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Pgiam/Getty Images August 18, 2022 Jeff Ostrowski covers mortgages and the housing market. Before joining Bankrate in 2020, he wrote about real estate and the economy for the Palm Beach Post and the South Florida Business Journal. Brian Beers is the managing editor for the Wealth team at Bankrate. He oversees editorial coverage of banking, investing, the economy and all things money. Bankrate logo The Bankrate promise
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Founded in 1976, Bankrate has a long track record of helping people make smart financial choices. We’ve maintained this reputation for over four decades by demystifying the financial decision-making process and giving people confidence in which actions to take next. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. All of our content is authored by and edited by , who ensure everything we publish is objective, accurate and trustworthy. Our reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — how to save for retirement, understanding the types of accounts, how to choose investments and more — so you can feel confident when planning for your future. Bankrate logo Editorial integrity
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You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey. Bankrate follows a strict , so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers. We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money. Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service. Retirement often brings a slower pace of life. No more sweating work deadlines, playing office politics or struggling to stay afloat in a city with a soul-crushing commute and a punitive cost of living. The end of your career also raises new questions about where and how to spend your days now that you’re no longer tied to a specific location. Should you settle down by the beach or in the mountains? Do you prefer golf or cross-country skiing? Perhaps most importantly, where do your kids, grandkids, friends and health care providers live? Those are deeply personal questions. To find some objective answers to the where-to-retire question, Bankrate crunched a bevy of statistics on costs of living, public health and other metrics. For this study, Bankrate looked at five broad categories: affordability, wellness, culture, weather and crime. We placed the heaviest weighting on affordability. since the COVID pandemic began, and in 2022. As a result, many retirees are looking for ways to stretch their savings. We acknowledge there’s plenty of subjectivity in choosing a place to live in retirement. If you own a paid-off home in a high-cost area like Boston or San Francisco, maybe affordability isn’t a priority for you. And, of course, not everyone likes the sweltering summers of the Sun Belt states that populate the top of our rankings. The best states to retire in 2022
According to Bankrate’s study, Florida is the best state for retirement in 2022, followed by Georgia, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. Alaska, on the other hand, held last place in our ranking. The state was dragged down by back-of-the-pack scores in affordability and weather. Alaska did rank first in one subcategory – its residents bear the nation’s lowest tax burden. The Sunshine State has long been a haven for retirees. If you like a warm climate, Florida has the second-hottest average temperatures, right behind Hawaii. However, the high incidence of hurricanes and tornadoes hurts Florida’s weather ranking. The state topped our ranking of culture and diversity. If you’re looking for retirement-age friends, you’ll have a good chance of finding them in this state where 21 percent of the population is age 65 and older. That’s the second-largest share of 65+ folks of any state, Census data shows. Meanwhile, for potential retirees seeking a cultural melting pot, Florida boasts solid racial diversity and a significant population. Affordability was once a big selling point for Florida retirees, but that advantage is fading. The state’s cost of living has been rising, although the tax burden remains light. Florida ranks No. 18 in Bankrate’s affordability index. The rest of the top five: Georgia: For retirees considering a move to Georgia, affordability is one big selling point. The state combines a low cost of living and a light tax burden to rank No. 7 in affordability. Weather is another strong point. The state has an average annual temperature of 64 degrees, the fifth-warmest in the nation. Earthquakes are rare, and tornado risk is about average. The one downside is hurricanes — Georgia’s small coastline puts it at risk of tropical cyclones. Georgia places in the middle of the pack in our rankings for both wellness and crime. The state’s only weak spot is in the culture category — the Peach State has one of the nation’s lowest percentages of over-65 residents, and it ranks near the bottom in arts and entertainment establishments per capita, based on a Bankrate analysis of Census data. Michigan: This cold-weather state seems an odd choice for the Top 5, but Michigan boasts the best affordability in the nation, based on the combination of a low cost of living and a light tax burden. The state also did well in wellness, placing No. 12 in that category. Ohio: Another Rust Belt surprise, Ohio scored well on affordability and didn’t suffer any major setbacks in other categories. Missouri: Fifth-place Missouri is affordable and has a comparatively moderate climate. However, the Show-Me State’s culture, crime and wellness scores are subpar. Experts How to pick your best state to retire
Considering a retirement move? Here’s advice from experts who help retirees and soon-to-be-retired workers through the decision: Laura Kovacs, former director of education at the Scottsdale Area Association of Realtors in Arizona and a recent retiree herself: “Spend some time in places where you want to live before you commit to moving there. Go to a variety of different places that you seem to be attracted to — places that have a lower cost of living and lower property taxes — and test them out for a while. If you’re interested in Florida or Arizona or California, stay there for a while and see if you like the climate at the time of year you’re going to be living there. Make sure it’s really as affordable as you thought. When you’re still working, take some time to go preview different types of communities and different types of lifestyles. And when you’ve retired, maybe try renting for a while before you commit to buying.” Clark Kendall, CFP, CFA, is president of Kendall Capital Management in Rockville, Maryland, and author of “Middle-Class Millionaire”: “Family is the biggest consideration. When I see people retire and move to different parts of the country, 70 to 80 percent of the time, it’s to be close to family. Access to medical care is another important factor. From a financial perspective, there are a lot of things to consider. How will your income be taxed? Some states offer tax breaks on retirement income. Maryland not only has an income tax, but we’re also one of only seven states that has an estate tax. Look at how you’re going to spend your money, too. Even though Texas and Florida have no income tax, they do have higher homeowners insurance costs because of hurricanes. It’s hard to make a blanket statement. If you’re making $100,000 in retirement income and moving to a $400,000 house, it’s a different scenario than if you’re making $1 million and moving to a $5 million house.” Ginni Field, a real estate broker in Oceanside, California, who specializes in senior buyers and sellers and holds the National Association of Realtors’ Senior Real Estate Specialist designation: “Sometimes, people just want to get out of the snow. Other times, they want to be closer to family. When you’re considering a community, you have to think about what you still want to do. Do you still want to be able to play golf, tennis or pickleball? What’s vitally important for people in that age group are medical care, access to shopping and public transportation. I have one client who’s 83 [years old] who didn’t want to live in an active adult community because she had pre-determined that it would be filled with old people. I showed her around one community, and she fell in love with it.” (.) Full results How your state ranks for retirement
Methodology
Bankrate looked at several public and private datasets related to the life of a retiree. The study examined five categories (weightings in parentheses): affordability (40 percent), wellness (20 percent), culture (15 percent), weather (15 percent) and crime (10 percent).Affordability was calculated using the Cost of Living Index from the Council for Community and Economic Research, published in July 2022, and property and sales tax rates from the Tax Foundation’s rankings for 2022. For wellness rankings, Bankrate used the Sharecare Community Well-Being Index released in July 2022. The index measures a variety of factors, including access to health care, access to food, physical health and economic security.Culture scores were calculated using the number of arts, entertainment and recreation establishments per capita and adults 65 and older per capita from the U.S. Census Bureau. Diversity scores used the Census’ racial and ethnic diversity index and LGBTQ population densities compiled by the Movement Advancement Project. For weather scores, we relied on three decades of average daily temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. We also used NOAA data for tornado strikes and hurricane landfalls, along with earthquake reports from the U.S. Geological Survey.We calculated crime using the rates of property crimes and violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants for each state from the FBI’s 2019 Crime in the United States report. (Because the FBI significantly changed the reporting format for 2020 data, we did not rely on those statistics.) SHARE: Jeff Ostrowski covers mortgages and the housing market. Before joining Bankrate in 2020, he wrote about real estate and the economy for the Palm Beach Post and the South Florida Business Journal. Brian Beers is the managing editor for the Wealth team at Bankrate. He oversees editorial coverage of banking, investing, the economy and all things money. Related Articles