Arizona
In reply to the discussion: I'm considering moving to Arizona for retirement. [View all]brush
(53,475 posts)one other place I haven't seen mention on this thread, Bisbee. It's an art colony sort of town. It used to have a working, open pit copper mine there but that's long closed. It has hills and an upper level and lower level where the downtown is. My wife and I bought a rental property there in the late '80s which we sold a few years later so I don't know how much it's changed but the downtown was charming with one traffic light and galleries and restaurants. A big attraction was the Victorian style hotel built way back in the copper boom, late nineteenth/early twentieth century, called the Copper Queen. It's un-restored and in good shape. The town is south of Tucson, about 11 miles north of the Mexican border, 40 or so from Tucson. And the altitude is higher so it's not unbearably hot.
It's worth a look if you're not looking for close closeness to a metro area.