These NJ Metro Areas Among Best Places To Retire: U.S. News

NEW JERSEY — Several metro areas in New Jersey are among the 2022-2023 Best Places to Retire in the United States, according to a list compiled annually by U.S. News & World Report and released Tuesday.

The new list evaluates the country’s 150 most populous metropolitan areas based on how well they meet Americans’ expectations for retirement, with measures including those on housing affordability, health care and overall happiness.

Here's how New Jersey's metro areas performed:

• 9. Allentown, Pennsylvania (includes Warren County)
  • overall score: 7.1, housing affordability: 6.1, health care: 8.8
• 14. New York City (includes several North Jersey counties)
  • overall score: 7.1, housing affordability: 4.0, health care: 10
• 19. Philadelphia (includes several South Jersey counties)
  • overall score: 7.1, housing affordability: 5.7, health care: 8.9
• 45. Trenton
  • overall score: 6.9, housing affordability: 4.7, health care: 9.6

The Garden State has gotten some flack as a retirement location. Almost 67 percent of New Jersey moves were outbound in 2018, according to a United Van Lines survey. While 32.6 percent who moved out cited retirement as their reason, only 7.4 percent moved to the state for the same purpose.

New Jersey also ranked last on WalletHub's January list of Best States to Retire, with the worst cost of living besides New York.

Upheaval in the housing market is causing older Americans to re-assess where they plan to retire, U.S. News senior editor for retirement Emily Brandon said in a news release.

The list is based on six measures of how well metropolitan areas meet Americans’ expectations of retirement — housing affordability and access to affordable health care among the top measures. Metro areas were evaluated using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Labor, as well as U.S. News’ internal resources.

The weighting of each of the six indexes was determined by the answers to a March public survey in which people from across the country voted on what they thought was the most important thing to consider when choosing where to live after retirement. Read more about the methodology.

"The drastic shift in the housing market, high inflation and concerns of a pending recession have retirees weighing housing affordability more heavily when considering where to retire," U.S. News’ Brandon said in the news release.

"Additionally, with COVID still a concern and access to good, affordable health care being of importance to retirees, Pennsylvania dominated the Best Places to Retire ranking’s top positions, taking five of the top 10 spots on the list."

Last year, Florida was home to eight of the 10 top states for retirees. This year, Pennsylvania had five and Florida had four of the top 10 metro areas for retirees. Michigan had one city, Ann Arbor, which moved up a position from last year. Here’s the top 10 list:

1. Lancaster, Pennsylvania
2. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
3. Pensacola, Florida
4. Tampa, Florida
5. York, Pennsylvania
6. Naples, Florida
7. Daytona Beach, Florida
8. Ann Arbor, Michigan
9. Allentown, Pennsylvania
10. Reading, Pennsylvania

"With fixed-rate mortgage rates more than doubling over the past year, it stands to reason that falling affordability would lead to changes in the rankings,” real estate economist Patrick S. Duffy said in the news release. “As long as both rates and home prices are high, indexes related to things like happiness or health care quality, while important, will take a back seat to affordability."

He said buyers who are able to purchase homes with cash, as investors, should pay close attention to housing values, which may be lowered to compensate for rising mortgage costs.