Gen Xers are moving south to retirement hot spots — they don’t always love it when they get there

• Gen Xers are transferring to retirement scorching spots for higher housing, decrease costs, and hotter climate.

• Census information reveals an increase in Gen X movers in Florida, central Texas, north Georgia, and Tennessee.

• Movers instructed BI they sought decrease prices and taxes however confronted excessive insurance coverage and utility payments.

Gainfully employed Gen Xers are packing their luggage for retirement hot spots.

They are not foregoing the each day grind; as a substitute, 45- to 60-year-olds are more and more transferring their households to hotter locales to reap the benefits of abundant housing, sunshine, and lower taxes.

Matt Hickman needed to stay someplace with simple ocean entry, good climate, and vibes that echoed his native California. In April 2020, the 46-year-old and his household moved to Orlando, which he mentioned was extra reasonably priced than the place they’d been dwelling in Colorado; a five-bedroom home price round $90 a foot.

“I mentioned, ‘You realize what? If we transfer now in our forties, we will be arrange in order that we’ll have our home midway paid off by the point we get near retirement, and we’ll have crushed all the newborn boomers who’re going to move down to Florida and make it dearer,'” Hickman mentioned.

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Many in his technology appear to be on the identical web page. An evaluation of Census information from 2020 to 2023, solely shared beforehand with BI by College of Virginia demographer Hamilton Lombard, reveals that many counties within the south skilled massive internet increases in movers ages 45 to 54, significantly in Florida, central Texas, north Georgia, and Tennessee. Many New England, Missouri, and Idaho counties additionally skilled massive will increase. In the meantime, a lot of California, the Midwest, and the Deep South — comparable to Louisiana and Mississippi — had been within the purple.

A number of the hottest counties for Gen Xers had been these with older populations dwelling in retirement communities — Gen Xers moved to “retirement destination” counties at a internet price of 5.1% between 2020 and 2023, in comparison with the US progress price of 1.6%. Lombard suspected this development was as a consequence of ample obtainable housing in these areas and the technology’s rising financial savings.

In interviews with half a dozen Gen Xers who moved additional south, most mentioned they appreciated the lower cost of living, slower tempo of life, and work alternatives. Nonetheless, some mentioned they hated the climate, paid exorbitant insurance premiums, or did not benefit from the politics.

Hickman’s household appreciated Florida for a time. They landed in a predominantly 55-and-up neighborhood, visited a theme park typically, and went to the seashore six months of the 12 months, however the humidity began to weigh on them. Plus, their homeowners’ insurance was $3,500 a 12 months, property taxes soared, they usually spent a whole lot a month on utilities. As bills — and bugs — piled up, they determined it was time for an additional change.

Hickman and his household landed in Atlanta, the place they discovered a youthful neighborhood together with cheaper utility and insurance coverage payments.

Shifting south to economize, however not every little thing is cheaper

Many movers instructed BI they moved south to save lots of extra in preparation for retirement, although some found costs are, in some instances, much higher.

Randy Foster, a music promoter, lived all around the Jap Seabord however moved to Seattle in 2015. With rising costs in his space and 9 months of no solar a 12 months, he needed to maneuver south.

After a latest divorce, Foster, 55, settled in Florida’s Bradenton-Sarasota space in 2022, the place his price of dwelling fell dramatically. Although he now has a automobile in Florida, he estimates he is saved about 30% in comparison with Seattle.

“I made a decision that Florida supplied extra alternative, extra freedom for me, extra freedom to decide on,” Foster mentioned. “I spent a heck of lots much less on lease and all of my payments now than I did in Seattle.”

Whereas he paid $3,000 month-to-month for a three-bedroom Seattle condominium, he pays about $2,000 in Florida for a four-bedroom home with a yard. His electrical energy invoice is about 50% extra in Florida, although his different utilities stayed constant.

He mentioned he enjoys incomes $160,000 yearly in a state with no particular person revenue tax. Although he mentioned he solely has about $30,000 saved, as he hasn’t prioritized his retirement planning till not too long ago, he believes he can proceed saving more in Florida.

Escaping excessive taxes

Some movers mentioned they left for Southern states with fewer taxes and higher enterprise environments.

Tracy Rockney, 57, labored in pharmaceutical regulatory affairs and constructed a consulting agency. The mom of three thought-about some southern states when deciding to depart Illinois however discovered Florida unappealing as a consequence of its humidity, hurricanes, and getting old populations within the areas they thought-about. Her husband’s school roommate inspired them to maneuver to the Dallas-Fort Price space.

“We might reasonably stay a neighborhood the place there’s a mixture of races and cultures and ages,” Rockney mentioned.

In 2020, she moved to a Dallas suburb together with her retired husband and their youngest daughter to restrict her tax legal responsibility — Texas has 0% state revenue tax — and to enhance her daughter’s schooling high quality. She offered the Illinois house for $795,000 and acquired her present Texas house for about $1.1 million.

She’s discovered the healthcare options higher in Texas, and he or she mentioned costs are typically decrease than Illinois’. Rockney offered her enterprise in August 2022 and left her most up-to-date position in late 2024.

She’s appreciated decrease grocery costs, although her water invoice skyrocketed. Landscaping prices are “actually costly,” for which she budgets between $5,000 and $10,000 yearly.

She appreciates Texas‘ many outside actions, and her husband is the youngest individual in his skydiving group. She mentioned Texas’ business-friendly atmosphere might assist her when she begins up new entrepreneurial ventures.

“We kick ourselves and say we want we would performed this transfer sooner,” Rockney mentioned. “I want I would performed it perhaps when beginning my enterprise in 2015.”

Benefiting from distant work

Some movers instructed BI they left the commotion of busier, dearer cities for extra rural areas whereas working remotely.

Elisa Suetake, 51, is hovering someplace between retirement and work.

Suetake and her husband spent six years in San Jose, working in Silicon Valley. The couple would go to Hawaii three to 4 instances a 12 months however thought they might by no means work from there with out getting cabin fever.

The pandemic, nonetheless, proved that improper. In July 2021, they moved to Maui, tripling their property measurement for simply $250,000 greater than their San Jose house.

Their new property has a essential home with 5 bedrooms, with an connected ADU, and there is a further smaller construction with three bedrooms. They plan on reworking and renting out the smaller home whereas holding the connected condominium for company.

Suetake mentioned that neither she nor her husband are planning on retiring historically — they will by no means cease working, however they are going to cease working for another person.

“We’re by no means bored. We’re at all times studying one thing,” Suetake mentioned. “It is simply that we do not have a devoted revenue stream from an organization.”

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