Mountain Home, AR for retirement?

[LGinIA]

Anyone live in the Mountain Home, AR area and care to share your thoughts, plus and minus, on this area for retirement consideration? Weather appears to be better than upper MW, low population base, good outdoor area and somewhat lower cost of living compared to most. What is the downside of this area?
Thanks

 

[mikim]

Too many Iowans moving in? just kiddin' .. my Dad had 7 acres in that area years ago before he finally decided on Florida instead. Not sure why he changed his mind ... there seemed to be a lot of folks from Iowa in that area at that time ... Iowans move to Ar -- New Yorkers move to Fl ... go figure .. Guess I don't understand the reasoning of leaving "home" to retire. I do know he wasn't thrilled with the amount of insects etc on that property.

 

[HickoryNut]

Mountain Home never did much for me. Too much rock and not enough grass/trees.

I'd suggest considering the Greer's Ferry lake (Fairfield, Lakeview) area over Mountain Home.

Pretty much all retired Chicago'ans in both places.

 

[Jagmandave]

The Beaver Lake area is beautiful..................and relatively unpopulated........ar at least not overpopulated.

 

[gemini5362]

I had a friend that lived in Pomona California he had an old buddy that started a marine electronics buisness in Hawaii, the buisness took off so well that he called up my friend in Pomona and told him that he wanted him to move to hawaii and open up another branch. My friend had his household goods, packed to go to hawaii. He went to Mountain Home to visit took one look around called the movers and told them to send his stuff to Moutain Home. He moved there and when I went to see him a few years ago he was estatic about it. Mountain home only has one drawback that I know of. That part of Arkansas is hard to get to. Mostly two lane curvy roads that if you have any traffic takes forever to get somewhere. I love driving my porsche there but if you lived there and had to go to a major town for anything it could be kind of slow.

 

[dbdartman]

That part of Arkansas is hard to get to. Mostly two lane curvy roads that if you have any traffic takes forever to get somewhere. I love driving my porsche there but if you lived there and had to go to a major town for anything it could be kind of slow.

Agreed. My GF lives not TOO far from MH (Shirly. population around 300). Nearest "big town" (Clinton) is about 20 miles away, Little Rock about an hour or so, Branson, Mo. under 2 hours.

I had fun last October driving her Olds 88 through the back roads, & can only imagine the smiles I'd have bombing around there in my Dart (it's a "canyon carver"). I doubt you could slap the smile off...

Land is inexpensive, & cost of living isn't too high. She has a 1440 sq/ft 4-bedroom, 2-bath, attach 2-car garage, on almost 6 acres, cost $58K. Sure, the place needs some work, but around here a comparable would cost easily 5 times as much (if not more).

Although MH is on the edge of tornado country, the mountains seem to break them up pretty well. Winters are typically shorter than here in NJ, but it can & has been colder there than here. Also will be hotter & more humid in summer, but again the mountains seem to temper this so it's not near as bad as Little Rock & south.

 

[BTDT]

I had a friend that lived in Pomona California he had an old buddy that started a marine electronics buisness in Hawaii, the buisness took off so well that he called up my friend in Pomona and told him that he wanted him to move to hawaii and open up another branch. My friend had his household goods, packed to go to hawaii. He went to Mountain Home to visit took one look around called the movers and told them to send his stuff to Moutain Home. He moved there and when I went to see him a few years ago he was estatic about it. Mountain home only has one drawback that I know of. That part of Arkansas is hard to get to. Mostly two lane curvy roads that if you have any traffic takes forever to get somewhere. I love driving my porsche there but if you lived there and had to go to a major town for anything it could be kind of slow.

I thought that was the whole point of retirement, to slow down. Like George Burns said in the "Oh God" movie, I have two speeds, and the other one is slower than this.

 

[gemini5362]

BTDT I missed where he said he was retireing but you are probably right retireing is about slowing down I think , I dont know I have not done that yet. I love that area where MH is I live south and west of there in the mountains also, One of the highways going to that part of the country is Arkansas highway 7. I have a porsche boxster and just last fall we had a nice day not too hot and the leaves had been turning color for a while. We took the day off, put the top down and went up highway 7 to branson just for the drive. If I am lucky enough not to have traffic in my way Hwy 7 is very curvy and I can just put the pedal down and have a blast taking the curves fast. If there is traffic in the way I slow down and enjoy the view either way it is a nice drive. The previous poster was right Little Rock is not too far but it is a trip you would not make every day. Branson is not too far away and actually memphis would not be out of the question for an overnight trip. The cost of houseing is very reasonable compared to some of the other places I have seen. Although Arkansas has a state income tax the property tax on real estate is very reasonable compared to some of the places I have seen. Maybe one of the best things the poster could do would be to make reservations to spend the weekend at Branson and then go from there and explore the area. That would give him a chance to find out more about MH and he might like to go to one of the performances in Branson.

 

[AndyM]

My only visit to Arkansas was to Harrison, and the area to the east of there to Yellville and up to Lead Hill and the Bull Shoals area. I didn't make it over to Mountain Home, but I liked the areas I did get to visit. Life moved at my speed and the cost of living seemed low... hope it's still as nice 15 years later.

With so many people retiring to Mountain Home as of late, I personally would be inclined to go slightly west, just to take advantage of a slightly lower population density!

 

[Bird]

If I remember right, Harrison is where Dogpatch USA was where we spent a week in June '75. And many years before that, my Dad bought some lake lots on Bull Shoals with the intention of someday retiring there, but instead, sold the lots after a few years. Now I've never owned a Porsche (or had any desire to own one ), but highway 7 was a nice drive even in a Winnebago towing an Opel Cadet.