The decision on where to retire always comes down to a push-and-pull between economics and personal preference.
While the warm weather and high presence of active living communities in Florida has been attracting generations of retirees for decades, rising real estate and cost of living expenses have pushed some to consider other parts of their country to help their finances stretch further. The U.S. Labor Department found that 1.5 million Americans who retired between 2020 and 2022 later re-entered the labor market for primarily economic reasons.
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A recent ranking conducted by Moody's Analytics identified the cities that have had the biggest numbers of new residents over 65 coming in to settle.
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Retirees are also flocking to this fun city, report finds
While commonly thought of as a liberal and youthful oasis in generally conservative Texas, Austin also topped the list as the city attracting the highest number of retirees between 2010 and 2020. Approximately 50,000 people were already moving to the city each year before the pandemic, while the city's senior population nearly doubled in the same time frame.
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Other cities to top the list of the largest number of incoming retirees include Boise in Idaho, Raleigh-Durham in North Carolina, Atlanta and Houston. Both Boise and Raleigh-Durham saw their number of retirees increase at a rate 75% higher than the rest of the country.
“It was interesting to me how geographically dispersed the list was," Moody's Analytics Associate Economist Nick Luettke said in a statement. "The growth was spread to different parts of the country, outside of the traditional retirement locations.
Unsurprisingly, 'competitive rents' are a top priority for most retirees
The most surprising finding is that not a single city in Florida made the top five list of cities with a large number of incoming retirees. While the the Sunshine State is still amid a population boost that saw its permanent population grow from 21,828,069 in 2021 to 22,244,823 at the end of 2022, the rising cost of living in traditional retirement places such as Sarasota and Tampa have been pushing many away.
An earlier report on popular retirement spots by real estate platform Realtor.com named only the 195,000-person town of Port St. Lucie in between Miami and Orlando in its list of the top ten best places in the country to retire.
South Carolina's Myrtle Beach has been attracting retirees who still want to be near the water while Michigan's Traverse City and Bloomington in Illinois are significantly more affordable options for those who want an active lifestyle but don't need to have year-round sun.
While Austin is currently dealing with its own cost of living crisis fueled by an explosion in popularity, it has increasingly become an option for those looking to enjoy warmer weather without paying the high real estate costs that come with living near the beach.
"These metros offered more senior living options, better medical support, and bigger senior resident communities, which are positive factors to propel the sector's growth," the Moody's Analytics researchers concluded. "Competitive rents for many of the above-mentioned markets are also a great draw for our senior community."
