The Next Best 25 Places to Retire

September 13, 2010 — Consider us sentimental, but we feel kind of bad for the towns that don’t quite make our various “best places” lists. After all, how would you feel if you were #101 on a list of 100 best places to retire? It’s not like the quality of the experience is that different among the top tier places to live in retirement. And, given that everyone has their own individual tastes and requirements, #115 might just be a lot better fit for you than say, #2 on the list.

So to indulge that feeling, and more importantly to help expand our members’ knowledge, here is our list of the “next best places to retire” – from #101 to 125. Oh yes, we will tell you #126 too.

A few of these towns have been on our Top 100 list before, but didn’t make our “Sunbelt Shines on 2010 List of the 100 Best Retirement Towns“. Those include Maryville (TN), Key West (FL) and Melbourne (FL). The most surprising town on our list is #101 – Cuenca, Ecuador. Apparently, a lot of people are interested in this interesting town for retirement. As for the criteria for making this list, it is essentially a popularity contest. The winners are the 125 towns that received the most page visits at Topretirements so far this year. The 2011 list will be published in February of next year – looks like there will be some new faces!

Here is the list that the sun didn’t quite shine hard enough on (but they are still very desirable places to live!):

101. Cuenca, Ecuador
102. St. Augustine, FL
103. Fairfield Glade, TN
104. Pensacola, FL
105. Key West, FL
106. Abacoa, FL
107. Maryville, TN
108. Knoxville, TN
109. Mesa, AZ
110. Century Village, FL
111. Fayetteville, AR
112. Corpus Christi, TX
113. Murphy, NC
114. Boynton Beach, FL
115. Olympia, WA
116. Pompano Beach, FL
117. Melbourne, FL
118. Saint Simons, GA
119. Merritt Island, FL
120. Surprise, AZ
121. Punta Gorda, FL
122. Tubac, AZ
123. Berkeley, CA
124.Huntsville, AL
125. St. Petersburg, FL

And oh yes, #126 – That would be Hattiesburg,MS.

For Further Reference:
Sunbelt Shines on 100 Best Places to Retire List for 2010
More Best Places to Retire Lists
50 Most Popular Active Adult Communities
Federal Employees Opine: So Many Great Retirement Towns, So Hard to Choose
CNN/Money list of the top 25 places to retire.

What do you think? What towns didn’t make our top 125 list that should have? Use the Comments section below to share your opinion!