Best Places for Retirement in US

[uop1497]

I would like to learn from everyone here how you find your dream city to retire .

Recently, I have thought about moving out of North California and find another city to call home . I have lived most of my life in Bay area ( North California) and have only visited other cities like Florida and Hawaii on vacation. Besides California, I have no ideal which city is best to retire.

Please share your inputs and Thank you

 

[WalnutBaron]

A big part of your consideration, of course, is the cost of living in retirement. Since you're living in Northern California, you likely have a home that is worth much more than what you'd be paying for in most other locales in the USA (with the notable exceptions of Hawaii and more expensive metro regions like New York City).

My DW and I have begun this process as well--and we also live in Northern California. We started with these two lists: 10 Best Cities To Retire and Best Places To Retire In The West. We have since begun visiting some of the places that most appealed to us on the lists. Here's what we're looking for:

1. Cost of living index
2. Housing price index
3. Proximity to a good airport so we can easily visit our grandchildren
4. Churches that fit our beliefs and worship style
5. State and Local tax rates
6. Access to good health care, including a top notch hospital
7. Access to cultural events, including theater arts, concerts, art shows, etc.
8. Access to collegiate and professional sports events
9. Crime statistics
10. Weather history

A great resource for doing the research on most of these criteria can be found here: Area Vibes

Good luck with your search! My advice is to take your time, visit at least 5-6 locations, and try to be as dispassionate in making your decision as you can. It's a decision that will literally affect the rest of your life.

 

[VacationForever]

Here are our criteria, not necessary in order:
- Safe city, low crime.
- Good infrastructure - low to no traffic congestion, good medical systems, good and high number of restaurants, activities / entertainment in the area.
- Diversity and demographics - race, food etc.
- Higher income and education level of population in the metropolitan area - direct correlation to lower crime rate
- Weather - no hurricanes or tornadoes and low incidence of earthquakes. Summer/winter/humidity - what one can tolerate.
- Cost of living, related to state income tax, sales tax and property tax
- Age of homes. Newer cities have newer homes which means lower cost of ongoing maintenance

 

[Passepartout]

Here's a Forbes list of 25 places to retire: http://www3.forbes.com/investing/25-best-places-to-retire-in-2016/ For us, we simply stayed where we spent most of our adult lives. The adult kids left- one to N. California and the other to Seattle-land and we won't live in either of those places. So we stayed where our interests- friends, social circle, good and familiar medical care, low taxes, local college, community amenities (theater, symphony, galleries) clean air & water, virtually no traffic congestion, four season climate with no extremes, no regional disaster stuff (hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes), scenic beauty (think New Zealand without an ocean). Low housing costs- we have LOTS of transplanted Californians who chose to live here instead of there. Drawbacks- it's one more flight to a 'gateway' airport if you want to travel. Lowest in the nation in per-capita doctor numbers. Reddest of the red politically. No nationally known sports teams to follow. No 'big name' entertainers are EVER going to appear locally, so you have to do it yourself with other community members.

It will be fun to see other TUGgers' choices.

Jim

 

[Phydeaux]

This is analogous to asking someone, what is the best color? Or, what is the best smell?

Sure, you can read all of the "experts" reviews of "Best Places To Retire", however, if that region does not appeal to you, should that change your mind? This is a personal choice, and as such, should be made by the individual. Not suggesting to ignore the "experts", just take that stuff with a couple grains of salt. IMO.

Personally, we made our retirement region selection ourselves, based on what we felt in our hearts, and our own research.

 

[WinniWoman]

I would like to learn from everyone here how you find your dream city to retire .

Recently, I have thought about moving out of North California and find another city to call home . I have lived most of my life in Bay area ( North California) and have only visited other cities like Florida and Hawaii on vacation. Besides California, I have no ideal which city is best to retire.

Please share your inputs and Thank you

Mine is on one of the Champlain Islands in Vermont or in St Albans or Charlotte or Shelburne. But because Vermont taxes Social Security, it won't be there. It will have to be somewhere in New Hampshire, preferably somewhere in the Lakes Region. No income or sales or estate taxes and our son lives there. There are a lot of Libertarians moving in which suits us just fine compared with New Yorks' political orientation.

We have no other connections there other than our timeshare, but we have no friends or family where we live now anyway (though some are within driving distance of 1-3 hours). We live in a rural area and in seclusion and that won't be good for aging, so we need to at least be in some kind of community setting within a rural or country environment.

Need an available sportsmens' club for hubby and I need to have access to some cultural events, like near an art center or college. We need mountains and lakes. Need easy access to medical care and shopping also.

Housing costs will be our biggest roadblock I think, but we hope to find something IF our NY home sells. What we get for our house NET is what we can afford for a new place and that doesn't buy much in NH compared to what we already have, so it is going to be hard.

 

[clifffaith]

Cliff went through this exercise about 12 years ago. He found he disagreed with many of the charts/books because they gave much less weight to weather than we would. So he would take the information, stuff it into his computer, and play with the weighting factors. It is hard to want to go anywhere that it would snow when you live in coastal Southern California. That being said, now that we are looking at continuing care retirement communities, Santa Fe is in the mix.

 

[easyrider]

We like where we live. Its kind of like the John Cougar Meloncamp song small towns, " born in a small town, this is probably where they will bury me."

Our town isn't that small anymore but it kind of was 60 years ago. We love it here. Our family is here. Our friends that we grew up with are here. The only thing I have a problem with now days is the winters. These cold winters are why we have so many timeshares.

Bill

 

[geekette]

I'm staying put, but offer this for consideration, the Kiplinger's Retiree Tax Map, best of its kind I have found:

http://www.kiplinger.com/tool/retir...by-state-guide-to-taxes-on-retirees/index.php

It is helpful to have it all in one place so you can assess taxation of everything necessary to your life!

 

[Luanne]

We retired to Santa Fe, NM and have been very happy here. We've been here almost 5 years. We moved from the San Francisco Bay area. We considered quite a few places before decided on Santa Fe, and once we had kind of decided on Santa Fe we made several trips here. Our plan was to sell our house in California, rent here for awhile before buying. That didn't happen. We found a house we loved on one of our visits, bought, then sold the house in California and moved.

There are pluses and minuses to living here. It is a city that really caters to retirees in the amount of things there are to do and ways to get involved. Health care, to me, is somewhat of a minus, but it could just be that I really miss my doctors and the healthcare in California. We've found cost of living, housing, etc. to be less than in California.

 

[Elan]

WRT weather, I've used this site to research potential retirement locations:

http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/state.php3?c=US

 

[mjm1]

I would like to learn from everyone here how you find your dream city to retire .

Recently, I have thought about moving out of North California and find another city to call home . I have lived most of my life in Bay area ( North California) and have only visited other cities like Florida and Hawaii on vacation. Besides California, I have no ideal which city is best to retire.

Please share your inputs and Thank you

We lived in the Bay Area most of our lives and decided to retire in Las Vegas. We have been hear for just over 2 years and have enjoyed it.

The cost of living, especially housing, is significantly lower than the Bay Area. The only thing we have found more expensive is car insurance and flights to Hawaii. And we don't have any individual income taxes!

There is a lot to do here even if you don't gamble, which we tend to stay away from. Plenty of shows, hiking, golf and other "normal" activities that one would find elsewhere. You can drive to San Diego or LA in 4.5- 5 hours or to the Bay Area in about 9 hours. Of course, flights there are short.

The months of July and August are hot, but we have actually gotten used to it, other than when the humidity rises in August to 25-30%. It's normally in single digits, which makes a big difference.

Certainly worth considering.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[Patri]

How many people really move at retirement? It would be interesting to see the statistics. If one's children were scattered, I could see it more than if they lived nearby.
I would also understand snowbird homes, but I cannot visualize moving to a new location permanently (unless I really hated where I lived). I do like my family, friends and the community where I am now.

 

[Luanne]

How many people really move at retirement? It would be interesting to see the statistics. If one's children were scattered, I could see it more than if they lived nearby.
I would also understand snowbird homes, but I cannot visualize moving to a new location permanently (unless I really hated where I lived). I do like my family, friends and the community where I am now.

We always knew we would move when we retired. Although we liked the area of northern California where we lived, and loved it for raising kids, there was nothing keeping us there. We knew we would be downsizing and we probably would have spent as much on a smaller home as we would get out of our large house. We also didn't like how crowded our area was getting. I honestly don't know what I'd be doing with myself if we had stayed were we lived in California.

 

[klpca]

We love where we live, love our house, love our friends, and have family here. That said, two of our three kids are hinting about moving to the Reno or Truckee area. It would make sense for them and I wouldn't be surprised to see them make the move. If they move, then we will at least live part time up there (thinking Incline Village - but not in the winter!). My elderly mom lives near us, and we have a kid who can't move due to work but wants to be near the rest of the family, so that complicates things a bit. We're still a few years off - so I will be interested to see how other Tuggers have handled things.

Btw - for those of you who have moved and left your family home - any regrets? That is one of the biggest stumbling blocks for me. We have lived in our home for 30+ years. Lots and lots of memories!

 

[Luanne]

When we talked about moving we were upfront with our kids. Our older dd told us that we needed to do what we needed to do and she completely understood us wanting to move. She opted to stay in California and got married about a year after we moved. She is still in California. Our younger dd is completing a Master's program in Vancouver, BC. Who knows where she will end up after that. Neither dh or I had any family left in California. My sister, and mom, are now in Missouri, and dh's family is in the D.C. area, except for his oldest sister who is in Santa Fe. But we didn't move here to be close to that sister, we had already decided to move here before they moved.

 

[elaine]

Coastal NC. DH loves it for golf, water sports, marina. We live in a very transient area (DC burbs). We have some family here and like it fine, but don't have the life-long friends that my parents and even I still have from the smaller town where I grew up. Most everyone stays here only for 2-4 years. We are going to maintain a house in the DC area until kids are out of college and we see where they are ending up. Likely at least 1-2 of the 4 will be in DC area due to jobs.
Originally, we were going to sell the house when youngest hit college, but revamped that plan, as we realized kids would not be happy in NC retirement community as 20 yr olds.

 

[vacationhopeful]

As a single person with no kids .. grew up where I currently live but went to college near Daytona Beach, FL (in a town call "De(ad)land" by us college kids). My 4 siblings live as far as Los Angles but my closest sibling lives 2.5 hour drive south of my current home.

I have NO INTEREST in moving year round to FL; no interest in the area of my vacation home; am self-employed...which I can do for years more or sell off today for a poor investment return. I will most like keep working and sell off my work assets for the next 10+ years... but with the goal to move the cash into income generating instruments.... yielding secured income at a 4-6% ROI for 15-20 years. (ha, ha ... can't make no political comment because this is TUG).

But when my age gets into my mid 70s ... I hope to not be working. BUT I really hope to have good health with a functional mind.

I will NOT be collecting SS til I maximize my payout. But that depends on my health.

 

[Icc5]

I would like to learn from everyone here how you find your dream city to retire .

Recently, I have thought about moving out of North California and find another city to call home . I have lived most of my life in Bay area ( North California) and have only visited other cities like Florida and Hawaii on vacation. Besides California, I have no ideal which city is best to retire.

Please share your inputs and Thank you

I don't know where in Nor Cal you live but I feel my home in Cupertino is our best place to retire. Luckily we planned well and paid off our house, have the best weather of anywhere we've ever visited, nice creek running just on the other side of our backyard and some family still here. The rest of the family can always visit and I can go to their homes when I want a different view.

 

[lizap]

We'be been searching for the 'perfect' place for at least the last 10 years. I'm not sure it exists. We like where we live, but we have always known we would leave when we retire. Love the Denver/Boulder area and Northwest, but property is too expensive there. Don't care for the East-too congested. Midwest too flat. Florida, Texas, Georgia, SC, and other parts of the deep South out of the question because of hurricanes and heat/humidity. We have been visiting North Carolina (Hendersonville/Asheville) for at least a couple of decades. It's the only place we keep coming back to. Mild 4-season climate, beautiful terrain/scenery, cultural activities, open-minded people (generally), etc...

 

[Luanne]

I should have added that climate was another thing we looked at. I was born and raised in California and I just do NOT do humidity. I'm finding that as I get older it bothers me even more. We had considered Hawaii for awhile, but gave that up when we realized that living on the island would be too limiting. We still love to visit, but there isn't enough of what we like to do to keep us busy year round.

We moved to a [very] dry climate, which I love. We do get snow here, but for those who live where they really get winter, this is nothing.

 

[ronparise]

I have no ideal which city is best to retire.

I really dont like the use of the word "best" as it implies that there is just one. The fact is there is no best place to retire.. lots of good places, and some better than others..

 

[Passepartout]

I really dont like the use of the word "best" as it implies that there is just one. The fact is there is no best place to retire.. lots of good places, and some better than others..

That's true. Perhaps the best (there's that word again) way to narrow it down would be to make a list try to prioritize what your ideal place would be. you might want (need) top shelf medical care. It might matter if you want to attend baseball or football games and have a stadium in your city. Maybe you want a major airport close by. Perhaps low taxes (or no taxes on investment income) interests you. If you like to use public transport check for cities with a good system. Then there's climate, scenery, shopping in favorite stores, access to your choice of house of worship. Maybe you want to take classes at a university (they're often free for seniors). How about arts and entertainment? Crime? We all want to live someplace safe and as we age this becomes more important. Housing costs will also enter into the planning. Do family members live in the area?

After making the list, start prioritizing by putting numbers on your list entries. Then re-do the list with your top priorities at the top with less important considerations further down the list. Then add the priority numbers to that list. Keep doing that until you know in your mind, what are the must-haves, the want-to-haves, and the could-do-withouts.

Keep in mind a that as Ron said above, there is no 'best' place, but you can sure find a place or two that you would want to consider. Go there. Rent for a month or two to check it out.

Good Luck!

Jim

 

[lizap]

I really dont like the use of the word "best" as it implies that there is just one. The fact is there is no best place to retire.. lots of good places, and some better than others..

I agree with this. What's good/best for one may not be for another.

 

[easyrider]

I really dont like the use of the word "best" as it implies that there is just one. The fact is there is no best place to retire.. lots of good places, and some better than others..

There is for me.

Bill