NYC Tough Place To Live But Great Place To Retire, US News Finds

NEW YORK CITY — It's a tough place to live, but a great place to grow old.

A new study by U.S. News & World Report ranked New York City as 118th out of 150 metro areas as a desirable place to live, zinging it for its value, quality of life and the number of people who are leaving.

Yet for retirees, the city was much more desirable. It was ranked number 32 out of 100.

The study found that, though New York scored poorly for its lack of affordability, it made up for it with its quality of health care – scoring 10 out of 10. That could be why 15.5 percent of the city's population is aged over 65, according to the U.S News' findings.

The rankings are based on overall retirement scores calculated for each city. The scores were determined using a weighted average of six indexes: happiness, housing affordability, health care quality, retiree taxes, desirability and job market ratings.

NYC got a score of 6.9.

Information on each index was collected via data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as U.S. News rankings of Best Hospitals.

Cities in Florida captured most of the top 10 spots this year. Despite decreases in health care, housing and happiness scores, Sarasota maintained the No. 1 spot due to increases in desirability, retiree tax and job market scores. Naples jumped two places to No. 2, while Daytona Beach landed at No. 3.

Pennsylvania metropolitan areas also had a strong showing at the top of this year’s rankings, with seven areas in the top 25.

Here are the top 10 places to retire in 2021:

1. Sarasota, Florida
2. Naples, Florida
3. Daytona Beach, Florida
4. Melbourne, Florida
5. Lancaster, Pennsylvania
6. Tampa, Florida
7. Fort Myers, Florida
8. Port St. Lucie, Florida
9. Ann Arbor, Michigan
10. Pensacola, Florida

See the full list of Best Places to Retire.