Forbes compared more than 800 locales in America on everything from housing costs and taxes to healthcare, air quality, crime and climate change and natural hazard risk. These are the top 25 cities for retirees.
By William P. Barrett, Senior Contributor
Barry and Susan Mendelson raised their two children in a century-old three-story, six-bedroom Prairie-style home near Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisc. They knew they wanted to move someplace warmer and cheaper for retirement. But it took them six years of looking and planning before they settled, this past March, into a newly built four-bedroom single-story home about 1,500 miles to the southwest in Las Cruces, N.M., with grand views of the rugged Organ Mountains. “We wanted to be thoughtful about it,” says Barry, 74, who now works from home as CEO of Capital Market Consultants Inc., a firm he founded that provides investment research and asset management to financial advisors. Susan, 66, completely retired this year from her job as the senior director of donor relations at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They reckon their lifestyle in the Mesilla Valley of the Chihuahuan Desert 50 miles north of El Paso, Texas, is at least 20% cheaper than it was in Milwaukee, with big savings on utility costs and real estate taxes. After selling their Milwaukee spread for more than $1 million, they could have easily bought their new Las Cruces home without a mortgage, but took out a small one to free up cash for contingencies.
Married for 35 years, the Mendelsons had no problem leaving behind in Milwaukee two grown children, ages 33 and 32. “We raised them to lead independent lives,” Barry says. Plus, their home is just a 50-minute drive from the El Paso, Texas, airport. There are no non-stop flights to Milwaukee, and the fastest travel time with a connection is more than five hours. No problem, shrugs Barry: “When we go, we’ll stay a week.”
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