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1. Orlando-Barfola! Hot, humid and buggy.
2. Tampa-See above.
3. Miami-See above then add in the largest drug trafficking location in the U.S.
4. Scottsdale Az-Barf. Next time you take a casserole out of the oven let your face hover near the opening for bit. Yeah, that's July in the Phoenix area.
5. Atlanta Ga-Meh.
6. Salt Lake City Utah-Love it. Beautiful mountain scenery even closer to town then the Rockies are to Denver.
7. Honolulu, HI-Crowded and expensive. Would actually prefer Kona or Hilo.
Florida, the humidity killer region. Atlanta nearly the same. Honolulu very expensive and on Kim's list.
Scottsdale, nice scenery, expensive, snobby. Salt Lake City, too desert like, great for polygamists.
I know where the best area is, but I won't tell because you'll all move there and then it won't be the best anymore.
Sometimes when reading articles like this I try to visualize what the author's office is like. Windowless, muzak, AC blasting 365 days a year in some big city, cramped little cubicle with glossy photos of kittens and unicorns everywhere. Oh, and one of those miniature glass fishbowls with fake fish and a plastic palm tree sitting over the computer monitor.
I prefer Alaska, always have, always will. At least the humidity is the crispy cold white kind
I've enjoyed living near Tampa (about 20 miles south) as a retirement area for nearly a decade.
Glad to see it on someone's list.
Area has a lot to do, year round. Entertainment is available as well (Opera, world class orchestra, Broadway series every year, national stop for top concerts, MLB, NFL, NHL). Airport is one of the country's best/nicest. I guess the experts think the healthcare is quality (I haven't had to test that yet).
Boating, kayaking, fishing is some of the best, they say. Golfing, tennis year round.
I'm not bug phobic. They're harmless.
Housing is very affordable. Taxes aren't terribly high. Insurance rates are though (car, home).
I go out in the humidity every day and tolerate it okay (run 4-6 miles every other day, ride the bike 10-15 miles every other day).
I recently traveled on a 3 month journey through 14 states this summer and didn't see many places that I'd want to uproot for. I enjoyed Colorado Springs in July but I'm not a winter person, so that would be a show-stopper.
did you notice the list is drawn from the "150 most populated U.S. cities across four key dimensions: 1) Affordability, 2) Activities, 3) Quality of Life and 4) Health Care."
So it's not the best PLACES, it's the best BIG CITIES.
I've lived in #s 21, 63 (moving back near there next year), 110 (my favorite), 120, 131, and 138. And I spent a lot of time in the hospital in #7.
The Quality of Life rankings seem bizarre to me, just knowing well some of the cities and where they ranked compared to each other. A best place really is determined by your own requirements not the sum total of an imaginary weighted scale. How can any published list assume a weight for weather? I'd love to have access to the same information, with anonymous names, then make available sliding scales for each parameter so that an individual could apply their own filters of importance. I think that would be a truly useful tool that could easily be regularly updated.
Lists like this make me wonder how one determines "best." High crime, high prices/COL, congested areas for a good number of those choices.
According to the website they use a metric based on
1) weather
2)quality of life
3)affordability
4)healthcare
5) activities.
High crime is IMO one of those not as important. for example I live in Philadelphia which if you look on most demographic list is supposedly "high crime". My neck of the woods is extremely safe and although once again if you look at demographics, most cities are "congested". I walk every where but to work. literally park my car and forget it.
I hated living in the so called "safe" rural area. nearest grocery store 5 miles, nearest movie theater 10 miles away. forget about going to any restaurant that wasn't a chain. retiring and then having to drive 24/7 just to enjoy myself would not work.
Unless you drive a fancy BMW, don't move to Scottsdale ! You will feel out of place.
And besides that's it's bloody HOT! Today's high is forecast to be 103 and the low will be 78. Of course, we can't forget it's a "dry" heat. Can't agree with the rest of the list either. Florida is too hot & humid for too long and the snowbirds make traffic miserable from October-April. Honolulu is way too expensive. Atlanta has some of the worst traffic in the U.S. I know nothing about Salt Lake City except it is a Mormon stronghold.
I can't imagine why someone would want to retire in Atlanta. The traffic is an utter nightmare. The city is nothing special like NYC. You don't have the weather advantages of FL or the scenery of CO.
My mom retired a few years back. You know where the best place to retire is? The place that makes you happy and where you want to be. She is retired where she lived in a overly expensive state with sky high taxes and cost of living, this is what she wanted so it's the best place to retire.
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Can't agree with the rest of the list either. Florida is too hot & humid for too long and the snowbirds make traffic miserable from October-April. Honolulu is way too expensive. Atlanta has some of the worst traffic in the U.S. I know nothing about Salt Lake City except it is a Mormon stronghold.
