Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
July 24, 2012 -- Who wouldn't be interested in finding a terrific place to retire where there is plenty to do, the climate is better than average, and most importantly - the cost of living is well below average. The list below highlights 20 interesting places to retire with a range of lifestyles - from living in the city... to small towns... to resort type locations on large lakes. The most interesting feature is that for all 20, the median price of a home was $125,000 or less in early 2012, significantly below the U.S. median. Note that prices have gone up since this article was written, sometimes a lot, but these towns still remain relative bargains.
How we developed the list
Affordability was the most important criterion on this list. So we picked places where home prices were at least 20% below the U.S. median of $158,100 (1st Quarter of 2012, National Association of Realtors). Secondarily, we limited
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Published on July 24, 2012
Comments 144
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
July 17, 2012 -- To the many for whom Florida is one big stereotype, the prettiest town in Florida might seem like an oxymoron. Perhaps more than any other state, Florida has its fair share of people with a low opinion of it. To its detractors, it is a place full of big bugs, dangerous snakes, high humidity, old people, flat terrain, and suburban sprawl. Not to say that all of those can't be found in great abundance in the Sunshine State. But as this article about Mount Dora hopes to point out, it isn't all the same.
Rolling into town
It didn't hurt that we rolled into Mount Dora, Florida last winter very early on a Sunday morning. The sun was shining as we hit the central square and charming shopping district. Bicyclists in their multi-colored outfits were streaming by in small packs. Pet owners were taking their pooches
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Published on July 17, 2012
Comments 24
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
June 26, 2012 - This is the latest in our Retirement 101 series, which joins earlier reports about retirement in the Southwest, Florida, and the Carolinas (see bottom of article for links). At the end of this article we will provide lists of the 10 most popular California retirement towns and the 10 most popular California Active Adult Communities.
If California is anything it is big and diverse. It has fans and legions of detractors. In our experience California has not had that much success in attracting retirees as new residents. Those who retire here from elsewhere either have family in the state, or they move to a town or area they know about. For those who have spent their working lives in the Golden State, most will continue to live in the state, but perhaps will move to a smaller home or a less expensive or congested area. There are many who say they want to leave as soon as they retire, hoping to escape California's high taxes, cost of living, and crazy traffic. But for people who have
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Published on June 26, 2012
Comments 17
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Note: This list was updated in April, 2014. Here is the link to our "Best States for Retirement - 2014".
June 5, 2012 -- When it comes to the best states for retirement the southern states dominate our new 2012 list. Every one of the top 10 states was from the southern part of the U.S., from Tennessee at number 1 (the northernmost state to make the list) to Nevada, the westernmost state. This year we've tried to make our selection process more objective. This list of the 10 best states for retirement uses a numerical scale with up to 1 point awarded on each of 7 factors related to economic issues, climate, and health care costs.
As always, we want to caution
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Published on June 5, 2012
Comments 69
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
-- This article was updated in February, 2020 --
May 22, 2012 -- This article will provide a retirement guide and review of 4 southwestern states that are very popular for retirement: Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. At the end we list all of the various region and state comparisons we have developed in the past.
A Few Facts
In contrast to states in the Northeast and Midwest, all of these states are growing fast. Arizona is by far the most popular of these states for retirement. It is also the most populous with an estimated 2018 population of 7,171,646. Utah was
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Published on May 22, 2012
Comments 228
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Note: This is Part 2 of a 2 part article on Florida and its many different regions for retirement. Part 1 was "Florida Retirement 101: FL is Bigger and More Diverse Than You Might Have Thought".
May 1, 2012 --- In Part 1 we laid out the basic facts about the Sunshine State as well as descriptions of 8 different regions of Florida (our definitions):
- Panhandle
- Northeast Atlantic
- Mid-Atlantic - The Space Coast
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Published on May 1, 2012
Comments 168
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 17, 2012 -- There are people that "hate" Florida, and there are those that "love" it. Surprisingly, the people who don't have a strong opinion seem to be a smaller group. In Part 2 of this article we'll get into which region might appeal to different folks better than others, but here in Part 1 we would like to provide a "Florida Retirement 101" crash course. Our objective is to help you understand this very large and popular state, which is diverse in more ways than you might think. You still might not like the idea of Florida, but at least you will know more about it.
First, a few facts
The 2010 household population was 18,800,000, the 4th most
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Published on April 17, 2012
Comments 73
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
March 27, 2012 -- Last month we asked our members to briefly share with us where they are thinking about retiring, and why. The results are in, and they are fascinating - the diversity and common sense approaches to decision making are guaranteed to get you thinking. We are grateful to the more than 220 people who took the time to tell us about their retirement destination plans. One side benefit was finding about several active adult communities not on our radar. We especially enjoyed hearing from the folks who haven't yet decided on a place, but nevertheless let us in on their their often conflicted thought process. And to those of you who didn't respond - you owe your fellow members a big favor! The thoughtful input they so graciously provided is going to be very useful to you (see below). You can see the actual responses in the Comments section of "Tell Us Where You Are Going to Retire - and Why".
Where you are retiring - your best places to retire
There was a pretty clear pattern to where our members have decided, or are leaning towards, retiring. A handful of states got most of the votes, although
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Published on March 27, 2012
Comments 30
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
March 7, 2012 -- One of the most persistent questions we get at Topretirements concerns how to get started looking for a place to retire. This is hardly surprising; the world is a very big place, and when you first start out looking at retirement locations the choices can seem overwhelming. Sometimes the questions we get are quite broad, e.g.: "I am about to retire. Can you tell give me some ideas on good places", while others are amazingly specific, e.g.: "Can someone help me find a listing of Manufactured Home communities on the Gulf of Mexico side where you own the mobile as well as the land?" This article will give you a basic course on
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Published on March 7, 2012
Comments 11
Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
February 28, 2012 -- Last week we announced the list of the 100 Most Popular Retirement Towns, our annual list of the places that our visitors and members seem the most intrigued with. This week we decided to take that idea a little further by analyzing that list against 12 important retirement criteria. The result is a top 10 that looks very different, with 4 towns from the top 20 moving up to the top 10. Here are your editor's selections for the "10 Best Places to Retire" - (the # in ( ) was its ranking on the popularity list).
The 10 Best Places to Retire - Topretirements Editor Picks
1. Sarasota, Florida (#2). Our top pick on Florida's Gulf Coast has so many things going for it. The economics are very
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Published on February 28, 2012
Comments 56
