OT: In y?all?s opinion, where is the best area to retire on the MS Gulf Coast?

[IMissJack]

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[FISHDAWG]

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I lived in Biloxi in Ocean Club condos for 4 years and loved Biloxi - Plan on retiring back there in a couple of years. Ocean Springs is nice but a little more expensive and a short drive from anywhere - difficult to find prime property available there .... Long Beach and Pass Christian are ok ... Bay Saint Louis is my pick other than Biloxi.... Avoid Gulfport or East of Ocean Springs

[parabrave]

Long Beach is good and close enough to the Gulfport shopping and medical facilities. If you are a Veteran the Biloxi VA is outstanding, Every city has great eating and you are 30 mins down 90 to and from biloxi.

[Turfdawg67]

Orange Beach***

[TigerMomofaDawg]

It depends what you are looking for. If you want a good downtown scene with great entertainment, Ocean Springs or Bay St. Louis (those towns are pricey, though). If you want affordable waterfront and love to fish, Gautier. I would stay away from Pascagoula (drainage problems and terrible municipal finances) and Moss Point (crime). Biloxi and Gulfport are hit or miss. There are both great areas and terrible areas in those cities.

My advice would be to move down and rent for a year before buying so you can get a feel for the Coastal towns. This is not the sort of decision in to make from afar.

[BeardoMSU]

Gautier**

[parabrave]

Of course We forgot about Diamondhead. And in 2 years from now we will have a Buccees on I10 north of Pass Christian.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Tell you the truth, I wouldn't retire to the MS Gulf coast. Its kind of ratty. Lived there for 8 years.

[Dawgbite]

Orange Beach***

Are you crazy, if they build many more condos the whole island is going to sink in the ocean from all the weight. The roads and infrastructure can’t handle any more people. Until they build a road across the middle of the State Park, the traffic will strangle any more growth

[Johnson85]

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What do you like to do? Are you planning on fishing? Golfing? Do you want walkability or are you fine driving in and out of areas with stuff to do? Is a condo appealing? Do you want water access? If water is a big deal, do you want to go out front? Or are you going to be content to be on the rivers and bayous?

Would need to know some of that to give you a good info, but I will tell you most of the coast has the same challenge (and probably most places in general). The best locations are typically older housing stock, or really, really expensive new construction. The "affordable" houses are new tract homes going up typically a good 20-30 minutes from anywhere you'd want to be (and I question the affordability because while they are cheaper now, they're still pretty expensive for the quality and I'm not sure how those neighborhoods are going to hold up over time).

Another thing is the coast is changing. I am down there a lot. Five years ago, there are several areas that I would have told you are basically just as good as a lot of places "in town" (the places I'm talking about are still in the city limits, just north of where people mostly would prefer to be if price were equal). Once you're getting in you're car, how much does it matter if it's a 10 minute drive versus a 20 minute drive. But the north south thoroughfares seem to be getting way more crowded and are taking longer to get up and down, so I'm not sure in another 5 or 10 years those drives that used to be 20 minutes that are now closer to 30 if you are doing it at the wrong times won't be even worse.

That said, I generally like all of the coast anywhere from Ocean Springs to Waveland. All have their pluses and minuses. Most of the cities have finances that are a mess as far as I can tell. Just a natural result of typical political incentives to push costs into the future combined with Katrina loading everybody up with debt. But I still think most are going to do well and continue to improve and appreciate over the next decade.

[Liverpooldawg]

Tishomingo County.

[Johnson85]

Tell you the truth, I wouldn't retire to the MS Gulf coast. Its kind of ratty. Lived there for 8 years.

Name a place in Mississippi that is not ratty that you'd want to live? The only options are being in suburbs/bedroom communities like south Memphis or Madison, where all things being equal, people would prefer to live in the nearby city if it weren't a shithole, or I guess maybe Tupelo, which is ok for a small town but doesn't have water access, isn't close to anywhere you'd particularly want to be except for MSU, and doesn't have easy access to a good airport. Obviously those places are appealing in some ways and some people love them, but they're certainly not for everybody.

[Saltydog]

Of course We forgot about Diamondhead. And in 2 years from now we will have a Buccees on I10 north of Pass Christian.

Yeah and Buccees is wonderful too......Best roastbeef and beef jerky you'll find.....

[Dawg_Lover]

[QUOTE=Johnson85;1349219]Name a place in Mississippi that is not ratty that you'd want to live?


If you have children, the Lewisburg school district between Hernando & Olive Branch. Lewisburg is one of the top schools in the state. I know teachers there, as well as those with children attending school there. They couldn?t recommend it more highly.
Also, Hernando is a nice town.
Both offer easy access to great shopping in Southaven, Olive Branch, & even Collierville now that the I-269 bypass has opened up around the east side of Memphis.

[Johnson85]

Name a place in Mississippi that is not ratty that you'd want to live?

If you have children, the Lewisburg school district between Hernando & Olive Branch. Lewisburg is one of the top schools in the state. I know teachers there, as well as those with children attending school there. They couldn?t recommend it more highly.
Also, Hernando is a nice town.
Both offer easy access to great shopping in Southaven, Olive Branch, & even Collierville now that the I-269 bypass has opened up around the east side of Memphis.

I'm sure all nice and good fits for some people, but most people don't want to live in a town of less than 20,000 people (or really can't because they can't find a job and don't want a 30+ minute or hour commute). And if you want to consider the nearby population centers as making up for being in a small town, then you are just talking about living in a cloistered area within a bigger population center with ratty areas. Which is no different than living in Madison. Which is no different than living in high dollar parts on the gulf coast. You get the tradeoff of having to drive much further to get anywhere, which means negative aspects of the area have to go further to get to you, but that's not a tradeoff a lot of people want to make. At least not on the order of living in a 15,000 person bedroom community. Living in a 100,000+ suburb, sure.

[BogeyGolfer]

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Bought property in Ocean Springs during the height of Covid shut down. I got lucky and got a good price on an acre lot that only needed to be bush-hogged and has three nice oaks on it....Same size property next to me just sold for about 20-30% more than what I paid. However, I live in NMS but plan on retiring in about 5-8 years. I like the coast because I can be back "home" in NMS in under 5 hours plus the location...But land is going so quick that you really have to be sitting "on go" to make an offer on anything you find...You'll find what you're looking for just give it time....

[SailingDawg]

Tell you the truth, I wouldn't retire to the MS Gulf coast. Its kind of ratty. Lived there for 8 years.

Better schools than anything north of I10

[bobtail bob]

I bought 25 acres in the rolling hills off the Wolf river in Lizana a while back. 15 minutes to Hwy 90 in Long Beach. I like the area. I eventually plan to build there

[SilentSteel16]

Better schools than anything north of I10

Rankin and Madison county schools say differently.

[SilentSteel16]

I grew up in Orange Grove when it was just a road and New Hope Baptist Church. I wouldn’t go back there now for anything