Best retirement locations in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico... or someplace similar
 

We're getting close to retirement age and have started considering whether to eventually move from where we've lived for several decades (in Maryland) to a western state. States we've traveled to over the years and really like include Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, and they seem like a good starting point.

Our preferred criteria include access to scenic areas for hiking, a reasonably-lively town center (restaurants, entertainment, shopping), and perhaps a nearby college or university. Towns such as Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Flagstaff, and Santa Fe seem to fit the bill.

We had thought to go out to that part of the country for a week or two in the Spring and drive around to check out various places.

Anyone have any recommendations?

Almost 30 years ago, we made the same pilgrimage. You might want to add some other features to your list.

Distance to nearest airport. Medical services.
Library services.
Religious aspects. The latter is included because some religions dominate town social life. And you might want to avoid being excluded.
Taxation.
Schools.
Other "quality of life" aspects.

We favored a certain state when we began our quest. However, we found the people we met to be boastful, exclusive, racist, and snobbish.

Be careful.

I love Boulder, but property is expensive. Fort Collins is fine and cheaper than Boulder. Santa Fe would also be a good choice. You left out places in Arizona, but we lived in Tucson for four years and it certainly meets all your requirements and housing there is especially affordable right now.

USNR - Yes; you're right about proximity to a decent airport and the availability of a good hospital. Taxes just about anywhere will probably be better than what we pay in Maryland! Good schools are no longer an issue for us (though we do like the idea of a university that offers classes for seniors). BTW; which state are you describing at the end of your post?

Historytraveler - I mentioned Flagstaff, Arizona. Tucson is a great place (we were there in the winter, and the weather was perfect!), but I'm wondering if we would grow weary of the summer heat.

Yes you will grow tired of the summer heat. We usually headed up to Colorado for most of the summer.

There is almost always a bit of give and take when considering location. Tucson has great weather nine months out of the year. The rest of the places you mentioned will have typical winter weather for four months out of the year. If you don't mind some cold and snow, then you'll be fine.

I would absolutely plan on visiting any of the places you are considering.

Las Cruces NM is a college town and doesn't have the extremes in hot and cold that some of your other choices listed have. Real estate is also far cheaper than most of your other choices.

http://the-best-place-to-retire.com/

Another area in Colorado to consider is Durango. Were it me, I'd actually be looking for a home in the mountains or valleys surrounding Durango but close enough for the city's amenities.

My personal preference is to be away from large cities such as Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, etc. Durango is just about the right size for me. It also is in some of the most seriously gorgeous country on earth.

There is a town in Arizona called Prescott. I've heard that since I saw it last, it has experienced the retiree rush. It's negative is that it is about 1 hour from Phoenix. But it is quite close to Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon (FAB AREAS). And it isn't cheap as when I was looking at it, years ago- but it is killer location, IMHO.

I absolutely love, love Prescott. It's got it all- and especially that great weather and yet 1/2 way up the elevation of the mountain range it has very specific pluses, as it doesn't get the Tuscon and desert type heat half as much.

But the killer to me, is that it has trees and looks like someone dropped a piece of Michigan into the SW. And Goldwater Lake.

Much better access to hot weather places and variety for the pricing than CO is Prescott, IMHO. But CO is beautiful and majestic, and right now has lots of foreclosures that could be great buys.

Difficult driving and cold/harsh weather changes are very real issues
in CO.

USNR is absolutely correct.

Take a careful, analytical look at taxes. And be very careful about your healthcare options. That's one reason why I crossed Hawaii off my map- dreadful acces to healthcare.

Also, you should rent in a place for a year before ever buying property. You really won't have any idea of what you really miss and what you don't need until you've been in a place for at least a year.

Personally, I wouldn't retire in any of the places you mention in your original post.

Re Prescott - it seems to be "the place" for retired Californians. For me, it's too far from a big city. It's way more than an hour from Phoenix -- closer to 2 hours, and about 1:15+ to Sedona. Parts of Prescott are beautiful -- the trees, the hills, therefore the views. But it is also growing in not-so-great ways, for example, TWO Wal-Marts -- one on each end of town. The people I know who live there (and are retired) absolutely love it, it's just not for me.

Hi Balto,

We retired from the Denver area to Grand Junction CO 12 years ago, and overall, we like it.

It is approximately 4,500 feet altitude and has a modified four-season climate. Summers are quite warm, in the mid-upper 90s. Winters have a little snow and temps usually in the 30s and 40s. We had an usual cold snap over the weekend with highs in the 20s and lows in the teens and we had a couple inches of very dry snow. We have shovelled half a dozen times or so in the 12 years we have lived here.

Our downtown is great-shops and restaurants and a nice ambience. There is a college in town, with a highly respected theatre arts and music department, as well as a symphony orchestra, so there are plenty of cultural events.

To the east are the high Rockies and to the west is the Colorado National Monument, so lots of hiking and bicycling all over the area.

We have an airport and are on the California Zephyr Amtrak route and Interstate 70. Property taxes and home prices are relatively low. My house would sell right now for about $225,000 and prop taxes are around $850-900 per year.

The downsides--some people don't like the heat(although it's a dry heat, ha, ha)and the area is quite conservative.

Just a bit of a look at our town.

So, is there anything like Grand Junction, which otherwise sounds wonderful, that isn't "quite conservative" (which wouldn't suit us)?

Here's another tip. Once you zero in on a few towns, subscribe to the local newspaper for six months. You learn a lot that way, both good and bad.

Visit the towns for a few days each. Just hang out. Find a bench and sit. People-watch. Strike up conversations. We avoided Tezas that way.

Whatever you do, do NOT buy any property -- and don't be a sucker for "distressed" property. It's "distressed" for a reason.

Excuse me. I forgot to recommend that you and your spouse take time to look within yourselves -- what are your life expectations?

We have friends who moved from Connecticut to Maine to Arizona to Florida and on to Colorado in retirement, forever seeking "the perfect place."

We suspect it will forever be a mirage. Individual problems often are very portable.

And the husband and wife are on different emotional wave lengths, neither happy, neither content, neither investing in their retirement communities. So sad. So unnecessary. And the clock ticks on.

I've lived in the Denver area my entire life and love all that Colorado offers. That being said I would spend a winter here renting before making a big move. It has been frigid cold here for the past several days and it is very limiting for outdoor activities. The ice and snow can be dangerous and also may limit your mobility as you get older. I love to hike but that will not happen again until late spring and the snow starts to melt. Retirement is still quite a bit away for us, but we are already thinking about spending the winter months in a warmer location where we can enjoy the outdoors.

USNR made some fabulous points. Especially considering what you bring with you and the attitutde towards outreaching when you get there.

Some of us want to make our own adventures and to follow a few others in theirs, and some other long married couples and individuals both want few adventures or surprises. Others want lots to be outside of themselves and "there"- so that they can drop into or out of the "prime retired state" completely at will.

It's essentially important how much you both want to put into the adventures and possible changes, or want to remain the same. LOL!

And yes, it is so true that some places are much, much more receptive to "outsiders" or different thinking or speeds of activity or movement, than others.

Rent absolutely- and this isn't for retirement either- but for any big location move.

I didn't know Prescott was the place to retire for Californians! I hardly know any Californians. All the Illinois people who I knew that retired West always went to Az or NM and not that part at all. I just happened to find it on a long drive and loved it.

And also thought the people we meet there were smart, frisky, and moved/talked faster. LOL! And it had that luscious 1000 hues of green, like MI does.

I moved from suburbs of NYC to Albuquerque in 2001, seeking much of the same as you.

I really like living there - lots of sunshine, reasonable [very] real estate, good health care, airport, university, arts etc.

Santa Fe is nice, but very expensive and it isn't called "The city different" for no reason. It is very "out there" and can be"snobby, aloof" and hard to break into life there.

Las Cruces is nice, but airport would be either El Paso [not sure about size] or ABQ [3+- hours away].

Silver City was named as a good retirement location in NM by a number of publications [aarp; buisness week, fortune or some similar magazine that rate best places to retire. It is a bit further north and west than Las Cruces.

I moved from ABQ to just outside of Durango in 2005. Durango is a great town, not cheap. It has a college, arts, music, mountains, skiing, drop dead scenery, good restaurants, good health care. It is 3 hours from ABQ [airport]. The residents are friendly, eco aware and it is a great place to live.

Grand Junction is also a great place. It is bigger than Durango and the altitude is lower so it has milder winters but hotter summers.


Flagstaff gets snow and sometimes lots of it. It is also pretty cold in winter.

Tucson is hot- good for winter - horrible in summer.

Feel free to email me if I can help.

It isn'tan easy decision. You need to come out here and visit a number of places and more than once. You need to see it during summer and winter for sure. Spring too - it is very windy here in spring and can get dusty and trigger allergies you didn't know you had [espeically since foliage here is different].

Fall, the BEST time of year here - just for the sheer fun of seeing the magic of the southwest.

Deb

My husband has been curious about retiring to St. George Utah. Any views on life there for non-LDS?

Thanks,

MY

St. George, Utah. Pretty little place. Wide streets. Clean. Hmmm. See my comments above re religious aspects. Also consider your politics. Check the area's demographics. Go to your library and get a copy of the Statistical Abstract of the U. S. Census. Get a subscription of the town newspaper.

In terms of expenses both Washington State & Wyoming have no state tax. Watch carefully tho Wash state has big property tax when you sell.

Washington on the coast like Sequim (banana belt gets more sunshine than most NW) lots of outdoors stuff ..but 2 hours to BIG city Seattle airport & healthcare..there is a smaller hosp in Port Angeles.
I grew up PNW and I want to go home. When I was young was a sunseeker now old and am an iceberg seeker.

My Dad moved from Washington to Cody WY. He has lots of acres and animals few people but summer is over 100 and winter right now is "0". He has good rural healthcare but Billings is nearest BIG city hosp, airport 2 hour drive.

I live in CA (big taxes but real estate bargains can be had)...now as that is where my DH & I work..his dream is to live aboard a sailboat & cast off teh lines..I get seasick and would like a nice farm in Sonoma or Sequim.

MichelleY, my inlaws just moved from northern New Mexico to Cedar City, Utah, and so far they really like it. It has a university, a hospital, etc., and is close to Zion National Park. They are fairly liberal in their theology and politics and they feel at home there.

Lee Ann

It is difficult to response to this question because we all have such different perspectives. At 67 we have been engaging in this activity for several years. Visited Scottsdale/Phoenix area for a week last March. Althought highly recommended by friends and relatives we immediately took it off our list. Our starting point is the southside of Denver and have not found anyplace better for OUR CRITERIA but will keep looking.

Read wtm003 posting about Denver and obviously don't share the same perspective of Denver. We think the winters in Denver are very mild but we came here from the Chicago area. We love the year around low humidity and no bugs when compared to the midwest. We find the year around outdoor activities to be excellent. Just back from two days of skiing at Beaver Creek. We are avid cyclists and enjoy the 500 plus miles of trails and paths in the Denver metro area. We ride year around. The are periods of cold and snow such as we are experiencing now but MOST of the time they past quickly. There are exceptions -- two years ago we did have seven straight weeks of snow and nearly set a record for continuous days of snow cover -- almost 90 days. And there was the great blizzard of 82 BUT these are the exception rather than the rule. Property taxes for seniors in CO are very low if not too low. Denver has a good public transit system which is getting better. We anticipate being able to go car less when it becomes necessary. Air service out of DIA is good and medical services are outstanding. Are there negatives -- of course, but we believe they are minor when compared to the positives. The theater scene here is very good and the variety of quality restaurants in downtown Denver is outstanding. We have all of the professional sports although I am not a big fan of professional sports but attending a CU football is great. CU has their ups and downs so tickets are easy to come by. Denver is a good place to die and we will probably stay here to the end. But we do keep looking.

Now your criteria for a good retirement area could be substantially different than ours. I don't play golf so golf courses are not important to me. If year around hiking is critical. then wtm003 is correct -- you need to look somewhere else.

If as we age, we decide somewhere else would be better, our plan would be rent something there for a year before deciding to permanently move. Good luck with your search.

fmp - how'd you fare with Sundays temps?? More to come again this Sunday, eh?

Snowing pretty good here in SW CO.

Deb

Temps where -- Denver or Beaver Creek? No question it was cold at BC in single digits most of the time. Just add on the appropriate layer. As long as there isn't a lot of wind I am OK down to about zero. I can stick to the trees and sheltered areas where it is fine. I can work hard enough to keep the body temp up BUT riding the chairs can be tough in low temp and wind. We are getting a cold spell. The -18 Sunday in Denver did set a record and it was coldest since Feb 07. But as I said in the prior post, that generally passes quickly. Right now it is mid 30s and bright sun -- it feels great. Not like when we lived in the Chicago area. It was gray, overcast, damp, get cold and stay cold even if the absolute temp was not that low.

<but I'm wondering if we would grow weary of the summer heat.>


Oh yeah. But the winters come close to making up for it.

My wife and went through the same situation a few years ago and I feel qualified to give you some sound advice. First a week or two is not enough time to make a decision between various locations. I might recommend you spread this venture over three trips and get to know each state and area better before deciding. Second as many have said rent in the area you have chosen and at the worst time of the year. Next, do not underestimate the weather factor. We moved from a warm climate to a four seasons climate and the winters drove us nuts as golf courses were closed for five months, lakes frozen over, etc.Coming from Maryland winter may not be a problem for you but some of the areas you mentioned have summer temps that will keep you in doors from July through Sept.My wife and I lasted for three years before moving back and this was a costly mistake. Taxes are a big factor. While some states boast no state income tax the property taxes are outrageous.This being said, I would choose Ft. Collins as it is a great town in it's own right and only sixty miles from Denver.Good luck in your search and take your time.

I would think Santa Fe is as expensive as Boulder.

I am partial to Fort Collins and Boulder. Plus Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes park are a close drive. I'm from Wisconsin but have lived in Denver many years.

I wouldn't consider Fort Collins a large city but then everyone has a different defnition I guess.

Flagstaff weather, I've heard, is similar to Fort Collins'/Denver.

The Western Slope area(Grand Junction) is not as pretty to me. And gets much hotter in summer.

I think Durango gets a lot more snow and cold than the Colorado Front Range? (The towns from Fort Collins down to Colorado Springs)

I second everything fmpden said!

Sue

Thank you, Sue. I think the front range has a lot to offer. We happen to prefer the urban setting so size of Denver doesn't bother us. To enjoy all of the services you want or need you have to have a critical mass. Having come here from the far south side of Chicago we think Denver size is just right and the traffic great. But someone may find it too big or too metro. Fortunately we all do not want the same thing.

As has been said, this is a very individual decision. Everyone has different priorities. We found what was important to us, was not necessarily what all the retirement magazines said to look for.

Here's my suggestion.

Make a spreadsheet. List all the things that are important to you e.g. health care, public transportation, nearby university, etc. Make the list as long as needed and try to put it in relative order of importance. Be realistic. Think about what you enjoy today and what you think you'd like to do when retired. Will you really go the opera? Do you want to volunteer more? Is retirement the time for sports or are you kidding yourself?

In another column list facts/statistical data e.g. weather, average income, crime, tax info, etc. You can find everything you need on the web.

Fill in the data for all the places you are interested in.

Read the local newspapers on line to see what's going on.

Evaluate the data. You may be surprised your "favorite" place is missing one or two of your top criteria. Or, the weather isn't really what the advertising says it is.

Then, pick your top 2-3 places.

Visit in the heat of summer. Visit in the dead of winter. Hang out in the local cafes. Perhaps stay in a local B&B. Pretend you are living there -- go to the grocery stores, churches (if applicable), library, etc.

Fill in the spread sheet with what YOU find about that town -- again, not what the magazines or your friends say.

Some places will fall off the list quickly for one reason or another.

After two or three years, you'll have a much better idea of what really works for you.

Good luck.

The grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence and then you get there and discover it is Astroturf. I do not believe the perfect retirerment place exists. Everywhere has a downside. Harsh winter, brutal summer, 4 seasons, no seasons,too crowded, too remote, too humid, too dry, etc.

I think first you need to decide why you want to move from your "home of several decades". If it is simply to escape the harsh winters I would suggest you spend them renting in a warmer climate. Using VRBO.com you could visit, explore, and get to know a new city (anywhere in the world) every year.

Do not underestimate the importance of living near family (especially grandchildren) and a close network of friends - especailly as you age.

Above all to not make your decision, as others have said, by traveling to a place in the spring. Most places are at their prime during the spring and the fall. Good luck with your quest.

Boulder is a fantastic town. But not for retirement, IMHO. It's very expensive, can get snowy and cold, but most importantly it's best for the student-age folks because that's it's overall vibe. A retired person would feel like the 'odd man out.'

We lived there for a few years, while in grad school. Loved it, but it does start to feel a big homogenous after awhile. Not a diverse population at all.

What about Golden, CO? It might be cold there, too, though. But you'd be close to the mountains. Colorado School of Mines is a very good school located there. Close enough to Denver for major shopping.

dwoodon.....please don't tell anyone else about Durango.

Barblab, I totally agree with you and also think that 2 or 3 years in, many retirees talk as if they are rather trying to convince themselves it was the best pick- because they are tied into it.

Especially if you want weather to be warm or temperate, the happiest retirees seem to me to be the ones who rent in varied locations in the manner you have described.

Some of you might be interested in this article:

http://tinyurl.com/Winter-Retirement-Dest

San Diego native and there are some great real estate deals right now and the weather is overall gorgeous most of the year.
Great health care, golf courses, travel time to desert, mountains is an hour away..good quality of life.
I couldn't imagine being 'older' and having to deal with the winter cold and the snow.
Best to you Balto!

ksucat - my parents retired to San Diego from the Northeast, and loved it (in fact, my 89-year old dad, who has now lived there for nearly 25 years, still does).

I would LOVE to retire in La Jolla, but that's not likely because it is way out of our price range.

I think we're going to decide against desert states; I'm a gardener, and xeriscaping (sp?) options are limited. I would love to stay in our present house; however, my area has very high property taxes to support a very good school system, and those taxes would drain our retirement income. So we're thinking of several places in Oregon, hoping to find some where escaping Californians haven't inflated housing prices.

<i>I would LOVE to retire in La Jolla, but that's not likely because it is way out of our price range.</i>

Well, yeah, but there's La Jolla and then there's the rest of San Diego!

islebethere,

If you think Oregon is a place escaping Californians haven't escalated property values - you are 15 years out of date!

if you check out Ft. Collins, then also visit Greeley - home of U of Northern Colo.

Nice town - quieter than Ft. Collins. Good housing values - we recently bought a nice 3300 sf house on 1/3 acre for 190K (foreclosure) just a mile from campus.
I know of a similar house in better shape in a nicer location for only 225K