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till in their mid-50s, Gloria and Kevin Murray of Morgan Hill, California, at the Silicon Valley’s southern tip, are planning well ahead to enjoy their future empty nester status, and ultimately, their retirement years. They recently bought a house 500 miles to the north in Bend, Oregon, where they hope to kayak, ski, bike and golf. “We are outdoor adventurers,’’ says Gloria. The youngest of their three daughters has two years to go in high school, so they won’t be moving until at some point after her graduation, perhaps a few years after. Meanwhile, they’re gradually moving their belongings to Bend. Kevin, a tech company marketing exec, plans to work remotely and the couple figures they’ll turn their Morgan Hill home of 20 years into an investment property, renting it out. “We’ll be ready to do stuff just for us,” says Gloria.
Baby Boomers and Gen Xers with financial means have more options than ever for pursuing their passions in retirement. Remote work makes an early, pre-retirement move possible. And recent housing appreciation, frustrating as it is for Millennials and Gen Zers trying to break into home ownership, gives older generations even more options.
In 2019, retired-for-two-years John and Terry Fish, moved from the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington, D.C.—he had been a lobbyist, she a Congressional staffer—and bought a home on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, an upscale suburb on the Atlantic Ocean across the harbor from Charleston. But after four years of enjoying the area’s charms, “we were ready for a new adventure,” John says. So, John, now 57, and Teri, 53, sold their large home and, thanks to its price appreciation, were able this year to buy a slightly smaller one in Bend for cash. (The median home in Bend goes for $724,000, 78% above the national median.) The Fishes had visited Bend over the years, and with no kids, didn’t hesitate to pick up and move with their two English cream golden retrievers.
Terry and Al Hershey took a unique, and more leisurely, approach to finding their retirement bliss. Already retired and living in Bonita Springs, Florida, the now 76-year-old couple (they met in college and have been married 54 years), loaded their goldendoodle and Aussiedoodle into their 34-foot RV in 2020 and drove to Traverse City, Michigan, an idyllic town of 16,000 on a bay opening to Lake Michigan, 250 miles northwest of Detroit and 320 miles northeast of Chicago. They fell in love with and purchased a 132-year-old, two-story 5-bedroom Victorian three blocks from Grand Traverse Bay and lived in their RV during several months of extensive renovations, finally occupying their dream home in 2021.
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They now spend six months a year in Michigan, biking, hiking, kayaking and motor boating to their hearts’ content while picking from dozens of yearly live music performances at the nearby Interlochen Center for the Arts and partaking of excellent local restaurants. They’ve also become supporters, personally and through their family foundation, of the 71-year-old Traverse Symphony Orchestra, a professional operation that helps make the area, known agriculturally for its tart cherry cultivation, a cultural mecca, too. “We wanted a summer base,” says Terry, who says they also considered places in the Carolinas.
Traverse City and Bend are both returnees to the Forbes list of the 25 Best Places to Enjoy Your Retirement. Our new 2023 edition, our seventh, contains picks in 17 states and for the first time, with the addition of Honolulu, five time zones. As in previous years, we’re don’t exclude candidates simply because they’re expensive. Instead, we include them because they are great places to pursue one, several, or all of the following seven passions: arts/culture; fine dining; lifelong learning; volunteering; outdoor activities on water; outdoor activities on land, and in its own special category, golf. The full list can be found here.
Most new retirees—roughly 3 million a year, according to federal data —don’t move far, or move to be near family or to cut living costs. Indeed, Forbes’ main Best Places To Retire list aims to identify places that provide a high quality of retirement living at an affordable cost.
“,”title”:”Hilton Head, South Carolina”,”position”:0,”credit”:”Thinkstock/Getty Image”,”imageId”:”6500a2265070f2fc4a3e675b”,”galleryId”:”6500a1392391cbe18b5e700d”,”slug”:”hilton-head-south-carolin”,”height”:”1725″,”width”:”2587″},{“image”:”https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/6500a221fc536530924f3f1c/0x0.jpeg”,”uri”:”/pictures/6500a1392391cbe18b5e700d/honolulu-hawaii”,”caption”:”
Great for outdoor water and land activities and golf
POPULATION: 349,000
MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $801,000, 97% above national median
COST OF LIVING: 69% above national average
Hawaii’s capital city anchors the scenic Pacific Ocean Island of Oahu, with a wide range of water and land recreational opportunities, including 40 golf courses. The tropical town has a high ratio of primary care doctors per capita, good air quality, and a low serious crime rate. The city is highly walkable and bikeable. Honolulu has a relatively high (but not very high) risk rating for natural hazards from FEMA. For a joint return, the state income tax hits a stiff 8.25% on taxable income of $96,000, but Social Security benefits and all pension income are exempt from the tax. Hawaii’s state estate tax hits estates above $5.5 million at a 10% to 20% rate.
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Great for arts/culture and lifelong learning
POPULATION: 75,000
MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $285,000, 30% below national median
COST OF LIVING: 13% below national average
University of Iowa provides numerous lifelong learning opportunities and acts as a catalyst for arts and cultural activities in this traditional college town, 115 miles east of Des Moines. There’s a high number of doctors, good air quality and a low serious crime rate. The city is very bikeable and somewhat walkable. Elevation is 700 feet. FEMA gives Iowa City a favorable relatively low risk ranking for climate change and natural hazards. State income tax tops out at 6% on joint return taxable income above $150,000, but Social Security benefits and all pension/retirement income are excluded from taxable income. There is a state inheritance tax.
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Great for arts/culture, lifelong learning, volunteering and outdoor water activities
POPULATION: 275,000
MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $377,000, 7% below national median
COST OF LIVING: 1% above national average
University of Wisconsin-Madison is at the heart of this city’s appeal, offering a number of learning programs aimed at senior citizens in a lake-festooned state capital, 150 miles northwest of Chicago. The city has a terrific ratio of primary care physicians per capita, good air quality, a low serious crime rate and is very walkable and bikeable. Elevation is 900 feet. FEMA gives it a favorable relatively low rating for natural hazard risk. State income tax is 5.3% for typical joint filers but tops out at 7.65% on taxable joint income above $405,550. Social Security benefits are not taxed. There is no state estate or inheritance tax.
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Great for golf
POPULATION: 21,000
MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $471,000, 16% above national median
COST OF LIVING: At national average
Some 40 golf courses, anchored by the century-old Pinehurst Resort, distinguish this scenic village 90 miles east of Charlotte. The ratio of primary care doctors per capita is high, the air quality is good, and the serious crime rate is very low. Elevation is 560 feet. FEMA rates Pinehurst as having a relatively moderate natural hazard risk. The state income tax rate is a flat 4.75%, but Social Security income is exempt and there’s no state estate or inheritance tax.
“,”title”:”Pinehurst, North Carolina”,”position”:0,”credit”:”David Cannon/Getty Images”,”imageId”:”6500a1f5cdc4164d9f3e675f”,”galleryId”:”6500a1392391cbe18b5e700d”,”slug”:”pinehurst-north-carolina”,”height”:”987″,”width”:”1543″},{“image”:”https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/6500a1e94514e31b355e700d/0x0.jpeg”,”uri”:”/pictures/6500a1392391cbe18b5e700d/pittsfield-massachusetts”,”caption”:”
Great for arts/culture and outdoor land activities
POPULATION: 45,000
MEDIAN HOME PRICE: $282,000, 31% below national median
COST OF LIVING: 12% below national average
A world-class summer arts/culture scene makes this old industrial city, 135 miles west of Boston and 40 miles southeast of Albany, N.Y., stand out. Nearby state parks, skiing and wildlife areas abound in the scenic but not-so-high Berkshire Mountains. The ratio of primary care doctors per capita is high, and there is good air quality. FEMA rates Pittsfield as having a very low risk for natural hazards. One downside: the serious crime rate is above the national average The state income tax rate is a flat 5% below $1 million, but 9% above that income. There’s no state income tax on Social Security earnings, but a state estate tax kicks in on estates over $1 million.
Our choices are listed alphabetically, with the particular passions noted for each place.
Here’s our general methodology. We looked at more than 800 places around the country—including some suggested by Forbes readers—compiling a ton of data we put through our evaluative metrics. We cut places with populations below 10,000 on the theory there would be an inadequate supply of housing if everyone rushed in. For the skinny on specific passions and top places for them, we reviewed scores of published evaluations by experts and enthusiasts.
We also screened picks for other quality-of-retirement-life issues, including primary care physicians per capita in the county of the particular place; air quality; serious crime rates (axing places more than several times the national average). We noted how walkable and bikeable a place is. Then we applied our editorial judgment.
Click here for full coverage of the 25 Best Places To Enjoy Your Retirement In 2023.
Vulnerability to climate change/natural hazard risk remains a big factor in our selection process. For the last three years, Forbes has weighed such risks in its methodology for picking retirement spots, eliminating places with the very highest perceived risks. This is a big reason why no places from Florida are on the list, as well as the omission of other passion pursuit-filled places like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles. We acknowledge factoring this in can be something of a guessing game and can miss any quickly changing situations. Specifically, we use the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index for Natural Hazards. It calculates for every county in the country a relative vulnerability measure for 18 natural hazards, including wildfires, heat, hurricanes, flooding, landslides and earthquakes, and also factors in a community’s ability to deal with those threats. We exclude places that are deemed to have a very high risk.
While not dispositive to our selections, we include a description of state taxation because relocating folks want to know about this and, hey, we’re Forbes. Three places on the list have no general state income tax: Austin, Seattle and Walla Walla. Two, both in Oregon, have no sales tax: Bend and Eugene. We note whether any part of Social Security income is taxed at the state level (we’re looking at you, Santa Fe), general taxation of other retirement income and whether there’s a state estate or inheritance tax (found in Annapolis, Bend, Boston, Eugene, Honolulu, Iowa City, Pittsfield, Seattle and Walla Walla).
Our data is drawn from a number of sources. Median home prices come primarily from the National Association of Realtors and zillow.com. Cost of living information comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and bestplaces.net. Serious crime stats are drawn from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and neighborhoodscout.com. Air quality metrics are collected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Assessments of walkability (the ability to stroll easily to basic retail businesses and mass transit for everyday needs) and bikeability (same idea using pedaling) come from walkscore.com and the League of American Bicyclists. The ambience for volunteering comes from barda.org and volunteeringinamerica.gov.