a gorgeous mountain range. The west side of the Sangre diChristo range is fashionable (and expensive) running through the Rio Grande up to Taos, which is an arts community, some real, some of it black velvet paintings of Elvis........ (over 3000 galleries in a very, very small town....) Some decent sking there, including Angle Fire and, of course, Taos. However, because it is as far south as it is, their winter season is shorter than, say, Aspen or Vail, and some of the trails can get insanely icy.

Cost of living in NM is low in comparison to many other parts of the country, but make sure you know what you are going to do before you get there. A lot of people move there for 'quality of life" issues, and the competition in some selected job categories is actually quite high. And, there is the odd aspect that some sections of NM are ideal smuggling sites for drugs across the border, and that is not just the border communities....... and, if you venture out of either Albuquerque or Santa Fe, be prepared for rampant rural poverty that is staggering to see and experience. (my family had a ranch in Mora County, south of Angel Fire, and in that county, 95% of the population had some form of government assist program......)

 

You could come to the east coast. Maryland has the best of everything. Bay/Ocean in the summer and skiing in the winter plus a ton of stuff to do since there are so many cities around.

 

my aunt sold a 2200 sq/ft house (circa 1960's) for about $980,000 in foster city....