New Release: Best and Worst States to Retire 2024

Retirement Living Logo

New Hampshire takes top spot for second straight year as more retirees site concerns over high taxes

UNITED STATES, January 2, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — Retirement Living, a leading resource for retirement planning, consumer protection, and senior health and wellness, announced the 2024 [Best and Worst States to Retire] in the United States. New Hampshire, once again, shines for its retirement-friendly tax laws and quality of life metrics. Rising concerns about increases in the overall cost of living and overdevelopment resulted in a few new entries to the list.

“We noticed a big shake-up in this year’s list,” says Jeff Smith, senior content manager at Retirement Living. For one, Delaware and Mississippi jumped from being two of the worst states in 2023 to two of the best in 2024. “Despite having the highest poverty rate in America, Mississippi earned the highest resident satisfaction rating of all 50 states, which is calculated based on responses from residents 55 and older who are either retired, semi-retired, or not yet retired.”

Overall, our data indicates a shift in consumer sentiment as it relates to retirement. While factors like affordability and access to healthcare remain top of mind for seniors when choosing a place to live, consumer data sourced by Retirement Living suggests that current and future retirees in 2024 are even more focused on retirement-specific taxes—and they’re willing to cross state lines to leverage them.

Smith notes, “Nearly half (49.6%) of respondents across all 50 states told us they’d be willing to move to a state with a more favorable retirement climate, 38% of whom are actively retired. Willingness to move also correlates with population changes by state. For example, New York-based residents amenable to moving outnumbered those who are not two-to-one. The state also experienced the largest population decrease of all 50 states, 2.9%, suggesting that the notion is more than just a feeling, they’re willing to act on it.”

Other notable findings from Retirement Living’s annual analysis include:

– Those who mentioned taxes and expenses in their responses are more likely to be willing to move to a more favorable retirement state. Concinidently, these respondents all hailed from states ranked as the “worst” for retirement.
– Only 33% of respondents from our top three “best” states said they’d move to a more favorable state. This is compared to 60% of respondents currently living in the three “worst” states for retirement.
– Thanks to its retirement-friendly tax laws, Florida placed no. 8 on this year’s list after being noticeably absent in 2023. However, our Florida-based respondents tell us that the rising costs across the board are starting to affect their ability to afford to live in the state, in addition to factors such as overdevelopment, rising insurance costs, and an increase in traffic.

Few states offer the best of all worlds, so retirees must prioritize what’s most important to them. Housing affordability or a lower tax burden isn’t always the deciding factor. For example, state taxes in Vermont and Maine are sky-high, yet they each earned spots on Retirement Living’s top 10 list. Crime and population density in both of these states are low, which suggests more seniors now consider factors pertaining to quality of life equally as important as affordability.

The 10 Best States to Retire:
1. New Hampshire
2. Maine
3. Iowa
4. Idaho
5. Mississippi
6. Delaware
7. Pennsylvania
8. Florida
9. Vermont
10. South Carolina

The 10 Worst States to Retire:
1. California
2. New York
3. Maryland
4. Louisiana
5. New Jersey
6. Utah
7. Connecticut
8. Rhode Island
9. Montana
10. Massachusetts

See the full rankings here:

The 13 data points used to create this list include state retirement taxes, state sales taxes, average home prices, median household income, the percentage of the population over 65, the percentage of people in poverty, violent and property crime rates, population density, the number of hospitals per state, the number of primary care doctors per capita, and over 1,075 responses from a Retirement Living survey.

Data sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), The Tax Foundation, and the United Health Foundation, as well as responses from our Retirement Living survey about retirement satisfaction.

About Retirement Living:
Retirement Living is your guide to and through Retirement. Find go-to resources for retirement planning, consumer protection, and health and wellness. We provide well-vetted, convenient resources for retirees’ most important choices.

Media contact: Jeff Smith; [email protected]

Jeff Smith
Retirement Living
[email protected]
Visit us on social media:
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram