After a lifetime of hard work, two-plus years of dealing with COVID-19, and the current uncertain stretch of economic rockiness right around the curve, many older adults are chomping at the bit to exit the 9-to-5 hustle. Pronto. But, for more Americans, the idea of retirement seems like it could be a long way off. Housing prices have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic—making the time-honored strategy of selling the family home, downsizing into a cheaper forever abode, and banking the extra equity way less assured. Stocks and bonds have dropped significantly, also eroding many nest eggs, and inflation is rising at the fastest pace in more than 40 years.
Those compounding factors have led some experts to say that 2022 is a “dangerous time to retire.” This year, about 59% of older Americans expected to delay plans for retirement and work longer, according to a survey by Edward Jones and Age Wave. That was a significant uptick from the previous year when about a third of those surveyed felt similarly. Harsh economic realities are making it harder to stretch a fixed income. But for those who are ready to make a move sooner rather than later, there are options—and we set out to find them.
There are some alluring places where younger baby boomers and older Gen Xers can still retire comfortably—with reasonable home prices, lots of folks over 55, and plenty of amenities and fun things to do. The data team at Realtor.com® rounded up the best places for retirees to enjoy their golden years—without draining their savings. But there’s more to modern retirement than Bingo games in dimly lit urban senior centers or the frenetic, sprawling Florida 55-plus communities of yore. Today’s older Americans are finding active, hobby-filled lifestyles in destinations all across the country. The list of retirement priorities is just as varied as the diversity of the population.
“For some, living in a sunny location with great weather—like Florida, California, or Arizona—is [still] a must-have,” says George Ratiu, manager of economic research for Realtor.com. But those popular retirement meccas are less affordable than ever. In fact, California and Arizona didn’t make the top 10 because home prices were so prohibitively high in these states. To scope out the top retirement destinations, our team of data wizards scoured Realtor.com data in May for the 300 largest metros. (Metros include the main city and the surrounding towns, suburbs, and smaller urban areas.) We looked for places with the most senior-friendly amenities in local homes for sale, including universal design and aging in place. For affordability, we factored in a year’s worth of median list prices from June 2021 through May 2022.
To figure out places already popular with retirees, we focused on metros with the highest populations of residents aged 60-plus using U.S. Census Bureau data. We also found the places seeing the largest increase in 55-plus folks. We also included metros with the highest number of businesses appealing to seniors in our ranking, using additional census data. Finally, we capped the 12-month median list prices in our top 10 to $500,000 to ensure these places are still reasonably affordable. And we confined our list to just one metro per state to ensure the list’s geographic diversity.
