America's Best Healthy Places to Retire

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Watch your step if you think you'd like to retire to the Flagstaff, Arizona area. Property taxes in Coconino County went up 175% for 2009 and are projected to increase by 35% for 2010. A number of web sites state that Flagstaff has low property taxes. We bought a retirement place 2 miles out of town in a rural area and have seen property taxes go from $728 per year to $3350 for 2009 and an estimated $4250 in 2010. Don't plan on finding a good job in Flagstaff, good jobs are practically non-existant. My best advice, stay away from Flagstaff, local government will tax you to death. I'm ready to move somewhere else. I made the mistake of retiring here a little over a year ago and regret it!

dave of AZ 3:04AM February 11, 2009

We are in the process of looking for a place to retire in 2010. We are looking at the Boise Idaho area, but don't know much about the area. It looks like housing and taxes are affordable.
Is this a good area for retirement? Would appreciate any input concerning the Boise area.

Randy Thompson of CO 6:58PM January 28, 2009

I HAVE NEVER BEEN TO THIS CITY , BUT MY HUSBAND WORKED THERE FOR MANY YEARS AND SAID THE WEATHER IS GLOOMY , RAINY AND DAMP,NOT A GOOD PLACE TO RETIRE. WE CHOSE ARIZONA.

JOAN A. HERMAN of AZ 5:33PM January 28, 2009

We bought a place in the past year in Tarpon Springs. It is a greek community with the Sponge docks which are a wonderful place to spend the day shopping and learning of the history of Tarpon Springs.
Nestled between two wonderful beaches, Clearwater Beach and St. Pete Beach, it is a lovely usually warm place to bike ride around the beautiful city full of nothing but bike areas to ride through beautifully lined streets and parks.
Our condo is in the setting of a gorgeous very large pond outside all of our windows and a trail that goes all the way around it for walking every day and watching beautiful birds playing and feeding from the pond.
I give it an A for a retirement place.

Lori Brunsvold of IN 5:32PM January 28, 2009

We are buried in snow 9 to 10 months a year. You can't get outside in Maine. All you do is hunker-down here!

Jack Frost of ME 2:53PM January 23, 2009

Portland Maine as a place to retire? Are you insane? While they may have "Seemingly endless hike and bike trails" to quote your article, try accessing them when they're buried under 3 feet of snow 9 months out of the year. Super short summers with cold Spring and Fall bracketing brutal Winters.
Ten months a year sitting around waiting for some decent weather. Sounds like a retirement utopia.
I have many friends that live in and around Portland and ALL of them can't fathom retiring there.

Mark of Common Sense of TX 2:13PM January 20, 2009

You mention Walnut Creek California. It only cost 550 thousand to 650 thousand to purchase a place to live. Kinda pricey for a retired couple. You need to research a little better on the prices of these places.

John Holidy of WA 7:01PM January 08, 2009

I have lived in Charlotte County - Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte area for 39 years and I still appreciate the beauty and many activities such as golfing, fishing (some of the best in the Florida) tennis, camping, boating and just a GREAT community. You will fall in love with this area once you get to know it and the people.
I came here in 6th grade and know that I will never grow old here. If you can't live here you must visit paradise soon.
Lou

Lou of FL 3:24PM January 08, 2009

I bought my retirement place recently and was dimayed to see that the area where I purchased was on a "Top 5" retirement list. My greatest fear is that a lot of people from very high tax states (like NJ, CT and MD)will move there and ruin it. I was glad to see that it was not on any of these lists and found it very funny that Reston, VA was listed as a great place to retire (the traffic there is very stressful, property taxes are high and home prices are still way out of line compared to many places with much better quality of life aspects). I had to go to a training class there 2 weeks ago and the traffic was consistently very slow the entire week. But maybe there is something wrong with me that I don't enjoy having it take an hour and a quarter to go 12 miles (Reston to Bethesda) which was worse than the normal 45 minutes it took the other 4 days (on-ramp to on-ramp). Everyone seems in a hurry and/or late there, the drivers are very aggressive. Not the kind of place I want to live out my golden years.

Tony of MD 8:17AM December 31, 2008

I bought my retirement place recently and was dimayed to see that the area where I purchased was on a "Top 5" retirement list. My greatest fear is that a lot of people from very high tax states will move there. I was glad to see that it was not on any of these lists and found it very funny that Reston, VA was listed as a great place to retire (the traffic there is very stressful, property taxes are high and home prices are still way out of line compared to many places with much better quality of life aspects). I had to go to a training class there 2 weeks ago and the traffic was consistently very slow the entire week. But maybe there is something wrong with me that I don't enjoy having it take an hour and a quarter to go 12 miles (Reston to Bethesda) which was worse than the normal 45 minutes it took the other 4 days (on-ramp to on-ramp). Everyone seems in a hurry and/or late there, the drivers are very aggressive. Not the kind of place I want to live out my golden years.

Tony of MD 8:16AM December 31, 2008