The Dakotas or Montana.
Iowa.
Rural Idaho, most places will take your old California license and hand you a new Idaho license, the weather while cold in the winter is relatively mild during the summer, housing prices are still reasonable (except in border regions with Washington.)
Only problem is that medical care can be rather scattered and at rather high distances. If you are in an urban area of Idaho, things get a lot more weird.
We moved in June from Solano County to Arizona (Scottsdale), which meets all three of the stated criteria.
If you fear the hot summers of Phoenix consider: Prescott, Flagstaff and other areas all of which are 10-15 degrees cooler than Phoenix.
Vermont wins two out of three.
But their taxes can suck.
A good beer puts you in a pretty good state.
Except for the fact that you have to have a permit to carry concealed, Georgia is one of the best.
They have to give you the permit and it is inexpensive. The carry rules are also generous.
Pittsburgh is the only blight on an otherwise very American part of America and that is alleviated somewhat by the fact that the city of steel is now the city of colleges and hospitals with some of the top rated medical care in the country.
Driver's licenses here are fairly easy to obtain with a license from another state and some proof of address (such as a utility bill in your name). We have the second highest number of gun owners in America (to Texas) and summers which, while humid, do not get uncomfortably hot for more than a few days at a time.
My property tax on a $140K or so market value home is about $2200 annually, so not bad. Housing here is some of the most affordable in the country and a remarkably stable market.
The annual double digits up and down of a Florida or California are, even in the worst of times, mid single digits. The lower single digits are more common.
Another advantage for retirees is that we do not tax retirement income. Even though we are one of the poorer states in which to establish a business (thanks to a gaggle of idiot voters clustered around cities like Philadelpia, Scranton and Pittsburgh), we consistently rank in the top 10 of best places to retire. And, if you want to totally insulate yourself from the idiots in the aforementioned cities, you can find many of the same advantages in or near West Virginia border towns such as Wheeling and Morgantown.
You damned sure don’t want to come to the state of Connecticut. this is a land of high Taxes,Poverty and corruption.
We also have a lot of politicians who support amnesty for illegal aliens at the expense of there own fellow citizens.
The state of North Korea.
Where were you born?
Don’t even THINK of ANY Red England state.
Eastern Washington State. Mostly conservative, no state income tax, I’m paying $500 tax on a house and 8 acres. Plus, it’s beautiful.
Cali is demanding a BC to renew?
I am renewing and all they asked for is a written test and eyeball inspection.
Why do you rate being required to provide, again, that which you already orovided?
Bama.... and cost of living is still relative cheap. Have all terrain to choose from, beaches to mountains to flat lands.
” By the time I travel in the spring (April or thereabouts) the licence I had in the past will have expired.”
It sounds like you are in CA — if you still have a valid license, it is quite likely they will just send you a form where you can renew your license via mail, a couple of months prior to expiration of your previous license, you send in the form and the fee and they mail you the driver’s license.
“California has tightened up its requirements (unless you are an Illegal, apparently) and is now demanding a Birth Certificate and one more form of ID such as a valid SSN and proof of residence.” — this does not sound right at all — one would think you can just show your old driver’s license, but why let it expire and try to get a new one elsewhere, when it is always easier to just renew it.
I am sure you can find the website yourself, but I looked it up. It says you can apply for a renewal 60 days prior to its expiration:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/dl/dl_info.htm#renewbymail
Can’t you renew your license now instead of waiting?