RISMEDIA, December 20, 2010—Portfolio.com, a national business news site for small and mid-sized business (SMB) executives revealed its latest U.S. Uncovered study, ranking the most popular and desired cities for retirement. The study, which used a six-part formula to rank 157 metropolitan and micropolitan markets with at least 40,000 seniors, named Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida as the number one choice for seniors’ post-retirement plans.
“Beginning next year, an unprecedented three million Americans will turn 65. While most of these seniors are expected to stay in their current homes, a significant number will decide to seek new places to live in other parts of the country,” said J. Jennings Moss, editor of Portfolio.com. “In addition to warm cities, we’ve also noticed that seniors are attracted to communities that already have a significant population of retirees. This demonstrates that seniors will go to places that already have a comfortable infrastructure in place.”
Already thought to be the classic retirement destination, the state of Florida is home to eight of the top ten cities in the survey, with Bradenton-Sarasota taking the top spot. Senior citizens represent 26.81% of the city’s population, which is more than double the national average of 12.9%. With a population of 688,126, Bradenton-Sarasota is the largest city among the top 10, while Homosassa Springs, Fla. (#7) is the smallest with a population of 140,357. More than 95% of seniors residing in Bradenton-Sarasota were born out of state compared to only 53% of the elderly residents of a typical U.S. market who were born out of state.
The 10 most popular retirement cities:
1. Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla.
2. Prescott, Ariz.
3. Lake Havasu City, Ariz.
4. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.
5. Naples, Fla.
6. Palm Bay-Melbourne, Fla.
7. Homosassa Springs, Fla.
8. Ocala, Fla.
9. Punta Gorda, Fla.
10. Port St. Lucie, Fla.
Two cities from Arizona earned a place in the top 10. Prescott, Ariz. ranked #2 in the study with 23.6% of its population comprised of seniors. Lake Havasu City, Ariz. followed directly behind taking the #3 spot. The rest of the top 10 are occupied by Florida cities including Cape Carol-Fort Myers, Naples, Palm Bay-Melbourne, Homosassa Springs, Ocala, Punta Gorda and Port St. Lucie.
“The study explores a wide variety of markets, both in terms of size and geography. The markets that ranked the highest in the study were areas where the population of seniors is already substantial and growing rapidly,” said G. Scott Thomas, a nationally-recognized demographer who created the analysis for Portfolio.com. “While not surprising that many cities in the top 30 were from the southeast and southwest, there are several cities that have broken the stereotype of beach retirement communities including Seaford, Del. (#13), Barnstable, Mass. (#14) and Eugene, Ore. (#29) from the north.”
For more information, visit www.portfolio.com.
