As Americans rush to retire, they may be looking around for the best place to settle after leaving the workforce. In a new ranking, southeast states swept the top three spots judged the best places for retirees in 2021.
Georgia came out the winner, followed closely by Florida and Tennessee, in a list Wednesday released by Bankrate that weighted things like affordability and weather. Two northern states—Missouri and Massachusetts—rounded out the top five.
Maryland came in last, as it did in the previous ranking in 2019.
Other factors that Bankrate took into consideration were culture, wellness and crime.
Georgia’s affordability—determined by a cost-of-living index and state tax rates—propelled the state to the top spot.
“The median home price in the Atlanta area was $279,000 in the first quarter, while the national average is $319,000,” Bankrate analyst Jeff Ostrowski said. “Atlanta is cheaper than moderately priced markets in Florida. It looks like Georgia is offering a real price advantage even next to other states in the South.”
Ostrowski tweaked how the rankings measured the weather’s effect on retirement. Rather than just using average daily temperature, Ostrowski factored in the history of extreme weather events. With a small coastline, and not a lot of hurricane or earthquake risk, that bumped Georgia’s weather score up a notch.
Bankrate looks at a wide range of data sets that would apply to retiree life, including the Cost of Living Index from the Council for Community and Economic Research, property and sales tax rates, and the Gallup-ShareCare Wellbeing Index.
—With assistance from Sophie Caronello.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.