Top Retirement Spots With Today's Retirees

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Kelly Greene

The Wall Street Journal Online

Pete Lydens traveled around the mid-Atlantic states and the Southeast as a city manager and consultant for 50 years, so he was familiar with many of the country's retirement hot spots when it came time to decide where to land himself. But he eschewed the region's lush golf-course communities and mountain hideaways, instead choosing to return to a hamlet where he worked in the 1960s: Mount Airy, N.C., population 8,454.

"It's almost mystical the way people here relate to friends and strangers," he says of the town, where actor Andy Griffith grew up and which still resembles the fictional Mayberry in Mr. Griffith's 1960s TV show. "It's the ideal place to retire."

For years, the search for a new home in retirement has been tied to weather and leisure. States like Arizona and Florida captured the lion's share of transplants, with good reason: They offer a warm climate, lots of sunshine and plenty of golf, tennis and water sports.

But today, while weather and leisure remain important, retirees are telling builders, developers and researchers that they are looking primarily for what Mr. Lydens has found in Mount Airy: a community where they can make friends and connections quickly, whether it's a small town or a walkable neighborhood in a big city. A close second and third on the priority lists: a home that's near grandchildren, and a setting where one can indulge a post-work passion, such as a second career, a newly adopted sport or even, for a growing number of people, farming.

"Moving to a mixed-use development, a small town, or seeking an urban experience are all elements of the same thing: It's a community where you get to know each other," says John McIlwain, 62 years old, a senior resident fellow for the Urban Land Institute, a research group in Washington. He traded a Maryland suburb for a 1,000-square-foot loft downtown after his children left home. "You're walking around, and you get to know your neighbors, you get to know the shopkeepers, because you meet them on the street."

http://biz.yahoo.com/special/retire1010_06_article1.html

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

You don't like people much, huh?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

They only get in the way

[one...two...tree 2,762]

They only get in the way

Lonely little goblin king.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Ya I'm so ronry...

And besides, all those senior citizens are from the other species anyway. I hate that species. Maybe I will declare war on them soon.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Ya I'm so ronry...

And besides, all those senior citizens are from the other species anyway. I hate that species. Maybe I will declare war on them soon.

But with less pay you won't be able to match their arsenal. Better to go live a cave.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I suddenly feel like watching Time Machine. Not the new one, but the one from the 50s.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I suddenly feel like watching Time Machine. Not the new one, but the one from the 50s.

[Mags 112]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

You don't like people much, huh?

Can't blame him. I've only met a few people who aren't stupid or annoying or both of those combined.

Give me a little house in the middle of no where and I'd be one happy lady.

Edited October 20, 2006 by mags

[mawilson 2,133]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

You don't like people much, huh?

I like watching them. Otherwise, no.

[Mags 112]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

You don't like people much, huh?

I like watching them. Otherwise, no.

Watching them do what?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

You don't like people much, huh?

I like watching them. Otherwise, no.

I wonder what Freud would say about that.

[mawilson 2,133]

Thank you for that list of towns to stay away from

You don't like people much, huh?

I like watching them. Otherwise, no.

Watching them do what?

[mybackpages 0]

What about out of the country retirement ? I want to grow old ont he Mediterranean coast