This is an amazingly wonderful uplifting forum with so many delightful people. But I'm forced to lay my burden of relocating here and to ask for help. We are retired military with a 5-year-old daughter looking to leave the Florida panhandle for another military area with nice housing at a good price. Thank you all.

Seems to be a theme this morning...
The DFW area has great AAFES and support facilities at the NAS Ft Worth JRB (Carswell).
Our TriCare Prime providers are great too...
Housing and cost of living is very low.
It's 3 hours north to Ft Sill and 3 hours south to Ft Hood.
We think it is ideal.

Dothan or Enterprise, AL is a popular area for military retirees. Enterprise particularly,has a very healthy and good public school system!

The cost of living is low and there is plenty of housing.

Fort Rucker is the nearby base.

They both are about 90 miles due north of Panama City, FL. and 45 miles from Lake Eufaula. Though hot and humid, rarely/never get the full force of hurricane activity, but some tornadoes. This is where the coast evacuates to.

I would describe the areas as 1/2 military imports(from 'all over') and 1/2 AL farmer/locals. It makes for a nice mix!

If you are asian (guessing from your name?), there is a fair sized asian population as well (still the minority, though).

Hope you will check this area out!

Belle

San Antonio, TX
Oceanside, CA

M

San Antonio, TX is also very popular with military retirees. Fort Sam Houston (Army) and Randolph and Lackland Air Force bases are all there in town. For medical care, Wilford Hall and Brooke AMC are excellent! Fort Sam has one of the biggest and nicest PX's in Texas! Housing in San Antonio is also cheap, and there are lots of families there. Plus, if you miss the beach, Corpus Christi and Padre Island are within driving distance.

My husband just retired from the military last year, so I know what you are going through.

Do you have any preference as far as weather?

One area you may want to consider is the Puget Sound area of Washington (greater Seattle area). There is a huge military presence, with many bases and all the support facilities. Housing varies quite a bit from outrageous to reasonable, all depending on the area of course. We left Seattle and came back to Portland when DH retired. We do miss all the military support. Thankfully we are only 3 hours away, so we make it back quite often, but it would be nice to live closer to the facilities.

In Texas we are concerned about whether learning to speak spanish will be required to feel at home and if home values will increase over time to make our investment worthwhile. We will do some investigating of the Dothan area. Our impression of the West Coast is that it is too expensive? Although Colorado seems worth checking out. Thank You!

My husband likes hot weather and I do not so anywhere is OK if we can find a home in great condition with acreage. We do not have to work, just good school and a couple hours drive to the base would be nice. Want this to be our last move! Thanks everyone.

You won't need to learn Spanish in order to live in Texas.

I must say that I am shocked that you would even think something so silly as you might have to learn Spanish to live in Texas. Even more so after 20+ years in the military. Someone who has been in the US Military for 20 years has seen more than one US state and been exposed to a microcosm of the 'real world' complete with a similar percentage of Spanish speaking peoples. Spanish speaking folks are all over the US, FYI.
If you are looking for land and a house Texas is a good choice.
Move near Austin or the Hill Country and you will have no problem with property value increases. Dallas seems to be over building at the moment, so the return will be much slower.

FYI: There are plenty of places with acreage ALOT closer than 2hr. away from the base! You MAY even find some acreage within the city limits of Enterprise or Dothan. How many acres are you looking for?

If not, Ozark is also near to Ft. Rucker. It's considered abit more rural than the other two, but I've had co-workers who commute that really like it there too! (I don't think I would though).

Belle

Funny you should bring up the Spanish speaking issue. A couple years ago, I noticed at work, an increasing number of Spanish speaking patients who could not speak English. Sometimes very serious conversations needed to be had and locating an interpreter was not always easy, or timely.

I decided I needed to learn a few words, at least and requested Spanish tapes for Christmas.

I for awhile, I listened to them on the way to/from work. Then, I took a free course offered at our church (preparing for a mission). Of course, I did not learn to be conversational, just a few phrases/ sentences.

I have found it useful for establishing rapport.

Well it's been awhile since I've listened to them, so I'm rusty with what little I DID know!

Well, I was in Winn Dixie a couple days ago. I noticed SEVERAL ?Mexican people, in different groups shopping...more than the norm for our area, but have noticed an increase in the last few years.

I had passed this gentleman a couple times in the store, but on the backside of the store, he walked up to me, speaking Spanish! I could not understand a word!! Finally, after some effort or both our parts, he was able to pronounce 'shicken?' and 'hombruger?'.

I walked him to the cooler with the meats and he nodded 'yes'. How he had missed it before, I don't know.

I walked away searching my brain for a Spanish word or phrase and ALL that would come to me was 'como se llama?'LOL!

On the way home, it suddenly hit me, he may have been an evacuee from Texas! I hope he's doing OK! I SO wish I could have communicated better!

Belle

NO, you will not need to learn Spanish to survive in Texas. Sure, it helps occasionally, but my parents don't speak a word of it and they have lived in Texas almost 40 years.

You'll be able to find plenty of places with acreage within a 2-hour drive of San Antonio. If you don't have to work, I'll highly recommend the western Hill Country. There are some great towns, like Kerrville, Comfort, Mountain Home, and Concan where you can buy property and have lots of deer!

At least two acres would be nice. Thank you Belle for the warm story. Having not been to Texas in almost 30 years but hearing many stories concerning the illegals coming across the Texas border probably our concerns are misplaced. We have lived in Miami and Manhattan and at times been made to feel out of place. Thank you.

I lived in Dallas for 25 years and in San Diego before. I can't imagine dealing with the help (housekeeper, gardener, etc.) and very many local merchants without speaking Spanish.
Most of the (immigrant) Spanish speakers in DFW are from the MX state of Gto. where I now live.
They are wonderful people and we love their language.
M

I think yingchu777 and sliderkta must be related. They both want to move and they both have questions about being Hispanic or living in Spanish speaking areas. Certainly knowing a few words of Spanish is helpful particularly in Texas, California, etc. but definitely not necessary.