Top 10 Southern Cities for Retirees

GOBankingRates.com looked at 60 of the largest Southern cities in efforts to determine the top 10 cities for retirees.

Since “cost of living” is the chief reason retirees choose to relocate, GOBankingRates.com focused on housing affordability and annual expenditures first and then added the following factors in their analysis for selecting the top 10 Southern cities for retirees:

• Housing affordability
• Annual expenditures by 65-74 year olds from statistics sourced by the Bureau of Labor and then adjusted to each city’s cost of living according to Sperling’s Best Places
• Climate
• Change of scenery
• Safety scores sourced from NeighborhoodScout
• The number of seniors as residents of the city according to the US Census Bureau
• Livability scores from AreaVibes

It turned out that nine of the ten best cities for retirees were in either Texas or Florida. Coincidentally, neither state taxes income and neither state taxes retirement income nor Social Security benefits.

Here are GOBankingRate’s top 10 Southern cities for retirees:

1. Naples Florida
   1. Median home price – $399,000
   2. Annual expenses – $66,876
   3. Share of seniors – 51.50%
2. Plano Texas
   1. Median home price – $374,945
   2. Annual expenses – $65,886
   3. Share of seniors – 12.10%
3. El Paso Texas
   1. Median home price – $174,900
   2. Annual expenses – $47,957
   3. Share of seniors – 12.10%
   4. Also ranked #13 on GOBankingRate’s best to retire on a budget of $1,500/month. Residents spend -11% less on medical costs than average Americans.
4. Irving Texas
   1. Median home price – $359,900
   2. Annual expenses – $59,122
   3. Share of seniors – 7.4%
5. Boca Raton Florida
   1. Median home price – $400,000
   2. Annual expenses – $73,146
   3. Share of seniors – 24.6%
6. Bradenton Florida
   1. Median home price – $289,900
   2. Annual expenses – $59,617
   3. Share of seniors – 24%
7. Laredo Texas
   1. Median home price – $181,995***
   2. Annual expenses – $49,882
   3. Share of seniors – 8.80%
8. Virginia Beach Virginia
   1. Median home price – $302,450
   2. Annual expenses – $63,577
   3. Share of seniors – 12.7%
9. Sarasota Florida
   1. Median home price – $349,000
   2. Annual expenses – $59,837
   3. Share of seniors – 26.5%
   4. US News and World Report ranks Sarasota #3 on its best cities for retirees list
10. Corpus Christi Texas
    1. Median home price – $199,999***
    2. Annual expenses – $49,552
    3. Share of seniors – 13.20%

The most affordable median housing prices are indicated by ***