It does help, thanks.
With your wife’s mobility needs and challenges, winter weather jumps out to me as a factor. Thinking of her, I think of slippery snow and ice. You’ve lived in New England (and I did, too), so you know the drill. You’re plenty young now, but as you get older those slips and falls will exact a bigger toll. Imagine 25-30 years down the road and a broken hip.
I grew up in Upstate NY and New England and have spent a fair amount of time in the midwest. Hot and humid summer weather can be depressing, driving you indoors to the fans and AC. That comes to mind when I consider Atlanta and Fort Worth. Philadelphia too. Also, Atlanta traffic is some of the worst in the lower 48 states, and Fort Worth is along that tornado alley between the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Lakes. Look at a map, and those large bodies of water are energy potentials for storms. I used to be stationed at Fort Sill in Lawton, OK - if you get tired of the weather, wait 15 minutes and it’ll change.
I was leaning towards Denver for you, but that winter weather gives me pause again. My vote is for Santa Ana.
I live in Northern California, and yes housing prices are crazy. Have been for at least the 30+ years since I’ve been here, and I’m sure they were crazy before that. It took a while to get used to earthquakes (the ground is NOT supposed to move under my feet!), but they’re very infrequent and we have great building codes to absorb much of the energy transfer. Consider the Missouri tectonic plates and the New Madrid Seismic Zone where the buildings in that area aren’t anywhere nearly as prepared - and they’re quite overdue for a bad quake.
There’s a reason California prices are crazy - it’s such a great place to live, and it all starts with the great year-round weather we have. Start with great weather, and from there you can do anything. Bad news is, Santa Ana is quite unaffordable. Santa Ana recently ranked # 3 of 10 least affordable housing markets:
But you’re doing your research, you know that. Orange County is a conservative county, too. But conservative is a relative term - conservative for California is probably liberal for the rest of the US.
If there’s ANY way you can start here, scrape by at first, then buy a humble home, then you’re “in” to the market here, and then since you’re still young your investment will pay off nicely over the years. Even if you move elsewhere, take a data point now just to compare in 10-15 years.
California really is a great place to live. Check us out. The weather really is great.
Good luck to you, sir, and I’m guessing your wife is blessed to have you to take care of her.
The down payment is unknown because it will depend on if we lose money selling this house (but our next door neighbor is very interested in it for his daughter!). Figure $40k.
