3 Takeaways from Forbes ‘Best Places to Retire in 2022’

Forbes considered more than 800 U.S. cities and towns for its latest list of the “best places to retire,” and narrowed it down to 25. Here’s what we found interesting about their choices

The economics of making a move for retirement years can be very compelling. The prospect of selling a house in an expensive location and moving to a less-expensive home with plenty of money left over to help finance retirement in a lower-cost, lower-tax locale has long tempted fledgling retirees.

Forbes recently released the 2022 edition of its annual “Best Places to Retire” list, choosing (but not ranking) 25 cities out of more than 800 U.S. cities and towns with populations above 10,000.

The primary criteria Forbes uses to compile the list are financial, including median home prices and overall cost of living, both compared to national measures, and state taxes, including income tax exemptions for Social Security and other retirement income, and state estate/inheritance taxes.

Also considered is the strength of the local economy, since many retirees look for part-time work and eventually might want to sell their home and relocate again. Quality of life is another factor, so a number of non-economic indicators are considered, ruling out cities with too high rates of serious violent crime or too few primary care doctors per capita.

Also taken into consideration are factors that promote an active retirement, including air quality and ratings for walkability and bikeability.

Finally, Forbes considered each area’s vulnerability to climate change and natural disaster risk, excluding places assigned a “very high” risk rating.

San Antonio, Texas was the largest city on the list with a population of 1.6 million, but a sweet spot seemed to be between 100,000 and 200,000 residents. Ten cities were in this range.

Here are three things we found particularly interesting about this year’s list.

College Towns Dominate List

Knoxville best places to retire — Knoxville, Tenn. Image credit: © David Cross | Dreamstime.com

Perhaps 11 of the places on the new list could be considered college towns, which Forbes notes “offer convenient opportunities for lifelong learning and great cultural and dining options, particularly for their size. In the early days of the pandemic, some of these spots became near ghost towns, leading us to knock many of them off the 2020 list. But now life in these towns is back close to normal.”

Most of the “classic” college towns on the list are home to large state universities. Among them are Athens, Ga., home to the University of Georgia; College Station, Texas, home to Texas A&M; Columbia, Mo., home to the University of Missouri; Iowa City, Iowa, home to the University of Iowa; Knoxville, Tenn., home to the University of Tennessee; Lawrence, Kan., home to the University of Kansas; Lexington, Ky., home to the University of Kentucky; Lincoln, Neb., home to the University of Nebraska; Madison, Wis., home to the University of Wisconsin; and Tucson, Ariz., home to the University of Arizona.

Next page: Only city to make every list