The 10 best states for retirees aren't what you'd expect
Bankrate broke down the best states for retirees based on categories like affordability, weather, and healthcare. By their calculation, Florida is nowhere near the top 10 — and neither are many Southern states known for their warmer weather and plentiful retirement communities.
It's important to note that each of the categories were weighted differently. But while weather has the second-highest influence in rankings behind affordability, Florida actually ranks low for weather, and its positive tax ranking wasn't enough to pull it up from the bottom.
Affordability is the most-weighted category by far, while weather, neighborhood safety, and healthcare are closely weighted together as second-, third-, and fourth-most important.
Bankrate financial analyst Stephen Kates explained that natural disasters and rising home-insurance costs played a large role in Florida's exclusion from the top 10.
"All states along the Gulf have propensity to get hurricanes, which pushed those states far down the rankings," Kates told Business Insider.
" Florida's high home-insurance costs are very, very relevant for retirees who may not have a mortgage, but that's a really high fixed cost for them," he added.
Florida and other seemingly retirement-friendly states like Arizona and Texas all ended up in the bottom half of the list. Meanwhile, nearly half of the states in the top 10 are located in the Northeast, and all of them are north of the Sun Belt.
Bankrate's estimates found that Northeastern states are generally safer and have better healthcare than Southern states.
"When you think of retirement states, we all think of warmer weather states," Kates said. "But when you think about it, Massachusetts has unbelievable healthcare — so does Vermont, and Maine does as well. In terms of age, it's an older population certainly up there. Those are things that really boosted them."
Kates noted that states like Florida and Arizona have more infrastructure in place to welcome retirees, so an exodus of Boomers is unlikely. And while affordability is still the name of the game, other factors have become more important.
"The heart of this study is people should consider all of these things," Kates said. "They should know enough about what state they're going to go to. That these are factors that they're understanding and including in their own assessment."
Here are the 10 best U.S. states for retirees, according to Bankrate. Median home-sale prices are from Redfin.com.
10. Virginia
Total score: 69.72
6. Rhode Island Rhode Island had the fourth-lowest violent crimes per capita, contributing to its health-and-safety ranking of sixth out of the 50 states. It ranked fifth for affordability, 19th for education and childcare and socioeconomics, and 27th for family fun.
3. Wyoming Casper, Wyoming, is safer than most cities, with CrimeGrade.org giving the city a B-, meaning the crime rate is slightly lower than the average US city.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Home equity news: Home prices hit another high, and why home equity isn't equal for everyone
The top stories in home equity, mortgages and real estate Interest rates roundup HELOC and home equity loan rates fall for first time in weeks For the first time since June, HELOCs and home equity loans moved south. The average rate on a $30,000 home equity line of credit (HELOC) dipped one basis point to 8.26 percent, while the $30,000 home equity loan fell three basis points to 8.25 percent, according to Bankrate's national survey of lenders. …and mortgage rates also inch lower The 30-year fixed-rate loan rate declined to 6.76 percent, its lowest level in three weeks, according to Bankrate's latest national lender survey. Soaring prices but sluggish sales Another month, another record for home prices. They just keep rising, with the median price climbing to an all-time high of $435,300 in June. However, sales retreated: Even though listings are slowly increasing, low inventory — along with elevated mortgage rates — are making it hard for buyers. What's next for the housing market? It all depends on where mortgage rates and the economy go from here. Find out more: Existing-home prices smash record, while sales retreat The unequal equity equation Home equity should be a steeping stone to stability, not another symbol of inequality. But unfortunately, Black and Hispanic homeowners still face disproportionate barriers in building an equity stake and being able to tap it when they do. We examine why it's tougher for people of color to cash in and how to narrow the racial home equity gap. Learn more: Locked out of wealth: The racial divide in home equity Think you can tap your entire equity stake? Think again So, you've amassed a major amount of equity in your home and are considering tapping it for cash for a big remodel or to pay off debts. Here's the thing: You typically can't access all of that stake, even if you own your house free and clear. Find out more about when, where and why lenders cap how much you can borrow. Understand: How much equity can I borrow from my home? (And why isn't it more?) Making sense of mortgage rates with Bankrate's new tool Ah, the mysteries of mortgage rates: Their fluctuations can make homebuying or refinancing feel like a guessing game. But Bankrate's Mortgage Rate Variability Index could be a game-changer. Our newly launched barometer looks at how much rates have bounced around recently and puts the moves into historical context. Check it out—it can be an important tool in your arsenal when loan-shopping. Explore: Bankrate's Mortgage Rate Variability Index Is a home equity refi a smart move? Thinking about refinancing your home equity loan? Now might be a good time, since rates are lower than they were at this same time last year. But be aware — while it can help lower your monthly payments or get you a better interest rate, refinancing isn't free, and could even cost you dearly in the long run. Learn more: Refinancing a home equity loan: When and how to do it Too low a rate to lose Homeowners are becoming real stay-at-homes. Bankrate's 2025 Mortgage Rates Sentiment Survey finds over half (51 percent) of them wouldn't buy a new place this year even if mortgage rates dropped — considerably more than in our 2024 survey. Even more (54 percent) declare there's no mortgage rate at which they would be comfortable with selling their home this year, period. The culprit: those ultra-low interest rates from years past. Read why: A growing number of Americans are reluctant to sell their homes — even if mortgage rates drop 35% Borrowers with mortgage rates in the 4-5.99% range who are considering a home equity loan Source: 2025 ICE Borrower Insights Survey In case you missed it Technically, these stories were released in the previous weeks, but they're still worth highlighting. Navigating the waters of negative equity We all expect our homes to grow in value over time, but sometimes the opposite happens, and when your home's worth drops below what you still owe on it. Known as 'negative equity,' the situation sounds scary — but don't worry: While it can make selling or refinancing a bit tricky, there are ways to recover from it. Learn more: What is negative equity? The mortgage offer you didn't ask for When you apply for a mortgage, your info can get handed around like a hot potato, leading to a nonstop flood of calls, texts and emails from lenders trying to snag your business. They're called 'trigger leads.' And while a little competition can help you to a better deal, the overload can become annoying — not to mention, some are a little sketchy. Find out what the government is doing about this pesky practice. Read on: 'Your phone is blowing up': Congress moves to limit mortgage trigger leads Unlock your home's value Achieve your financial goals with predictable payments on a lump-sum home equity loan. Explore offers Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNBC
4 hours ago
- CNBC
The 10 worst U.S. states to retire—6 are in the South
There are a number of factors to take into consideration when choosing where you want to retire, including the lifestyle you want and your financial situation. In addition to looking for options that meet most of your needs, you'll want to consider any major downsides or trade-offs you'd have to make, such as a lack of accessible health care or a high cost of living. Financial services website Bankrate recently ranked all 50 states based on 15 metrics, including affordability, health care and weather, to determine the best and worst places to retire in the U.S. The study used data from a variety of sources, including the Council for Community and Economic Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The metrics were weighed according to survey responses gathered by Bankrate in May 2025 on what Americans say are their top priorities for choosing a retirement destination. As a result, affordability, weather and neighborhood safety influenced overall scores the most. Here are the 10 worst states to retire, according to Bankrate, where you may have to compromise when it comes to cost, safety and access to health care: Weather also played a significant role in landing several of these states at the bottom of the overall rankings. Louisiana ranked No. 39 for weather and Texas came in at No. 47 in that category. "Natural disasters really degraded the scores of almost every state across the Gulf. Texas, Florida — even states that you really think about as primary retirement destinations," Stephen Kates, a certified financial planner and Bankrate financial analyst, tells CNBC Make It. "They didn't do as well in the weather category because of their propensity to have hurricanes and other natural disasters." It can be helpful to consider these rankings and the metrics used to determine them, but ultimately, the best place for you to retire will depend on your personal preferences. Retiring in Louisiana or Oklahoma may look challenging based on these metrics, for example, but if that's where your family lives and you want to be close to them, it may be worth planning ahead and figuring out how to live well there, despite potential drawbacks. If living in a tax-friendly state is important to you, Wyoming may be your best fit, Kates says. The state came in at No. 3 overall and No. 1 for tax-friendliness. But you'd be giving up other potential amenities. "You pay very little state taxes, but you have little access to some of the other things that you may want," he says. "Wyoming is not great for arts and entertainment — it's a big, more rural place." Conditions can also vary greatly within a given state when it comes to metrics like neighborhood safety. State-level data can be a good place to start, but you may need to dig deeper or visit in person to determine if an area is right for you, especially if you're considering a big state like California or Texas, Kates says. "Where you live in California or Texas or Florida, or any state, is going to matter because we're aggregating a lot of data," he says. "If you live in Los Angeles, it's going to be very different than if you live in Sacramento or La Jolla; if you live in Dallas, very different [than] Houston." You may choose not to relocate in retirement, or prefer to wait until later on to make a move. As people live longer than they used to and thus may be retired longer, it's wise to think about your retirement in phases, Kates says. "It's a lot more than just putting a pin on the map and saying, 'This is the place,'" he says. "If you're going to live in retirement for 25 or 30 years, there's going to be phases of that. And how you figure that out is extremely relevant." If you want to dedicate time to traveling in your early retirement years, it may not make sense to also try to move your home base during that period. But a decade or so later, you may be more interested in settling down somewhere new. Kates calls these the "go, low-go and no-go" phases of retirement, alluding to idea that as you get older, you'll likely want or need to slow down.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scams, forgotten passwords, and lost fortunes: Meet the digital locksmith who helps people get their bitcoin back
Crypto prices are surging, and so are cases of lost crypto keys and crypto scams. Crypto recovery specialist Julia Burlingham is seeing a business boom as a result. Here's what happens if you lose access to your crypto wallet. Forgetting your Instagram password is annoying. Forgetting your crypto wallet password could be devastating. Crypto owners don't have the luxury of emailing themselves a password reset link if they're locked out of their self-custody wallet. It's an issue that's becoming bigger as bitcoin and other cryptos surge in price and crypto holders scramble to retrieve previously abandoned wallets. For Julia Burlingham, who owns the business Professional Crypto Recovery, business is booming. "When the price of bitcoin goes up, my phone rings all day," Burlingham told Business Insider. Burlingham started her business five years ago, after helping her brother recover his dogecoin during the memecoin's heyday. According to Burlingham, she was able to unlock his wallet, where an initial $300 investment had grown to $6,000. She's seen it all, from people who inherit locked crypto wallets to those who have misplaced their seed phrase. Here's what it's like inside the world of crypto recovery. How does crypto storage work? There are two main ways of holding crypto: on an exchange like Coinbase, or through self-custody using your own crypto wallet. While self-custody provides more control and privacy, the responsibility of securing the wallet lies in — as the name implies — yourself. Setting up a self-custody wallet generates a seed phrase of 12 or 24 random words that encodes your private key. People often write the seed phrase down with pen and paper, according to Jess Houlgrave, CEO at the digital asset startup Reown. Issues arise when that slip of paper isn't stored securely. "As soon as you're in the self-custodial realm, you need to be able to store and recover your seed phrase in order to be able to use the assets," Houlgrave told Business Insider. She's also seen people store their passkeys on Google Drive or password managers, which Houlgrave doesn't recommend, as those methods are susceptible to being hacked. Both Houlgrave and Burlingham mentioned that the LA wildfires earlier this year resulted in many people losing their seed phrases when their homes burned down. Last year, Reuters reported that some wallet recovery services saw requests for their services more than triple when bitcoin rose to $70,000. Now, with bitcoin prices firmly in six-figure territory, the stakes are even higher. A day in the life of a crypto locksmith Burlingham helps people with issues such as forgotten passwords, partial seed phrases, corrupted wallet files, or old wallets that no longer sync with the blockchains. Her clients range from original bitcoin investors who bought over a decade ago to people who just set up their accounts recently and suddenly lost access. "Depending on the wallet, sometimes you can brute force it," Burlingham said. It helps if you remember fragments of a password or seed phrase. "I'll ask for password clues and how they typically make their passwords," Burlingham added. Using specialized supercomputers with high GPU and CPU power, Burlingham runs password recovery tools that test millions of combinations. Because wallets and private keys are highly sensitive, she runs them on air-gapped computers, or machines that aren't connected to the internet. Burlingham also helps those who have been scammed of their crypto, a growing problem. According to a report by Chainalysis, more than $2 billion was stolen from cryptocurrency services already in 2025, surpassing the total for all of 2024. The recovery process can take months. One case that Burlingham started in November of last year took until this April to finish. Recovering crypto is also an energy intensive endeavor. "It's really high," Burlingham said of her electricity bill. "You have to have cooling systems because these machines produce a lot of heat." Lost crypto Unfortunately, sometimes, nothing can be done to recover the crypto. According to crypto wallet provider Ledger, it's estimated that between two and four million bitcoins are permanently lost. James Howell is an infamous example of this unlucky outcome — the IT worker accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8,000 bitcoins back in 2013. In the case of crypto, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound — or several — of cure. Make multiple copies of your seed phrase and putting them into secure physical locations, such as a locked safe or bank vault, Burlingham recommends. And it may sound simple, but avoiding phishing links and keeping your seed phrase private are steps that many people still overlook. Read the original article on Business Insider
