IN THIS ARTICLE
To Move or Not to Move?
If you are nearing retirement, you’ve probably been considering what the best place for you to retire would be. For some people, that means staying in their current community and aging in place. For others, retirement may mean moving across the state or across the country even.
Of course, there is no one size fits all answer to what the best place to retire is. That doesn’t stop publications from bandying this question about though and publishing their own individual best places to retire lists annually.
Among the most popular of these lists are those put out by: US News & World Report, Forbes Magazine and money guru, Dave Ramsey.
Criteria for Determining Best Places to Retire
While the publications’ big reveal of top cities to retire is interesting, what can be equally enlightening is looking at the criteria they use to come up with their lists.
To make the cut, cities have to score high on measures of economic health and overall quality of life. Each publication measures this slightly differently. Below are some of the factors used to determine how economically healthy an area is and the overall quality of life.
Economic desirability of a city
- How affordable is the housing?
- What is the tax rate?
- What is the unemployment rate? (This can be especially important for retirees seeking to work in retirement)
Overall quality of life of a city
- What is the crime rate?
- Is the area walkable?
- Is there good access to health care?
Top-rated Cities for Retirement
Interestingly (and perhaps not surprisingly), there is not consensus when it comes to the best cities to retire. In fact, only one city made all three recent best cities to retire lists of US News & World Report, Forbes Magazine and Dave Ramsey.
That city is… Sarasota, Florida. The features of Sarasota highlighted are: its beaches, reasonable housing costs, and high scores for sense of well-being measured for its residents. Plus, Florida has no state income tax. This is a bonus for those interested in working (at least part time) in retirement.
Other cities that appeared in two of the three lists are: Ft. Meyers and Jacksonville in Florida, San Antonio and Dallas/Ft. Worth in Texas and Lancaster and Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania. Additionally, Nashville, Tennessee and Grand Rapids, Michigan were also on two of the three lists.
Even if you aren’t interested in moving to any of the places given top billing by the publications, considering some of the criteria the publications used may be helpful when conducting your own search for your best city to retire.
Of course, you can take into account all the best of lists and agreed upon key criteria, but in the end this is just one part of the equation. It doesn’t take into account the intangibles like… whether your best friend from college lives 10 miles away or whether you get seasonal affective disorder and need to live in a city that gets year-round sun.
So yes, read all the best of lists, consider all the critical criteria determined by the “experts,” but make sure they square with your own individual needs and wants so you can find the best city to retire for YOU.
