We put together this list of cities together with a primary goal, first and foremost, to identify retirement value: places that offer a high quality of life at an affordable price. Another timely metric we’ve long considered is the availability of medical care, cities that encourages a healthy and active lifestyle with good air quality, convenience for walking and biking, and housing affordability. Since living well is just as important as living affordably, we look at a number of quality of life indicators, including entertainment options and rate of violent crime.
The biggest factors we take into account involve money, including median home prices, the overall cost of living compared with the national average, along with state tax rates including special income tax exemptions for Social Security, other retirement income, state estate/inheritance taxes.
And last but least, we wanted to focus on areas that were characterized by excellent diversity with an African American population of at least 30%.
