Wow! Lots of Massholes piping up here!
Massachusetts has some of the best schools in the country, mostly private, and some very good public ones.
It has very nice 4 seasons, and short drives to mountains for skiing, and beaches for swimming and oceans for fishing and boating.
Best place in the world to live with kids as parents. As retirees, not so much, however, they just raised the estate tax threshold to $2.0M, so that is a big help, but the cost of living is highly dependent upon the price of oil ->
heating with fuel oil
electricity is imported from Canada and natural gas generation plants have to have NG shipped in.
Agriculture is being slowly eliminated with housing expansion
Being one of the oldest areas in the country, land and housing costs are at a premium due to very little land left in urban areas
Most all fresh vegetables are trucked in, so varies with the price of oil
So the main reason for us to move to FL is the weather and the lower cost of heating and transportation should there be another oil crises like in the 70s. Winter can be tough in NE as one ages. . it was all COLA and weather, and very little about taxes, etc. the healthcare is all worth it.
As far as the OP observations, meh, friends who have purchased in Spanish Spring last year, are waiting on the P&S agreement after accepting an offer on their MA house, and will be moving down to FL by the end of October. And in the past year, several houses on their very small street have turned over with young buyers, so given enough time, what's old will be young again. Interesting, the more N houses may have better amenities as they were put in when the costs were very much lower, so there may be more available at various price points than new houses at the similar price points.. .
They are excited to move, and since our house purchase was an impulse purchase, bought a plot after 3 days haven't never heard of TV before someone said to try a lifestyle vest to play golf, one can certainly over analyze a purchase. . . they took 5 years to find the house which checked all their boxes. Great if you can wait 5 years, etc.
Analysis with paralysis comes to mind, but you can't go wrong with simple criteria:
Do you like the location? the street, the views and the distances to necessities
Do you like the house style / amenities which you desire?
Do you like the price?
Can you afford the life style for at least 20 more years?
Then all the boxes are checked, and put an offer in. .
good luck. .
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