Step 3. Get Information About Communities

Now it’s time to do some serious research. You can get a lot of information about a location even before you visit. Go to your public library. Write or call the chamber of commerce, visitors’ bureau, state information agencies, etc. Read about it in one of many books about places to live or retire. Go on the Internet. Use a computer program. Ask your friends if they know someone who lives there or if they have visited.

The Internet

We have found the Internet to be the easiest, fastest and most productive source of information about locations. If you don’t have a computer, find a friend, school or library that has one with an Internet connection. If you need a consultant to help you, consider a young student (college, high school or even younger).

Sites that will help you get information about a community:

If you can get access to the Internet from your home or from a library, there are many sites designed to help you, including --

  1. City Search has info on businesses, services and interesting places.
  2. USA City Link has links to each state and popular cities.
  3. Chamber of Commerce Directory gives links for finding a Chamber or for finding a business.
  4. Best Places to Live. Money Magazine invites you to enter your requirements to search their list of 300 cities for the ones that match most closely. Their questions may not match all of your requirements, but it will give you a good start in narrowing down the possibilities.
  5. To find whether an organization you belong to is active in a location you are considering, try searching for it by name or by name plus a word such as "locations". I searched for "lions club locations" and Google came up with "about 10,700,000" links in 0.34 seconds. The first 10 gave me everything I could want. Try it yourself. Notice they also give you links to Rotary, Elks, Kiwanis, Moose, American Legion and the VFW.
  6. In addition, many cities and states have sites on the Web. Most search engines will help you find them quickly. Enter the name of the city and state. Some are run by cities or counties, some by newspapers, some by chambers of commerce, some by libraries.

For example, Asheville, like many cities, has its own site asheville logo  (http://www.asheville.com/) with lots of information. If you go there you will find links such as, a City Map, local tourism map, What to do in, Current Weather Information, White Pages, Yellow Pages, Business, City Guides, Community, Education, Entertainment and Arts, Events, Chamber of Commerce, City and County Government, Health, Internet Services, Lodging, Outdoors, Real Estate, Travel and The Biltmore Estate. A Google search for a city will get many links. Here's a search for "Asheville NC".

There are also many “relocation” sites on the Web, but most of them seem to be financial institutions, real estate agents, developers, movers and relocation consultants. When you are at the point of planning the actual move, some of these may be helpful.

Books

There are several books on the market designed to help you find places to live or retire. Some of them are:

  1. How to Plan and Execute a Successful Retirement Relocation, by Karen Northridge is a thorough treatment of the subject in 32 pages as a special report by Where to Retire magazine and Vacations Publications, Inc., 5851 San Filipe, Suite 500, Houston, TX 77057, (713) 974-6903.
  2. America’s Best Places to Retire, Undiscovered and Low Cost Edens, Edited by Richard Fox, Vacation Publications.
  3. Retirement Places Rated, Planning Your Retirement or Finding Your Second Home, David Savageau, published by Macmillan, 1995.
  4. Where to Retire in Florida, Retirement Areas in the Sunshine State, Richard & Betty Fox, Vacation Publications.
  5. Choose the Southwest, Retirement Discoveries for Every Budget, John Howells, Vacation Publications, 1502 Augusta Dr., Suite 415, Houston, TX 77057.
  6. Where to Retire, Best and Most Affordable Places, John Howells, Vacation Publications.