Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
August 3, 2025 -- People give a lot of thought to where they are going to retire. Some of the factors they usually consider are climate (e.g.; warm winters), cost of living, tax burden, leisure activities, proximity to friends and family, crime rates, transportation, and quality and availability of health care. But as anyone following the news knows, there is a new factor that a thoughtful retiree should consider - losing your home (or your life!) from an environmental or climate disaster.
There is hardly enough room to list all of the environmental disasters we have seen in the U.S. in the past few years. There were 26 disasters in the U.S. last year that caused more than $1 billion in damages for a total of $113 biliion. Many occured in some of the most popular retirement spots in America, places where no one ever dreamed these things would happen. Those include floods in Asheville and the Texas Hill country, hurricanes in Florida, tornados in many parts of the U.S., wildfires in California, volcanoes in Hawaii, drought in the West. It seems like we are seeing one hundred year storms every few years, and the problems keep getting more severe.
So what can you do to find a safe retirement spot?
The New York Times put out a comprehensive section on this topic on July 13: "Where to Call Home". It doesn't appear to be available online, but you can find it in a library. It provides interesting guidance to help with what will be one of the most important financial decisions in your life, where to live when you retire. By doing your homework, you can do a lot to mitigate the risks of an environmental calamity ruining your finances, and causing untold disruptions to your life.
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Published on August 2, 2025
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Category: Active adult communities
May 7, 2025 -- The 55+ housing market in Florida is slowing down, according to a new analysis by 55places.com. One indication is the growing Months of Inventory (MOI) measure, and another is a decrease in prices. Both of these figures are evidence that the Florida market is definitely cooling. Seven of Florida's market areas, almost the entire state with the possible exception of the Panhandle, are seeing big year over year increases in inventories, a sign that sellers outnumber buyers in those markets. Southeast Florida was the hardest hit area in the country, which now has a 14 month inventory. That's a 7 month increase in the MOI index over 2024 levels. Prices in that market are declining dramatically as well; home price sare off 11% vs. the previous year.
Hardest Hit 55+ Markets
Florida remains the most impacted state, with significant inventory growth in Southeast Florida (MOI: 14 months) and the Ft. Myers-Naples (MOI: 10.2 months) region. The Central Atlantic Coast area (Stuart) also saw big increases in inventory(MOI 9.4), up 4.1 months vs. 2025
Knoxville, TN, has also seen a notable increase, doubling its active listings over the past year.
Price Declines Create Buyer Opportunities: Markets like Austin (-16.3%) and Denver (-14%) have seen the steepest price drops in the 55+ market, making them more affordable options for retirees.
Florida’s Market Shows Mixed Trends: While some regions like Southeast Florida saw both an inventory surplus and price declines (-11.2%), prices in other parts of the state, such as Tampa and Central Florida, remained relatively stable.
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Published on May 7, 2025
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Category: Active adult communities
March 10, 2025 — The 2021 Surfside Towers collapse near Miami killed 98 people and injured many more. The Florida legislature’s response was swift and strict. Now, as those laws go into effect, backlash from the hardships they created is leading to efforts to soften the regs.
Already burdened by exploding insurance premiums, condo owners now also face huge assessments to catch up on their new reserve requirements. Added to those woes, newly required building inspections have discovered costly building repairs that need to be made. All of these combined factors have led to special assessments and/or significant dues increases. The result is a spate of homeowners who are unable to pay. Many have no choice but sell and and then find a new, more affordable place to spend the remainder of their retirement years.
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Published on March 9, 2025
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
March 1, 2025 — It looks like the messages of doom for Florida real estate might actually be starting to come, according to the real estate firm Redfin. The number of homes for sale in Florida hit 172,209 at the end of January (up 22.7%). This is the highest number…
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Published on February 28, 2025
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Category: Real Estate Listings
what the NAR real estate settlement means
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Published on April 8, 2024
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Category: Retirement Real Estate
February 8, 2023 -- Florida might not appeal to everyone, but it sure does attract more retirees than just about anywhere else in the USA. Its huge coastline, countless lakes, lack of a state income tax, and warm winter climate are magnets for overtaxed retirees with a hankering to get away for the winter (or all year round).
The cheapest and most expensive towns in Florida
For purposes of this article we used data from the National Association of Realtors®, which reports on 19 Florida markets. To generalize about Florida, the further one goes south, and the closer to the coast, the more expensive it gets. Naples and Miami hold an overwhelming lead when it comes to costly places for retirement real estate.
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Published on February 7, 2024
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Category: Real Estate Listings
October 11, 2023 -- The key to getting your dream home for retirement is to find the right real estate agent. Maybe you know where you would like to retire (region, state, or even town) and the lifestyle you want to pursue. But how do you find the right real estate agent to help you reach that dream? A place to retire that comes at the right price, and one you can afford. In a neighborhood that suits you, and that will be a good investment down the road. And most importantly, a home that makes you happy, not having to worry that you might have made a mistake.
One of the best ways to find your retirement dream is to make sure you know how to find the right real estate agent. That is not always that easy, particularly when you move to an area far away, and unfamiliar to you. In that situation, any contacts you already have are probably of no use.
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Published on October 10, 2023
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Category: Active adult communities
July 18, 2023 — As with everything in life, some companies are better at what they do than others. Tesla makes great electric cars, Titleist is terrific in golf, Gucci’s shoes are amazing, etc. But when it comes to the best 55+ communities, which company does the best job? Since…
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Published on July 18, 2023
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Category: Downsizing
December 11, 2022 -- One of the best pieces of advice we have heard is to think about downsizing in retirement. Finding a smaller, lower maintenance place to retire can unlock equity in your home so you can maintain a great lifestyle with less income. It can also simplify your life. Less maintenance and yard work, smaller utility bills, lower property taxes, and more time to enjoy retirement, are just some of the benefits. But downsizing is not always quite as easy as it seems. Here we outline some of the costs and headaches that many people do not consider when they start the downsizing process.
Costs to fix up your home for sale. Either you or the buyer might decide to make costly improvements before the sale, such as radon mitigation, roofing, HVAC, structural, etc. These expenses can cost a lot more than you imagined when you put the home on the market.
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Published on December 10, 2022
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Category: Active adult communities
Update June, 2023 - In another development, Governor DeSantis recently signed the much anticipated Surfside Glitch Bill, SB 154, into law. The bill relieves some of the ambiguity in SB 154. It also provided relief for some provisions of the law such as allowing a Milestone Inspection to be provided by a team of professionals with an architect or an engineer acting as a registered design professional in charge of the report (the supply of inspectors was an issue). Other clarifications had to do with reserve requirements. In one provision, reserves are not needed for replacement costs for items for which the estimated remaining useful life exceeds 25 years (but reserves are still required for deferred maintenance for those items).
November 13, 2022 -- Hurricanes Ian and Nicole were bad enough, destroying thousands of homes, changing the coastline, and scaring residents and real estate buyers alike. But a new Florida law, SB 4-D: Building Safety, is about to provide a potential killer wave to the Florida condo market.
The Building Safety Law is a reaction to the tragic Surfside building collapse in Miami in 2021. It has several key requirements for condominium associations that most are not yet aware of, especially how fundamentally those will affect their finances. This article will attempt to give a quick snapshot of what is now required, and how things will change. We recommend that if you are on a condo board you get familiar with the law now, because it has several new requirements. As it spells out clearly, failure to meet them is a breach of an officer’s and director’s fiduciary relationship to the unit owners. Sadly, the jailhouse humor going round is that it could cause mass resignations of board members across the state. Even if you are not a board member, you should make sure that your board is working on this issue.
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Published on November 12, 2022
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