Retire in Florida? Sure. But eight states are better bets, survey says
Florida has to be the retirement capital of the United States.
The Sunshine State has been a retreat for snowbirds for, like, forever, and the subject of retiring to Florida has served as fodder in the popular arts. Take this exchange from the ‘70s TV sitcom “All in the Family” between Archie Bunker and his neighbor Irene Lorenzo in Queens, New York:
Archie: “How is it that you retired to this neighborhood instead of to Florida like the rest of the world?”
Irene: “Oh, we tried Florida, St. Petersburg. No matter where we went, we always got stuck behind a funeral procession. So Frank said as long as we have to face death every day, we might as well come back to New York.”
The humor just wouldn’t sound right if you inserted Iowa, would it?
Iowa, the state famed for its corn, state fairs and for being the home of the first bread slicing machine, according to World Atlas, nevertheless has been deemed the No. 1 state in the country in which to retire. The Best and Worst States for Retirees survey, done by the Blacktower US Financial Management Group, factored in metrics like the cost of living, crime rates, life expectancy, property prices and population age to make that call.
The worst state for retirement: Alaska, the survey said. All that cold and remoteness don’t seem that appealing to Ma and Pa seeking “an easier way of life,” Blacktower US said.
But a colder state like Iowa?
We dig sliced bread — especially the Pumpernickel loaf with creamy butter at Outback as much as anyone.
But we have croquetas, as well as bananas as art that prove so realistic you could just eat one off the canvas, and the world-famous Wynwood Walls, the Stone River Retirement Community in Bradenton, and the guitar hotel at the Hard Rock Casino near Hollywood to show how cultured and livable we are.
What’s Iowa have?
OK, a lower cost of living and “its beautiful landscape of rolling plains and cornfields,” according to Blacktower US, a wealth management firm that caters to UK and dual-nationals who live in the United States. Guess they never took a gander at the rolling agricultural fields framing Robert Is Here in the South Florida Redland area.
But hey, Florida still beat out 41 other states, including New Jersey, New York, Hawaii and Washington. The Golden Girls retired to Miami, not to Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin, which survey takers all put ahead of Florida.
And plenty of rock, R&B and pop stars in their golden years have either retired to Florida or at one point made the state one of their homes as home base for their careers: Rod Stewart, Sam Moore, Jimmy Page, Iggy Pop and Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres, to name a few.
Florida’s crime rate was higher than the eight states that ranked ahead of the state. Our cost of living is pretty high. The average property price ($257,000) was higher than five of Top 8 and life expectancy of 79.1 was bested by numerous states. (Hawaii, ranked at the bottom just ahead of Alaska, had the highest life expectancy of 81.5.)
And then there’s that pesky issue of sea level rise, which the survey folks didn’t take into account but the problem certainly is on our mind.
The 10 best states for retirees
1. Iowa
2. Minnesota
3. Vermont
4. Wisconsin
5. Nebraska
6. Idaho
7. Maine
8. New Hampshire
9. Florida
10. North Dakota
The five worst states for retirees
1. Alaska
2. Hawaii
3. California
4. Maryland
5. Lousiana
