Golden place for golden years
Dallas-Fort Worth earns golden status as retirement hub, new study shows
On the heels of a Travel + Leisure magazine report naming Dallas-Fort Worth a top place to retire, a new study underscores the area's prominence as a retirement hub.
AdvisorSmith, a platform for business insurance, ranks Dallas No. 16 and Fort Worth No. 17 on its list of large U.S. cities gaining the most new residents 65 and older in 2019. According to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by AdvisorSmith, Dallas attracted 2,968 who moved here from another county, state, or country that year. In Fort Worth, that number is 2,844.
Dallas and Fort Worth certainly are not the only Texas cities to make the list, and they're not the highest ranked.
With a tally of 5,739 new retirees in 2019, Houston lands at No. 3 on the AdvisorSmith list.
San Antonio landed seventh, gaining the most new residents 65 and older in 2019. According to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by AdvisorSmith, San Antonio attracted 4,724 retirees who moved there that year. According to the Census Bureau, 12 percent of San Antonio’s more than 1.5 million residents were 65 or older in 2019, compared with the national figure of 16.5 percent.
With 2,607 new retirees, Austin lands at No. 21.
AdvisorSmith looked at data for 84 U.S. cities with at least 250,000 residents each.
In another study, the Insurify insurance marketplace rated U.S. cities based on factors regarding real estate affordability, life expectancy, accessibility to health care, low rates of property crime and violent crime, and driver and pedestrian safety. It then selected the best city for retirees in each state. The San Antonio suburb of Floresville rose to the No. 1 spot in Texas.
“Deciding where to retire is an exciting prospect for many soon-to-be retirees. It can feel very liberating to choose where to live independent of work commitments, which most often determine residency,” Insurify says. “Many ‘snowbirds’ flock from all over the country to retiree hotspots with warmer climates like Florida or Arizona, but the best city to retire might be a lot closer to home. In fact, retiring in-state can be a very desirable option, particularly if remaining close to family or friends is a priority.”
