Dueling Retirement States: The Mid-South, a Cost-Effective Choice

Whatever you do, don't settle in the Memphis, TN area. We lived there for 12 years and are so glad we no longer live there. Crime, racism, filthy city, corrupt politicians. I could go on and on.

Be cautious. No income tax in Tennessee BUT sales tax is close to 10% and food prices are higher than New England. Property taxes are high in the city limits and education is NOT a priority. We are in SE TN and I have a number of friends who retired here and are making it work. I will miss them. We came for work and are going back to New England to retire. Higher taxes, yes, but better quality of life for us.

I'm a native Southerner, born and raised, and I would second the first two comments above to any city in the states you mention. We just moved from Atlanta to Colorado after living in the ATL area for fifty years. Atlanta has horrible crime, miserable traffic, heat and humidity. If you are young and looking for economic opportunity it is ok, but ABSOLUTELY NOT a place I would recommend to retire. BTW, before retiring my occupation had me travel all over the US so I have a pretty good point of reference.

Scott.....we are a "little" behind you in that we just vacated suburban ATL after 30 years. I, too, traveled a bit but we discovered Fairhope, AL on a Gulf Shores vacation 6 years ago. We came back each year at various times and also looked comparatively at several other retirement clty possibilities. We pulled the re-lo trigger a month ago and haven't looked back for most of the reasons you mentioned and several others except the heat and humidity.......that was an acceptable trade-off to the much lower overall cost of living.

I moved Scott's latest comment and answer to Trish and Loral to a different Blog, as the conversation is now heading West:
Dueling Mountain States For Retirement: CO, ID, MT, NV, UT, and WY

To JeffH,

Can you tell me about Fairhope, AL? It is one of the places on my list for relocating to from New York. Are insurance rates really high? We aren't really a retired couple, my husband plans on working and staying in NY for several more years but I need to get out of the north due to severe seasonal affective disorder and a general dislike of the northeast...just want warmth!! I have a 13-year-old daughter that will be moving with me so schools are still a consideration and it looks like Fairhope has a great school district... we would want to have access to lots of outdoor activities, especially water ones. Any feedback on the area would be great!!

ljlawson2,
Check out Fairhope, AL on areavibes.com. It has a score of 82 which is excellent. Click on the city and the site will open up to provide good information on a variety of criteria.

ljlawson:

I have had my eye on Fairhope since I first visited there 10 years ago. They were still recovering from a devastating hurricane...but I thought the town.

I have been researching as much as I can...and the problem is the town has DOUBLED n population in the last ten years.....they are seriously experiencing some growing pains. Lots of building going on. I understand one contractor alone is in the process of constructing 1000 new homes in Fairhope.

I have friends that are from the area...they visit periodically...they are noticing a lot more traffic in the area.

All of this concerns me as I have experienced a huge growth in the area I have lived in the for the past forty years in
the Atlanta suburbs. For the last twenty years this has not at all been the quiet community we settled in.

That is all I can really tell you...I, too would love to hear from some people that have retired there in the past 10 years.

Good luck! Roberta

Lets all just go join the Amish!

Jeff: Is the cost of living actually lower in Fairhope than suburban Atlanta? What about insurance? The Mobil bay area
has had a few bad hurricanes, flooding etc....does this make your property insurance very high?

What about the building and population " boom" in recent years? Are you seeing signs of the town changing?

Loved Fairhope....you might say love at first sight, however, I definitely need for any move I make to be my last. I have lived in Gwinnett for the past 40 years.........it could not be more different today compared to the place we moved to in the 70's. I would say in the past 10-20 years suburban Atlanta has really changed for the worse.

Hope your are enjoying Fairhope......it is a lovely town.

Roberta/ljlawson2: In today's world, a lot is shifting and nothing is applicable across the board. Yes, Fairhope is growing, deservedly so given the wide publicity, baby boomer retirements, word of mouth, proximity to the beautiful and popular Gulf and Orange Beach areas and personality tenor of the area. Yes, there is more traffic with this growth compared to its historical levels. No, it is nothing we have found to be objectionable or intolerable or even close to other areas we looked at. To mention Atlanta traffic and Fairhope in one sentence as a criteria is not even close. We can get more done in one day of multiple chores than we ever could in ATL. The latest population numbers put us right around 19,500. Yes, costs are lower with qualifiers (one exception being sales tax). We looked at targeted areas of FL, SC, GA and this area. For what mattered, overall cost wise to us, none compared. That included the biggies of medicare and attendant other insurance, property tax, property insurance (buying new saves a ton of money with a gold-certified construction), and home prices. Yes, the weather is quite humid at times, (today is beautiful), we do have some mosquitoes and no-see-ums, and it does rain (hard at times with overall nearly as much annual rainfall as Seattle.) Yes there are weather risks....but we lived under those at times in ATL having had a tornado go thru our neighborhood in '94 and many other weather challenges (eg. ice, tornado warnings, etc.). Yes, you won't have the direct flight advantages of flying out of the ATL as Pensacola, Mobile and Gulfport are the choices all generally having to connect through some major hub. Have heard no one complain about this. The real gem of Fairhope are the people. We have found nothing but abject graciousness and responsiveness from those engaged we have engaged with from the town government, store owners, vendors and others. a HUGE breath of fresh air from that experienced in larger cities, ATL included. ATL was listed recently at one of the top 50 worst cities to live in. It is true that Fairhopians want no more publicity but that cat is out of the bag. There currently a building moratorium in place pending the completion and presentation of a growth, funding and infrastructure plan for the path forward. In sum, we moved in the day of Tropical Storm Cindy 6 weeks ago. We lived in ATL for 30 years. We researched and visited the area at all times for 5+ years. Have not had a second thought or looked back. But, by all means, check it out yourself. Use your own intuition and research. By doing that, we had no need to rent first. Decide what fits for you and move on! Best of luck! There is more but this is already long enough.

Sperlings best places to live cites the cost of living in Fairhope AL as 109% of the national average.

JeffL: That is one organization's overall number. We ignored it and most others like it as being generalizations albeit there are many areas that we did not and would not consider given lifestyle and location having both higher and lower CoL indices. Our specific CoL here is lower than where we lived in ATL. Everyone should do an individual (or family) income/expense/investment/tax analysis unless they are in a position where those factors are of a concern. Prior to fully retiring earlier this year at 67, at 66 we prepared (and maintain) a comprehensive 20 year XL financial forecast to age 86 (and have been measuring it against actual to insure relevance and accuracy). So far, that effort has been true to form and now serves as the guideline for off budget item decisions like vacations, home repair, etc. It will provide the baseline for revisions as they are necessitated and for more significant events should they occur through the aging up process.

Areavibes gives the cost of living in Fairhope AL at 108%. Housing at 126% is the biggest factor, utilities are 112%, groceries at 100%. Hopefully, other factors more than compensate, It's up to the individual to evaluate those factors in whatever way they want and/or according to their needs and limitations.

Would someone share a comparison of Fairhope, AL & Jacksonville, Go & the Carolina's?

Much thanks Jeff, for the very useful information. Surprised and happy to hear your COL is overall lower than Atlanta.

Yes, on my first visit to Fairhope , I was very much impressed by the friendliness of the people of Fairhope. It indeed seemed like a real community.

Wanted to ask: How do you find medical services in the Fairhope area?

I need to get down there soon, myself...........love to hear of your experiences.

Roberta

Hi Roberta.....good question. We wondered that in moving and starting over as well.

In 2 words: trusted referrals. The owner of a State Farm business here ( we are longtime State Farm clients) just happens to be on one of the local hospital boards and his wife is a surgeon. We started there. His assistant offered an ObGyn for my wife (who went there Friday and was very pleased) and a hair doctor (i.e the all important hair dresser who she was pleased with as well). My wife has seen the eye doctor and I am seeing them on Friday. I've seen both the dentist and dermatologist. We are going thru the process of moving records to the recommended internist and orthopedic specialist.

A couple of referrals had to be changed to another in the same office practice....one wasn't taking new patients, the other is sadly out for a while battling a brain tumor. It has been easy to get appointments with one exception being the internist who, with his two colleagues, are highly sought after. We are waiting on records review but have other names to approach if not.

One of our investment advisors at Merrill Lynch grew up here and wrote to his attorney friend here about our re-lo. That fellow sent us a long intro letter to various contacts...car mechanic, tax attorney, etc. and the latter gave us a referral to another attorney who reviews wills and has reviewed ours for AL compliance and the PoA documents as well.

You can go to Facebook and find Fairhope Times and follow council meetings, and other goings on. We joined the 654 member Baldwin County Travelers Group, $32 per year for the two of us and are looking at their huge slate of domestic and international trips. We have joined the Eastern Shore Camera Club on a neighbor referral and I am submitting framed photos to a showing in early September at the Arts Center as well as themed photos to regular meetings.

Food....well, everyone has recommendations!!!! And we were led to a wonderful vet (best we've had) who referred a top groomer who wasn't taking new clients but took the referral. We've found a wonderful, welcoming church and are going back today for the third visit. Same with a bike shop and fruit and vegetables stand......both of which we have frequented. We needed two lamps fixed, used the internet, found and used one as they are hard to come by. In talking with him after getting our lamps done, he led us to a contact in the contractor business who we had here yesterday reviewing a list of our project needs. It doesn't hurt that he pitched in the Red Sox system years ago and they are our favorite team and I am a youth baseball instructor.

So, more than you asked, but you get the idea. Be well. Let us know when you get here.

Jeff

You can make comparisons between any two or more place on Sperlings Best Places.

Hi Patricia
The link below is to a blog comparing North and South Carolina. Information on your other locations can be found by using the search bar and Retirement Ranger.
Happy Hunting!!
https://www.topretirements.com/.../dueling-carolinas-north-carolina-vs-south- carolina-as-the-best-retirement-state.html/

I like AreaVibes. AreaVibes gives you a total numerical livability score. They also provide a letter grade score for seven sub areas such as crime, housing, weather, etc. When you click on the grade for the sub area you get more detailed information. You also can compare location against location for the total livability number and the sub areas with letter grade against letter grade. The livability number compares the location against the state livability number and against the United States livability number.

AreaVibes is great. I suggest for anyone using it to put their current hometown in first for the livability number. Then you can compare what you have now with future locations. Another one I like is www.usa.com. You can get the average heating and cooling costs for each city and rating by State. Sperling's best places is more accurate on climate and comfort I believe but not so good on the grocery index.

Peggy asked: "I'm thinking of relocating to Rome. Can you tell me why crime is higher there?"

Answer: While the city and its setting is quite beautiful, crime is higher than in the rest of the state. Property rate crimes are double the U.S.. rates and violent crime about 50% higher. Education and income levels are not out of line with rest of GA. There are wealthy people and a lot of poor people who live here. About 50% of the population is white and the rest African American or Hispanic. Crime differs by neighborhood. The area near Berry College is considered the safest.