Figured I’d post this here since the move would also be decided around race tracks in the states of interest.

More discussion with the wife tonight about moving. 3 of 4 kids graduated college and on their own doing very well. Our youngest (daughter) just graduated high school and is on her way to college next month. 1 in GA, 1 in NC, and 2 in AZ. We have been talking about this for the past few years and inside of the next 20 months it can happen. Will most likely keep our home here. We are seriously considering Minnesota, S. Dakota, S. Carolina, N. Carolina, Pennsylvania and (never thought it would be on the list) back to my roots in Ohio area. Looking for nice areas, some acres and definitely around race tracks. Prefer to be 45-min to 1-hour outside of any major city area. Top-2 are Minnesota and S. Carolina.

Wes, I met a racer in Florida that raved about Norwalk Speedway in Ohio, and Summit motorsports park is real close. Plus you would be centralized somewhat. Minnesota has BIR, in the middle of the state. If you locate close to the south east corner of Minnesota, you are not far from a number of tracks. Rockfalls raceway in Wisconsin, Cedarfalls in Iowa, Tri State, Iowa, Eddyville is in South East Iowa, Humboldt, Iowa. The area in southeast Minnesota is very beautiful rolling hills of the Mississippi River Valley. And Mayo Clinic is in Rochester. If you locate in Southern Minnesota, I am at most 130 miles away.

If being able to race is a serious consideration, I would remove Minnesota from the discussion right away. Simple reason the season is going to be very short.
As mentioned before, pretty hard to beat Ohio, lots of tracks, longer season than Minnesota by far.
Lot of tracks in the Carolina’s, Kentucky is nice with a few nice tracks.
I guess for length of time you can race, better weather, etc, Carolina’s will be hard to beat. Lots of tracks, long race season, lots of places to live with elbow room.

I drove thru Medina Ohio a couple times. Seems like a nice area. Close to 4 tracks. Ohio/PA is still a depressed area so it's cheaper to live here. But... Weather is still an issue. Winter seems like it's 6 months long, doesn't want to give up. Rainy and muggy when it does warm up. Given a choice I would move where the weather is more stable and pleasant even if I had to travel to race.

Ohio from Columbus going south and east has a beautiful landscape. Plenty of tracks. I'm from Minnesota. Also great landscape. Very few tracks. Rock Falls in Wisconsin is close to St Paul. Further down south gets to hot for me.
Doug

The new owner of Roxkfalls has put money into the track. Worth looking into as one place to race. Elevation 810, track faces east.

If/when we make the SoDak jump (bought 3 acre lot 3 years ago) I’ll be 25 min from an 1/8th mile track, but it isn’t anything fancy for sure (lots of gravel pit areas). Anything beyond that is 4-6 hrs away. We were contemplating on keeping our AZ home too, but with build costs we’ll be selling it. 27 years in the sun we’re excited for a change and with other outdoor interests it’ll be a good fit for us. We can leave our property on the RZR (street legal just like AZ) and hit 1000’s of miles of trails.

I'm in SC and about 30 minutes from the NC line. There are a lot of tracks here and many of them run year round.

If racetracks are a goal hard to beat Ohio,. They have more than any other state. Depending on where you go you can have 10-12 within three or so hours of you. Where we lived closer to the Indiana border about an hour north of Dayton I had a ton of choices in that radius. Hard to beat the lifestyle we had there. Cheap housing and we chose to life very rurual but had three acres and change with a large pond. The house and land here would easily be 3-4 million dollars. There it cost us about what our oldest paid for her 2200 sq ft in a crowded subdivision with no yard.

We came back to Vegas to take care of her parents. primarily her father. Just fell on us as she is the only daughter and the medical person in the family. Her dad passed away a year ago and we have been pondering possibly leaving again, for good. Her mom is in great health and her family lives well into their 100's, thats 20 years for her. We are torn because of that and two of our kids and four of the grandkinds are here. But this place has slowly become SoCal east in the last dozen years we have been here. Its not a chea place to love for sure, we can afford it just is expensive. The tracks all closing around here in the west does not help matters. So we have been contemplating going back to the same area of Ohio again. My wife still works but her services are needed everywhere so thats not an issue. In fact pay is better where we were in Ohio because its so rural. BUt we loved it and so did the dobbies.

like everyone said Ohio is hard to beat. National Trail in Columbus, Norwalk, Edgewater in Cincinnati, Kil-Kare near Dayton, Muncie Indiana, and Bunker Hill, Marion Dragway is in Ohio

Southern Pennsylvania is nice.

Plenty of tracks within a 4 hour drive. Lots of Mopars and race cars. Not many earthquakes, tornadoes, creepy stuff that can kill you. Relatively mild winters and summers.

Still fairly conservative away from the cities, although the people coming in from NY, NJ and MD are messing that up.

Well, I moved to North Carolina in 2017 (after retiring from work in Maryland). I am very happy with my decision.
1) Relatively affordable housing and cost of living. Property tax good, insurance costs good.
2) State Income tax planned reductions to 3.99% in 2027.
now 4.75% in 2023
was 4.99% in 2022 My state income tax was $65 this year, Withheld $1,000-$65=$935 refund. Since my pension is not taxed and I had low capital gains on my savings.
was 5.25% in 2021
was 5.25% in 2020
was 5.25% in 2019
was 5.499% in 2018
3) Plenty of 1/8 mile drag strips (except near the ocean, Wilmington). So Raliegh, Greeensboro, HighPoint, or outside Charlotte.
4) I like the lack of snow in winter. Yes, it might snow a couple days but then it melts.
5) Great highway system ! Lots of big multilane highways and mostly few cars = lack of crazy traffic. Few exceptions near city limits (Raliegh, Charlotte, etc).

I live 5 miles outside the Greensboro city limits and it feels more country, so you can affordably buy 2-20 acres and still be close to major stores, plumbing, metal supply, fabrication, etc.

Central Ohio property values have gone up quite a bit in the past couple of years with Intel and others incoming.

Ohio has some hidden taxes, property, local income, state income that can add up.

There are some smaller rural townships that still dont charge local income tax.

The winters have pretty mild for the past few years so we are due for doozy in the coming years.

Yes one big downfall is the taxes in Ohio. Especially coming from an income tax free state as we do. They are still trying to get us for income not earned in Ohio while we lived in Nevada. The 1% you to death One for the town you live in, one for the town you work in, one for the school district you are in.

I would never tell anyone to move to Pa. But I’ve lived here for 67 years and will never move out of this state. I’m. 35 miles from pittsburgh and average one trip there every two years. 40 mile trip to keystone, 90 miles to Quaker city, 150 miles to Dragway 42, 200 miles to Norwalk, 200 miles to Columbus, and 286 mile to maple grove.

I actually found Ohio to be a welcome tax break from when I lived in NY and CT. The trick is to live and work in townships. Because I have always been in townships while in Ohio, I only pay state income tax and no local taxes.

I've lived in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit, and have spent time all across the USA. I have a ton of friends in the Pittsburgh area, if it wasn't for my job I'd move there in a heartbeat. PA has drawbacks, but it's really awesome from a geographic perspective, and I like it better than Ohio but still is close enough to all of the available racetracks.

Honestly Detroit is hard to beat from a car culture standpoint too. Minnesota is cool but the winters being significantly worse than Detroit or PA would deter me from moving there.

Michigan isn’t bad for tracks either.

US131, Mid Michigan motorplex, Milan, Lapeer, Onandaga, Northern MI. Dragway, Ubly, are all with 4 hours of me, all but a couple way closer than that, and most are 1/4 tracks. Some of the Indiana and Ohio track are within 3 hours tops also.
That said, Mi isn’t much better weather wise than Minnesota

As for Ohio I enjoy where I live. Stark County has many nice townships. If you want land there's plenty 30 minutes south. I have 8 tracks within 2.5 hrs of me. The nicest would be Norwalk and Dragway 42

I will say I'd that Stark County is as far north as I'd go. The closer ro lake Erie the worst the weather.

well Central North Carolina is where I picked. I can be in Winston, Charlotte, or Greensboro in 45 minutes. Plenty of tracks around and also plenty of car building talent hiding around every bush. Taxes are not horrible and if you get away from the towns your dollars will buy you some elbow room. Hurry up though as they are building FAST around here. Todd