Any location trends for retirees?

[teachbeach]

My husband I plan to retire to Michigan, mainly because of family and familarity with the MSU and surrounding communities. Close to airport, easy to get to Detroit, Flint or Grand Rapids. Lots of activity associated with the college, great medical facilities, decent cost of housing. The winters are the only drawback, but when you're retired, what's the problem with canceling appointments or rescheduling events? Hopefully we'll be able to snowbird to warmer climates for a few weeks each year while our health is good.

[rschneider]

You should consider checking out Canadian Lakes, MI. It is a private community if you live in it...or you could live on the outskirts. But in Canadian Lakes you will have access to all the lakes, private and public golf courses, including the St. Ives golf course, and the upcoming, award winning,Tullymore Golf Course. Also there is a lot of community activities, events and clubs. Beautiful area with a good mix of people of all ages. I relocated here a couple years ago as a single mom and love this area to raise my children.

Good luck to you!

[cristoq]

One option is to move to a smaller city that is near (or contains) a university. East Lansing and Ann Arbor have the advantage of big university amenities and small ease of living. Ann Arbor is livelier but has traffic problems. East side of East Lansing is the area I know best. It has lots of pleasantly mixed neighborhoods, including a mix of age groups. It's good if you like to have young families nearby. Some neighborhoods have overlay districts -- which means you won't be near student rental houses.

[Coldjensens]

Grosse Ile is about 40% retirees. They like it because the Island is somewhat self contained. For basic supplies (groceries, hardware a bakery and a couple of restaurants), you never have to leave the island. The highest speed limit on the island is 35. and Retirees seem to like that. Life is generally slower paced. Crime is diminimus. Wildlife abounds. Because there are so many retirees here, there are loads of social/service clubs and programs for retirees. There are three country clubs and three yacht clubs and an indoor tennis club. It is a great place for walking along the river or through the woods. There are several home care businesses catering to older people.

Property taxes are pretty high. The retirees consistently vote to approve school millages because they understand the importance of education (and of good schools on home values), even though they do not have children in school. A huge part of the population goes to Florida or South Carolina for 2-4 months of the winter. It gets noticeably emptier here when they leave.


Several retired people that we know also opted for a cabin in the woods in the UP. They also tend to leave for part of the winter.

[larkim]

I live in Northern Mich. and I am retired . My home is values at 60,000 and I pay $2200. in taxes. Property taxes are going up every year at average 5% while property values are dropping at 4-6% (this is in part due to a bill passed in 1994. Michigan is in a recession so think twice before coming here. I am looking into Tn as a place to live. Its sad I loved this state all my life but its going down hill year after year.

[Snootylooter]

I was browsing thru a "Where to Retire" magazine at the Dr.'s office last week. There was an interesting article titled "Tax Heavens and Tax Hell" - or something to that effect. It identified Michigan as one of the top Tax Hell's for retired folks. I know taxes are high here, but I didn't realize it was that pricey for retiree's.

[Joanie B]

I can't speak about trends but we're retiring (young) to Holland, Michigan. We started looking in '06 and were convinced that we'd move to the Traverse City area but realized everything was too far away for us.

Then we read about Holland in Money Magazine's Best Places to Retire and thought we'd check it out. We were more than pleasantly surprised and have found everyone we've met to be very friendly, nice and helpful. We don't golf so that wasn't something we looked for, but we can walk to the beach and hear the waves crashing when we're in our backyard and all of this for well under 200K.