<p>I might pick about four of these myself.</p>
<p><a href=“http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/Best_Places_to_Retire_Young.html[/url]”>http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/Best_Places_to_Retire_Young.html</a></p>
<p>My picks so far:</p>
<p>Sarasota (already live here)
Tallahassee
Thinking of somewhere farther north…</p>
<p>I’m glad they show how to pronounce CDA 
.</p>
<p>Having lived on the East coast (New England) most of my life, if anyone had told me a few years ago that Manhattan, Kansas would be a great place to retire, I would probably have scoffed at the idea. Having now visited Manhattan with my daughter (who will be maticulating at K-State this fall), I must say that Money is on the mark with this recommendation. Manhattan is a great little town, the surrounding area is beautiful, there are ample choices for outdoor recreation, plenty of cultural offerings courtesy of the K-State campus (including a beautiful art museum, a national lecture series, a great library and a major performing arts center), the people are warm and wonderful and the area is so inexpensive by East Coast standards that I can hardly believe it. If my daughter stays at K-State for vet school, I just might move – and qualify her for in-state tuition!</p>
<p>But don’t these cities seem to be too small? The two I like best are the one in Vermont, and the one in Virginia, but, it seems as if being retired, one would quickly run out of things to do in ANY of these places, and need to start traveling extensively or something to make up for it…</p>
<p>latetoschool, whether you would be bored depends in large part on what you’re used to. I live in a very small town in rural New England. It’s beautiful here, but there’s very little to do and the winters last forever. As such, I think I would be just fine in a “small” town like Manhattan, KS (which is about five times larger than the town I live in now). Add to that everything offered by a tier one national university, and I don’t think that I would have a problem with boredom. That being said, you can explore the world from just about anywhere as long as you’re within reach of an airport.</p>
<p>If you retire at normal retirement age I think having lots of big city type things to do is less necessary. Cost of living for most people is much more important. Almost every decent town is within a few hours of some good city and a trip every couple of months is enough IMHO. Peace and quiet, a few favorite restaurants, some parks/scenery to walk in are quite enough day to day. Who can afford $100 theater tickets and $200 athletic events every week? If there is a local college or two you can see plenty of concerts and plays for peanuts.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine retiring anywhere it snows or that’s not near the ocean (been there, done that). I ‘really’ can’t imagine retiring in Kansas (I’ve lived there before) even if it was free (no offense to any Kansans out there - just my personal preference).</p>
<p>I don’t mind snow, but yeah, if there’s no ocean within an easy drive, it ain’t happening.</p>
<p>Reality check - It snowed in San Diego county - today!</p>
<p>That’s funny, and we finally got spring here in NJ!</p>
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<p>I’m beginning to think having the highly ranked university would be a very important part of this equation for me. Not only would you get the plays at reduced prices, you can usually take stimulating classes at relatively low prices. Wonder what Bloomington, Indiana is like??? The only other thing I would add is proximity to a major airport. Living in a city with terrible air service, and in between two cities that now have only adequate air service, I can appreciate how important that will be to me in retirement.</p>
<p>I’d be interested to see the stats that are behind those median home prices, some I understood and some I really didn’t.</p>
<p>You need to live near a good hospital too.</p>
<p>Yes, Dstark, that is important, but good medical care (and bad) is available in almost any city of >100K population, or with a major university. Don’t start naming exceptions, please, I know not all fit these criteria, but most do.
Profs don’t want to live in towns without at least adequate medical care, and state employees usually have good health insurance plans.</p>
<p>Bloomington is a nice small city. I am sure housing is cheap. the countryside is hilly and green with a large lake nearby. An hour to Indy for flights and diversions. Obviously IU has plenty to offer.</p>
<p>Cangel:</p>
<p>Bloomington is a great community. Nashville, Indiana (known as Little Nashville) is about 1/2 an hour east and is an artist’s colony. Lake Monroe is 1/2 hour south of Bloomington, and has a mix of houses and condos.</p>
<p>It’s worth a look.</p>
<p>It always surprises me that people choose to pack up and leave their hometowns when they retire. I can’t imagine leaving our friends or our community.</p>
<p>I grew up in a smallish college town (town/gown with a state U) - it seemed fine to me then but is not the kind of place where I want to spend the next couple of dozen years. We currently live outside Chicago and want to end up near an urban environment. Other criteria include plenty of interesting vacation spots within driving distance, proximity to water, and warm weather (I decided a few years ago that I do not want to spend the rest of my life in the frozen north). </p>
<p>We also prefer a somewhat significant Jewish population (i.e. more than one synagogue within 15 miles), which rules out several of the towns mentioned in the list. Unfortunately most of the places we’ve investigated are a little out of range for housing. Now that California real estate’s been coming down it’s back in our scope. Our newest potential is Irvine, which does have a university and everything else we’ve targeted - we think. Plus I discovered Surf City Synagogue while cruising online - who could not love that name!</p>
<p>I don’t know about all the spots on that list, but the Hanover NH listing is a joke. Article claims median price of single family home is $297,000. Not a chance. More like high $600,000s. 60 single family houses on market with at least 3 BRs. NONE are listed below $300K and the most expensive is over $3Million. 44 are priced between 499K and 1.5M (14 below, 2 above) Median looks to be in the high $600,000s - new construction mid 700s.</p>
<p>gbesq, I just put myself through this massive, frustrating decision-making process, and finally made the decision to make Miami permanently home, and at the same time keep a very small apartment in Washington D.C. for at least the next several years, and possibly to leave the door open to MAYBE begin the segue to retirement in Virginia 20 or so years out. I chose Miami (partly) because I want to never ever run out of things to do, and because I love the ocean, and, well, Florida has been very good to us. And I love Virginia - I love how it looks, the houses, the various things to do, the colleges, the ability to quickly get into the “country”, just not sure I can handle winter. But then I read about some of these smaller cities, and they do sound very attractive, calm and peaceful. I just cannot imagine not getting bored though - maybe if one can make enough friends and get involved in enough meaningful activities, it could work… </p>
<p>A friend of mine is getting ready to retire from federal government next year, and he and his wife went through a similar process - starting out, their criteria was to find a small college town (being close to at least one college was very important to them), and, after pretty much going through everything I went through trying to chose and spending a year or better studying various options, they decided to remain in Houston, and never leave…</p>
<p>I even looked really, really hard at San Francisco - stunningly beautiful city, that, every time I travel there it takes my breath away, but, couldn’t come up with a single valid reason to be there outside of the fact that I think it’s so beautiful…</p>
<p>Sarasota, on the original list is o.k.-ish - I have been there a million times and it is somewhat pretty, but, after one afternoon I’m bored to tears, and, it has sort of a “plastic” or “manufacturered” feel to it…also the airport is yucky in terms of price and availability of flights - but then of course, one can drive 90 minutes to the north up I-75 to Tampa International Airport, one of the best airports in the U.S., lots of awards, and get a flight nearly anywhere - but then it’s no fun driving 90 minutes on either side of a flight…</p>