Where Are The Best Places To Retire?
By John Clifton
The title of "best places to retire" probably depends on what you have in mind for your retirement. Do you want to retire to a beach somewhere? Or do you prefer winter sports to enjoy your leisure time? Do you want to get out of the city and out into the great outdoors? Or do you want a sculpted outdoor setting with the best golf money can buy? Do you prefer a low-cost home to save your limited retirement money? Or do you want to live where your political ideas reign, regardless of the cost?
Everyone has their own idea of a great retirement. Frankly, seniors have the right to their own opinions. Working for 40 or 50 years in the U.S., with the longest hours and fewest vacation days in the western world, you deserve a few golden years to enjoy retirement age. Here are several lists to help you find a good place to retire.
Beach Retirement Places
Some of the beach retirement places listed are the famous one, like Palm Beach. Others are smaller spots that are starting to get noticed and fill up, like Bonita Springs on the Gulf Coast. St. Petersburg (near Tampa) is a old-time favorite, because it offers retirees from the northeast a chance to live in a metropolitan area, but one on the sea. A place like Walnut Creek, California (near San Francisco), is built to attract (wealthy) retirees and over 1/3rd of the population is retired, though. Sedona is a good place for people with asthma and breathing conditions, with proximity to Phoenix, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon.
- Palm Beach, Florida
- Delray Beach, Florida
- Walnut Creek, California
- Bonita Springs, Florida
- St. Petersburg, Florida
- Sedona, Arizona
- St. George, Utah
Retirement Places Near Winter Sports
The following list consists of retirement places near winter sports all over the map, though they tend to be out west in the Rocky Mountains. "Winter sports" consists of more than just snow skiing, as evidenced by the inclusion of Portland, Maine and Marquette, Michigan on the list.
- Durango, Colorado
- South Lake Tahoe, California
- Portland, Maine
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Burlington, Vermont
- Bend, Oregon
- Marquette, Michigan
Retiring Outdoors
The following list offers a wide range of areas for retiring outdoors, from the beautiful plains of Montana to the mountains of Vermont, and from the frozen beauty of Juneau to the lush island atmosphere of Hilo, Hawaii (where you can enjoy some beautiful Hawaiian flowers).
- Kalispell, Montana
- South Burlington, Vermont
- Juneau, Alaska
- Cedar City, Utah
- Carlsbad, California
- Hilo, Hawaii
- Canyon Lake, Texas
- Tanque Verde, Arizona
Golf Retirement Places
I'm assuming that people wanting to retire and play golf have some money, so a place like Pebble Beach (while expensive) shouldn't daunt them. Auburn is found along a golf tour route in Alabama, while other portions of the American southeast offer a large selections of scenic, well-tended golf courses.
- Pebble Beach, California
- Sun City, Utah
- Rancho Mirage, California
- Auburn, Alabama
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Bonita Springs, Florida
- Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Low Cost Of Living Retirement Places
The following list contains cities where the taxes are low and offer low cost of living retirement places. Juneau shows up on our lists for the second time, so those who like a low cost of living and enjoy beautiful landscapes and the outdoors should consider moving to Alaska's capital.
- Natchitoches, Louisiana
- Yuma, Arizona
- Salida, Colorado
- Fredericksburg, Texas
- Sandpoint, Idaho
- Juneau, Alaska
- Henderson, Nevada
- Billings, Montana
- Spokane, Washington
- Stafford, Texas
- Cheyanne, Wyoming
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Places To Retire For A Republican
In this time of partisan divide, some people might want to spend their autumn years in the political community of choice. According to the U.S. News & World Report, the following cities are considered the best places to live for members of their respective political parties. I'm assuming the demographics and polling shows these are the cities with the highest percentage of each political party.
Republicans are in the political wilderness for the time being, so if they can't rule on the national level, they can at least live in a conservative community. There aren't many more conservative states than Alabama, Utah and Texas, while Idaho is one of the bastions of "western libertarianism". I was surprised to find a larger city in Ohio on the list of conservative places in the country, but then again, Cincinnati borders the two conservative bastions of Indiana and Kentucky.
- Ogden, Utah
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Hoover, Alabama
- Idaho Falls, Idaho
Places To Retire For A Democrat
None of these cities took me too much by surprise. I wonder how many people retire to go live in Chicago, since you think most retirees would want to get somewhere the sun shines most of the year, or at least head to the scenic mountains. I'm a little surprised that Dearborn is considered such a liberal city, given that over 30% of the city has Arabic (and therefore Muslim) origins. I would assume they would be conservative, but I guess they perceive the policies of George W. Bush as anti-Arab. Others might list other reasons I'm not aware of.
- Pembroke Pines, Florida
- Maplewood, New Jersey
- Chicago, Illinois
- San Mateo, California
- Dearborn, Michigan
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