Would finances motivate you to consider moving to a different region of your country for retirement?

I've mentioned our high cost of living in my area of the US before. My husband is approaching retirement in a couple of years. Lately we've discussed the possibility of moving to a part of the US with a lower cost of living for retirement, so our funds will last longer and go farther. 

Our house has appreciated quite a bit in the last 29 years here. We could sell our house and have a nice sum leftover to enhance our retirement and be more generous in our giving. But here's the catch, we would likely be leaving some or all of our kids in our current area due to their choice. 

So, less expensive housing, same size house and land, lower property taxes 

vs 

staying here where we're comfortable and have all of our kids nearby.

I know we're fortunate to have all of our kids right here. That's just not the case for many retirees. But I also think it would be nice to worry less about the cost of every last thing.

This is a big question to think about over a long period of time. So I'm asking if you ever considered moving away from family, friends, church, community for your retirement years? What were your considerations?

My Dollar Tree Autumn Decor Haul

A week ago Saturday we slid right into November in my area. We had 8 days of rain, dark clouds, and cool weather, 1 day of sunshine (yesterday), and now, today, the November-like rain and dark clouds have returned. All last week I kept thinking about fall. 

I had previously mentioned plans to go to Dollar Tree to check out their autumn decor. I did go, but to the  one that was convenient at the time. That one is always later to get stuff put out or doesn't get the selection that the other location near me. But it was convenient for my errands that day.

So on Friday I went to the Dollar Tree which my daughter had mentioned had a good display of fall decor pieces. Here's what I bought:

4 small artificial pumpkins, 2 faux wheat-like sprays, 1 autumn leaf spray, and 1 russet mum spray. The cost was $10 plus tax. (Dollar Tree is now $1.25-Tree.) I used a gift card given to me by my daughters a year ago for my birthday, which covered all but a little over $1 of my purchase.

These are for the wall troughs by our front door. being in complete shade up against the house on the north side, I'm going with artificial botanicals and pumpkins.

For as early in the season as I went, the fall decor pieces were beginning to look a bit picked over. I bought what they had in stock at the time. I would like to check out a 3rd Dollar Tree for more of the mums and leaves. With the 1st of September right around the corner, I'll be putting these together very soon and will show you how they turned out at that time.