Florida, long considered a mecca for retirees, didn't have any markets rank in the top five on a new list of the best places to retire in the United States.
In fact, five cities in Pennsylvania swept the top spots on U.S. News & World Report's 2024 rankings of U.S. retirement destinations, displacing some Florida markets as the criteria changed this year to include the total cost of living including property insurance and the risk of severe weather such as hurricanes.
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is the best place to retire out of the 150 most populous metropolitan areas because of high ratings for healthcare for seniors, retiree tax rates and overall happiness of its residents, according to U.S. News & World Report's latest survey.
The Keystone State had seven of the top 10 best spots for retirees. Florida secured one spot in the top 10, with Daytona Beach coming in at No. 8 after having four markets in the top 10 last year.
Still, Florida markets saw the highest rate of people aged 65 to 74 moving to the state in the past 10 years, according to data from Oxford Economics.
While Sun Belt states continue to draw more new retiring seniors from other states, the trend has slowed since 2018 as more seniors decide to age in place, partly because of an increase in seniors working past the age of 65. More than one-third of people 65 to 69 are still in the labor force, and nearly 20% of seniors in their 70s are still working, almost double the rate of the late 1980s, according to Oxford Economics. That's driven partly by increased longevity, a decline in retiree pensions and insufficient savings.
U.S. News & World Report uses its own methodology and some of its various rankings have been criticized in the past. Some colleges, for instance, have declined to participate in its annual higher education survey due to objections over its methods and criteria. For U.S. News & World Report's best places to retire list, the rankings are based on an overall retirement score using six indexes that are weighted based on the results of online surveys of people aged 45 and older.
By Joshua S. Andino and Nicole Shih
CoStar News
November 14, 2023 | 1:24 P.M
