The 10 Best Places to Retire in 2012

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Damn, Ash-lee is wrong gain. Flagstaff AZ #1 place to retire!

mikey of TX 3:19PM July 25, 2012

You can find good gated Retirement Communities with 2/2 condos for 60 to 80 grands with monthly Home Owner Assoc. fee of $225/- or so. Similarly, you can find similar deals in Boone, NC but with lesser monthly HOA fee. So, for under $200/- (better if both are paid off) you can have the best of all seasons being part time residents (Summer) in the Boon, NC Mountains and Winter near the Boca Raton, Fl. Ocean. Good luck.

NADER of FL 7:21PM July 22, 2012

Port Charlotte in Florida sure is cheap, but not a graet place to live. Cape Coral is better but there are better places in the same area as these 2 places like Englewood, Venice & Sarasota. Gainesville, the home of UF was just named by someone else as a great place to live and the Florida Move Guide also likes this town for people of all ages. There are drawbacks, summers in FL can be 6 months or longer of unbearable heat, humidity and high AC costs.

Lori Neigh of FL 8:06AM July 21, 2012

I must add to Bill Taylor's comments about Houston. You left off that Houston has one of the country's poorest air quality ratings, very hot and humid long summers and mosquitos that carry the West Nile virus. And the Gulf of Mexico is very dark brown water, can't see the bottom. Other than that, it's a great place to retire.

Nat of TX 10:06PM July 20, 2012

You left out Houston. Culture, sports, intertainment, university advantages, (Rice and UofH), Very low cost living, lots of trees, Gulf less than an hour away. The greatest mix of nationalities and Restaurants in US, beautiful lakes, all types theaters.

Bill Taylor of TX 9:57PM July 20, 2012

We live in Minnesota and purchased 2 years ago in Homosassa Florida, which is on the Gulf. We live on a golf course at Sugar Mill Woods. Nows the time to buy.
We really got a bargain. Neighbors are great, cheap golf, Restaurants are home town cooking and dirt cheap. A must see! I forgot, did I mention how peaceful
it is.

Lori Badiuk of FL 1:09PM July 20, 2012

I live in The Villages, kFl. 32162 We are one and a half hrs from the gulf. the weather is less humid than my other state I lived in (Ky.) and we have over 150 clubs we can attend. 9 hole golf is free if you golf . We are not a gated community so traffic is heavy. The homes average around $200,000. There will be over 100,000 residents here when the last of the 3 towns is finished. the Villages is very clean and most of the people are friendly. It gets really crowded when the Part Time Residents return from their other northern homes in the winter months. There are longer lines and more traffic. I think the best thing about living here is the weather. There is always a breeze(95%) most of the time. the sky is beautiful.We have pools very close to our homes. We have mostly residents that are 55 and older. The property taxes and cost of living is higher than in Ky. but if a person watches their spending habits most people can afford to live here on a $60,000 retirement income. That is if asyou are a two family household. I do not know if most of us have a mortgage on our homes. I think that we do. Probably most of us have a 1/4 % debt on the value of the house we live in. Golf Carts are the main way we travel so our family only has one car. There are plenty of Drs. and Churches. We do not have the best retail stores to choose from. If the traffic problems could be solved llllllllthis would be a wonderful place to live. I give it an 8 our of 10 , with 10 being the higgest place I could think to live.

Brenda Hendricks of FL 9:49AM July 20, 2012

Best place to retire is Vancouver, WA.
No income tax in WA state, and across the Columbia River is Portland, OR
which has no sales tax.

Brandon R of WA 6:02AM July 16, 2012

Florida made the list with "cheap" housing is a town near the coast. While the place named is not the worst choice in FL, The Florida Move Guide says there are much more livable places right on the Gulf beaches (not a dark river water beach) with low crime and still low home prices, but they have bottomed and are on there way up. The climate is only comfortable for close to half the year for most people though.

Tom Holland of PA 2:30PM July 05, 2012

This is a great article. If you are looking for another unique way of hospitality I suggest checking out Bescover.com. They have the best Bed and Breakfast's nationwide, and when I travel i check out what type of deals they have. They have BB's in everyone of these places, so while you are checking out these towns, you will have an affordable place to rest and meet locals.

Bescoverer of CA 1:31PM July 05, 2012