Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 21, 2014 -- If you are an outdoor oriented person the chances are you have dreamed about retiring to a town in the mountains.You might love to ski, hike, camp, fish, mountain bike, or just plain admire the beautiful scenery mountains have in such ample supply. This article is a companion to our other articles about great retirements near the water, in cities, college towns, and small towns (see Further Reading at end of article for more about them).
When some people think of mountain towns they might be thinking of a small community pushed up against the edge of towering peaks. Colorado and much of the American west have plenty of those. Yet for others the mountains might just mean having some nearby foothills. With that in mind we have tried to present a range of communities in this article. There are so many great mountain towns to choose from that we promise a Part 2 in these series.
Advantages
For those who aspire to a mountain retirement, here are some of the advantages that come with them:
- Cooler summers. Altitude means an escape from hot
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Published on May 21, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
May 2, 2014 -- In Florida's golden days in the early 20th century a group of inspired visionaries created many graceful towns. They produced magical communities that attracted hundreds of thousands of retirees from the north. Other towns somehow became classics just because of where they were situated or their economic success in their past. Moving forward to this century, most of these towns still have the great bones that made them attractive back in the day. This article will review some of our favorite "Old Florida" towns that make great places to retire right now.
Planning pays off
Many, but not all, of the classic Florida towns we know about were carefully planned. As a result they have symmetry and
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Published on May 3, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 29, 2014 -- For folks interested in an active retirement community for the mind there are few choices better than a college town. With so many advantages, and a minimum of reasons why not to try it, it is not surprising that so many baby boomers are exploring a college town retirement. This article, Part 2 in our series (see Part 1: "Should You Be Retiring to a College Town"), will explore many of the reasons why a college town retirement is so desirable, as well as list some of the more appealing campus towns in our database. We are indebted to frequent contributor Jan Cullinane, author of The Single Woman's Guide to Retirement (AARP/Wiley) and many other books and articles, for her insights into the advantages and drawbacks of college town life (see below).
College Towns. Here we mean a place where the college is the dominant influence on the flavor and
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Published on April 29, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
April 22, 2014 -- This request came in from one of our members, and it seems like a good one: "Could you please do an article on 55+ retirement developments that are under $200,000. There are so many great places to look at but most aren't affordable to us."
The happy answer to this question is that there are all kinds of 55+ and active adult communities with homes available for less than $200,000 - sometimes far below. In this article we will first explore different strategies for finding an affordable community, then list
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Published on April 21, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Updated October 11, 2017 -- This article was originally published in April, 2014. Prices have gone up since then in most of these markets, but they are still less expensive than many other coastal towns.
Retiring near the coast is many people's dream. Visions of beautiful sunrises or sunsets over the water, boating, swimming, fishing, walks on the beach - it sounds great. But one practical thing that often gets in the way is the price of real estate. Those great views and proximity to the water usually come with a price tag that reflects marketplace demand. Fortunately, not every town on the water is out of reach. In this, Part 2 of our Affordable Places to Retire on the Water series, we've reviewed 10 coastal towns that are affordable. Some of these places to retire might not be as chichi as Naples, FL, but they are surprisingly nice and reasonable priced. Part 1, "Affordable Places to Retire on the Waterfront", came out in 2010 (it included some towns where the waterfront was on a lake, this one does not).
Prices have gone up
The first thing we noticed when compiling this article is that home prices
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Published on April 15, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Update May 16, 2017 - We have updated this article with a 2 part installment. Here is the link to Part 1: These Crazy Best States to Retire Lists.
April 8, 2014 -- Back by popular demand, here is our 2014 list of the best states for retirement (see links at bottom to our lists from previous years). This year we have taken a different approach - we've assembled "best of" lists by category. At the conclusion of the article we've listed those states that made more than one list, which you can use as an indication that they must be pretty good places for retirement!
See the counterpoint to this article: "Worst States for Retirement - 2014".
The categories we've chosen are basically the opposite of those we used to choose our "2014 List of the Worst States for Retirement", although we decided to also give weight to
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Published on April 8, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Note: The tax bill signed into law in late 2017 will have a great impact on the worst states for retirement. In Feb. 2018 we updated this article: "Worst States for Retirement - 2018".
March 11, 2014 -- Finding the best place to retire in is a little bit like looking for a mate. There are lots of attractive ones out there. But for you - which state has the most appealing features and a minimum of not so desirable attributes. To help weed out the more unattractive ones, we present our 3rd annual (we skipped 2013) list of the worst states for retirement. There is one main point we want to emphasize - everyone's retirement situation is different, so a one size fits all approach won't work. If your grandchildren live in one of these states and you want to be near them - that makes it a great retirement state for you. Our goal for this article is to give you the tools to help you figure out what states aren't a good fit for your retirement. See this article's counterpoint: "Best States for Retirement - 2016".
Factors we considered
In this year's list we have tried to simplify
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Published on March 11, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Note: Our 2015 List has been published. See Most Popular Places to Retire 2015.
February 25, 2014 – When it comes to the best places to retire two things are very clear: the Sunbelt is where people want to go, and there is almost no interest in the Northeast or Midwest. The Sunbelt, with 77 towns on Topretirements.com's 8th annual list of the 100 most popular retirement spots, continues to be prime territory for retirement dreams. Only 3 states in the Northeast (and none in the Midwest) made the cut: Virginia, Delaware (Lewes and Rehoboth Beach), New Jersey (Cape May), and Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh). Most of the remaining cities on the top 100 list were from the Pacific Northwest and Colorado.
Florida Rules
Florida dominates the list of best places to retire, with 23 cities and towns (2 less than in 2013), followed by North Carolina (11), South Carolina (8), Arizona (7), California (6) and Washington (6). Tennessee had 5 cities in the top 100. The highest ranking non-Sun Belt city on our list was Charlottesville (VA) at #15. Note: To make sure you don’t miss new lists like this, sign up for our free weekly “Best Places to Retire” newsletter. See also "The Worst States for Retirement - 2014".
11 New Towns Join as Popular Places to Retire
Eleven new towns moved onto the 2014 list, about the same number as in 2013. Eight of the 11 were from the Sunbelt. Of the remaining,
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Published on February 25, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Downtown Sarasota
Updated March, 2020 (originally published February, 2014) -- All of us have our biases. And, even with the best of intentions, we probably hold our share of stereotypes too. Not just about the rest of humanity, but also food, cars, brands of soda and beer, sports teams, movie stars, and yes - places to retire too. Just as being close-minded about people gets in the way of appreciating them as individuals, dismissing places out of hand could get in the way of finding your retirement town.
Biases and Stereotypes about PlacesLet's first discuss the various types of biases that we have heard people bring up at Topretirements. For each one we will name
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Published on February 17, 2014
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Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
February 10, 2014. You’ve probably seen lots of different kinds of lists of the "best places to retire" by now. Those include the likes of: the most affordable places to retire, the most tax-friendly states, and best retirement towns for the arts. Plus there are the best places to retire for.... biking, golf, culture, bookstores etc. So, get ready for yet another sub-category - the best places to retire for livability.
Livability means many things to different people. So although this is our list of 10 great places to retire for livability, your own personal list might be quite different. To help you work on your own list we have tried to identify some of the key factors that make living in a community a pleasure. You might want to add, or subtract your own
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Published on February 10, 2014
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