2 years before I can retire and starting to look for a small town to move to .
I was looking at Valmont, what's the area like to live there ? I'am also look at tumbler ridge or barrier .
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2 years before I can retire and starting to look for a small town to move to .
I was looking at Valmont, what's the area like to live there ? I'am also look at tumbler ridge or barrier .
Good question. I'm also interested.
I've done some research on this topic in the past year.
Nelson and some of the smaller towns in the west kootenays are nice.
Left Victoria for Castlegar. No regrets. Miss the ocean and a handful of folks who are glad to come out and visit.
When I go back to visit I can’t wait to leave. Rush hour is 8 AM to 8:02 AM.
Annual snowfall/rainfall and average seasonal temps would be good place to start.
Valemount is Beautiful, but its thick timber and steep mountains. Lots of winter. Nice town though, especially if you got a sled
Not much info on tumbler ridge
Barriere is also great, close to Kamloops, cheap houses still, lots of good hunting around. If I had to pick between the 3 it would be barriere hands down, but Tumbler might have more hunting opportunities, but its also further from a big center and gets more winter
I have some family that just moved to a rural property just south of Barriere earlier this year and they seem to like it a lot. Cheap place to live, close to Kamloops, no bugs, decent weather not too wet, not too dry...
Nelson is expensive - both real estate and taxes. Plus it's filled with SJW types.
Think carefully about medical services when choosing a retirement location. Inevitably, as we age, we need more and more access to hospitals and good specialists.
Having to travel to Kelowna from Nelson for heart issues, as happened to a friend of mine, sucks big time.
Lillooet has a nice climate and a nice hospital. Nice people too.
Barriere would be good, there’s lots of rural property from Barriere to Kamloops. Also Chase, salmon arm, any of the small okanagan towns peachland, summer land. Gets a little busier in tourist time tho
Look into the quality of the medical system in the different areas because a lot of places medical care sucks big time. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself traveling to the lower mainland for treatment or surgery or be stuck waiting stupid long periods compared to southern BC if you choose to go north
Little Fort and Clearwater, not a lot of services but not too far from Kamloops. Also really like Smithers.
East of Vernon ain't bad either, but we're capped out on old fogies. :mrgreen: :lol:
OK, sonny, your time is coming! ;)
I'd find some place Mennonites or Hutterites live and buy something close buy.
They really live self sufficiently for the most part.
They will outlive us.
Beautiful area, no doubt about it, but I'd never move there.
Spent a couple nights there again this spring on a road trip with my daughter....I'm good for another year or two again. Vernon ain't no treat anymore either, but I think I'd take it over Nelson, if forced between the two.
With the recent canfor mill closure, this might be a practical place. Has a hospital, but a shortage of doctors although Kamloops is not too far away. Close to some real good fishing at Bridge and Sheridan Lakes. Wells Grey Park out the back door. Not too far to the head end of Adams Lake. Probably has the best potential for those entering into retirement now.
My present location has a large German Mennonite population and I would not recommend it as a retirement location do to poor medical services, you also lack trades and many other services so you must be fit and capable of your own problems, and overall unless you have friends or family in the community to help as a senior help/goods/services are lacking. Straight from the Mennonite’s in my area they colonized this are because of cheap farmland nothing more
As someone who has lived around both Mennonite and Hutterites(actually employed the son of the head of an Alberta Hutterite colony in the past) they don’t thrive because of what the location provides and actually avoid areas that attract people. They are only successful because they are a tight community that rely on one another and depend on their ability to work together
The true trend with these two groups is they usually choose areas that provide cheap farmland and limit their contact with people that can influence their people so they can preserve their beliefs and way of life not prime locations for comfort and services
That's what I was thinking.
They are self sufficient.
They don't need government services.
This is what I like.
Land away from the flock. Don't care about what the location provides in terms of "comfort and services".
They keep their nose clean, don't look for government handouts and probably have some exemptions so government leaves them alone.
They don't have comfort and service and yet they keep going just fine.
Other than their "religiosity", I have respect for these groups.
It’s a lot more complicated than that and things are more corrupt than it appears. In the case of Hutterite’s colonies net work between eachother to accomplish what they do as well. I will stop their because this has little to do with the OP ?
Either way unless you are one of them you won’t experience any benefit living near them because you will be an evil outsider that will not experience the same treatment
Spuzzum is nice this time of year :grin:
Clearwater and valmont real estate prices should be quite attractive now with the mill shutting down.....
Surrey. Your stuff will slowly get ripped off making the estate easier to manage for your kids......
Healthcare can be an issue. I know first hand. Living in Castlegar with heart issues means you might be doing the 4 hour ambulance ride to Kelowna in a blizzard, or the helo if they can fly and you need it bad enough. It doesn't bother me, I still love this place, surrounded by good hunting and fishing and boating and atving.
Kelowna has a great hospital and the one in Trail is expanding. A fair amount of new houses being built as folks sell homes in Kelowna and pay cash for a new place in the Gar. Banking a buttload of cash doing so.
If your seeking peace and quite and small town atmosphere, you have to make sacrifices. We don't have Cosco, but we don't have a lot of other stuff no one wants either.
Out of most areas I would second Barriere. Close to Kamloops,which means things you need as you age. Still affordable. Also consider how close you will be to family or friends who would be helping younif needed-how close are they or will they be. My friends parents moved to Vancouver Island,as their father started having medical issues they found it very hard to juggle young kids and going to see him and assist him and their mother with medical needs and household stuff.
Parksville/Qualicum would be my pick
Port Alberni would be good. Inexpensive homes and good access to hunting and fishing.
Maybe a bit too working class for some folks though.