A Florida city tops the latest list of the best and most affordable places to retire. But, it's probably not a city you would think of.
A real estate search engine called Neighborhood Scout dot-com looked at 61-thousand cities from coast to coast around America to come up with this top ten list.
You won't see brand names like Palm Springs, Branson, Missouri, or Vancouver. This list focused more on affordability.
David and Helen Cook crunched the numbers and decided to retire in St.
Petersburg from Massachuessetts.
Their planning paid off, despite the high property taxes and insurance rates, they say the Tampa bay area is affordable with all the amenities.
But, St. Petersburg doesn't make the latest top ten list of most affordable places to retire according to Neighborhood Scout.
The top ten best and affordable places to retire, with top quality at premium values:
Coming in at number ten: Lee, Massachusetts, which offers an arts community and great values in home prices compared to the rest of the region.
Kennebunkport, Maine comes in at number nine.
Greenbank, Washington is number eight.
Number seven is Bella vista, Arkansas.
The popular Sun City, Arizona comes in at number six.
Hitting in the middle of the list is Fredericksburg, Texas just outside of Austin in the hill country.
Neighborhood Scout's fourth most affordable place to retire is Los Osos, California.
Norris, Tennessee comes in at number three with median home values around 220-thousand dollars.
Number two is Lookout Mountain, Georgia, with incredible views, four seasons and you're only about an hour and a half from Atlanta and 30-minutes from Chatanooga.
And Neighborhood Scout’s number one most affordable place to retire is seaside community of…Melbourne Beach, Florida. Neighborhood Scout researchers say median prices for a single family home are in the mid-400’s - highly reasonable for seaside living, they say.
Neighborhood Scout says the key to this list is that these aren't brand name cities yet, but they are being built up and discovered. So, if you have a five to ten year horizon, you should do some research on some of those cities.
