Real Estate Corner Choosing community as important as choosing a home

By Eileen Alexander

A friend who spent her entire professional life living and working in Los Angeles wanted to retire to a small city with lots of cultural amenities and good health-care services. She began her search on the internet and talked with friends around the country to narrow down the communities she was interested in. She then took a field trip, visiting five communities across the United States and forming an impression of each. She finally settled on a small city in western North Carolina, which is where I met her.