13 Great Places to Retire in the Pacific Northwest

Admin - thank you for this! I really appreciate your response to comments about last week's interesting feature article! I was in Bend, OR, about two months ago and can say it is a very attractive and active city!

Considering how hot and hotter Oregon is getting, I wouldn't rush to relocate! It's currently 95-100+ degrees in Eugene, Medford and central valley this time of year! I won't be surprise if the wine Vinyards move to Alaska!

I think one of the primary drivers of retirement location selection is climate. I agree that the Pacific NW is beautiful and has much to offer -- for a visit at optimal times of the year. But it's still the "north" and still suffers from cold and dismally overcast days -- or both. Warmth and typically bright, sunny days will make the decision for many. I'm one of those.

Thankfully, there is something for everyone. I love Western Washington although I didn't grow up here. But like a lot of places, the climate has changed. In the 60's, if we got to 80 we were having a heat wave. We are now going into our 5th day of mid 90's and hoping it will quit soon so we can get back to what we love. We Americans should be happy we have so many places to choose from that are within our own country. Hope you all find what you love too.
Sharon

I also am from Western Washington and I was born here. Lived here all my life and can't imagine living anywhere else. The weather has definitely changed over the years. Hotter in the last few years. But we don't get any Tornadoes or Hurricanes and not too much snow or ice. I like it here because I can walk year round.

My wife and I absolutely love Medford. Visited it a few times. We were planning on retiring there. However, the wildfires scared us away. We will definitely go back and visit.

Wildfires didn't seem to be such a big concern until recently. But I can understand how they could influence a decision about where to retire. Good luck, and keep us posted on where you retire.

The Northwest is the most beautiful place in the US if you love evergreen scenery, I’ve traveled through the area briefly three times since 1980, but haven’t been back since1992. I’m sure it has changed in many ways, but I will need to visit again to see for myself… I was surprised recently to read that average real estate prices in Oregon and Washington now exceed prices in California-that’s saying something! Of course, the usual suspect is low supply and high demand, especially low supply.

One feature of the remodeled Topretirements is the ability for people to add comments to our city reviews. It is proving to be popular, and some of the comments are of broad interest. Others offer suggestions and corrections on various sections of the reviews. We encourage you to contribute too! We are working on adding links to these comments and responses to the Daily Alert.

Whatever happened to the Top Retirements fix to bring users to the bottom of the page where the comments are? Especially if you've read an article several times.

John, most of the time I can’t access the article from the daily alerts link anymore since the remodel—the page is instantly overwritten with a google links ad. Even if you choose to “send feedback” that the “ad covers content”. It just took ten attempts to get here. Is this happening to anyone else?

(Problem from the “replies to blog posts” link, not the article link itself)

In response to RAF and Daryl. Very occasionally the link seems to go to the top of the article and not the most recent comment. Not sure why but we will look at it. The google ads problem is affecting a lot of people sometimes and it is annoying. We changed things so those ads should NOT show up , but occasionally they do. We may remove google ads from the blog entirely as a result. They have been an important source of support for this free site, but lately more trouble than they are worth. We will have find another way to pay the bills!

Might the problem be related to the anti-crawler screen that pops up when it is redirecting to the site?

It isn’t the anti spam message which is causing people to see Google ads or default to top of article. We had to put that screen up to protect the site from hackers. You can just ignore it because after a few seconds that screen just goes away.

Lori corrected a typo in our review of Eugene, OR. It is great that members of the community are helping make this a better site. Eugene sounds like a great place to retire – do you have experience here?

We've lived in Seattle/Tacoma area for 20 years and while the PNW is beautiful in the short summer months, you have 7-8 months of gray and rain and cold. We just can't deal with that anymore and looking for a warmer drier place to retire to in the western usa that isn't a desert and isn't run by progressive liberals. Having a hard time finding the right place. We sort of like Boise but its got bitter cold winters.

To Tom: almost all urban cities/metros in the sunnier and warmer southwest are typically liberal. If you are OK with smaller places that might fit your needs, Prescott, AZ, may be a consideration. Not in the desert like south Arizona, nice climate (cold in winter, but not like Boise) and the county Prescott is in voted 64% for Trump in 2020. Many retirees.

Live presently in Western Canada. Lived in the U.S. Grew up & lived in Ontario & will go back there; somewhere around Niagara where I can cross the River to the U.S. & head South where it is known to be Warm in the Winter. And can have a few Laffs!! [Maybe a few Beers as well!!]