Category: Best Retirement Towns and States
Dateline: Fort Myers and Miami, Florida. Your Topretirements editor is spending a few days in South Florida. Realizing that the region is one of the 3 hardest hit real estate markets in the country (along with Phoenix and Las Vegas), we wondered: what would this meltdown look like in person? Since retirement in the warm climes of South Florida is the dream of many a baby boomer, here is our report on what we can see by looking out the window, jogging through the streets, talking with folks, and reading the newspapers.
more...
Published on March 1, 2009
Comments 0
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Everybody talks about, and many people even do something about, the two obvious aspects of retirement planning. But almost nobody is attending to the third leg of retirement planning: mental preparation.
more...
Published on March 9, 2009
Comments 0
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
Oh baby boomers, what a mess we're in now. Not only have our investment portfolios been hammered, but our real estate investments are hurting too. A recent study from the Council for Economic Research points out that both add up to grim news for baby boomers - particularly for those who planned on moving to start their retirement.
“The collapse of the housing bubble, which led to the current recession, has already destroyed almost $6 trillion dollars in housing wealth for homeowners,” said report co-author Dean Baker. “This reality is compounded by the recent collapse of the stock market. The result is that many baby boomers will only have Social Security and Medicare to rely on in their retirement."
more...
Published on March 15, 2009
Comments 4
Category: Baby Boomer Retirement Issues
Our friend and colleague Michael Pollick has been writing a fascinating series about baby boomer retirements in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. And we are very pleased to have one of our quotes featured in the headline of this week's article: "Arizona, a Fresher Florida?".
Michael has spent a lot of time researching where boomers are retiring and which states are doing the most to attract them. He has found that his own state, Florida, is starting to lose retirement share to upstart states like Texas, Tennessee, the Carolinas, etc.; which have active marketing campaigns to attract retirees (such as certified retirement community programs).
more...
Published on March 17, 2009
Comments 3
Category: Retirement Real Estate
March 23 - Retirees either looking to sell their existing homes or see their retirement portfolios reclaim some of their losses got some good news today. Sales of existing homes in the U.S. increased 5.1% in February over January, helping give Wall Street its best day in months. Sales of single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops were off 4.6% vs. the year earlier February. Prices continued to decline in February as the median selling price of a U.S. home fell to $165,400, off 15% from the year earlier period.
more...
Published on March 23, 2009
Comments 1
Category: International Retirement
Up until now one of the best strategies for a lower cost retirement was to head south of the border, Mexico way. But escalating drug violence in Mexico is causing many Americans to either stay put in the U.S. or move a bit further to a central American country like Costa Rica or Uruguay in South America.
more...
Published on March 24, 2009
Comments 2
Category: Green Retirement Communities
No, it's not something you add to the wash to get out those pesky grass stains you used to get playing touch football. Nor is it a St. Patty's day breath-freshener. Greenwash is what happens to you when you succumb to a developer who promises you a "green" house in a sustainable community, only to move in and find the Chinese wallboard smells like rotten eggs.
more...
Published on March 31, 2009
Comments 1
