The Big Apple is rotten to the core—at least when it comes to retirement. Bankrate’s “Best and Worst Cities to Retire” list is out, and New York City ranks dead last in favorability to retirees. The best city? That would be Mesa, Ariz. In fact, Arizona had three cities named in the top five.
Bankrate ranks U.S. cities according to their cost of living, crime rate (violent and property crimes), walkability, health care quality, state and local tax burden, personal well-being for seniors and weather (temperature and precipitation).
The list started with a database of thousands of cites; however, only 196 had data available for all of the ranking categories. They pared the list further to combine neighboring areas with nearly identical statistics, leaving us with 172 distinct areas.
The top five are:
- Mesa/ Phoenix, AZ
- Arlington/ Alexandria, VA
- Prescott, AZ
- Tucson, AZ
- Des Moines/ West Des Moines, IA
And the bottom five:
- Newark, NJ
- Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY
- New Haven/Milford/Bridgeport, CT
- Little Rock/Conway, AR
- New York City, NY
See Also:
- 10 Worst Cities to Retire
- One in 10 American Workers Not Saving for Retirement: Bankrate
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of 401(k) Specialist and Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots. Experienced financial services content executive specializing in creative new media delivery. He joined the American Retirement Association in 2023 as Chief Content Officer, overseeing communications for the organization, as well as its sister organizations.