Retirement destinations
Best states: Virginia, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming and Wisconsin.
Worst states: Arkansas, California, New Mexico, New Jersey and New York.
Source: LPL Research
With Georgia’s expected tidal wave of retiring baby boomers, senior housing communities are springing up around metro Atlanta. But the state is no retirement haven, according to a new ranking that looks beyond tax rates and cost of living.
Georgia’s biggest drawbacks: healthcare and wellness, according to LPL Research.
The firm did what it calls the first holistic look at the attractiveness of states for people near retirement. Of six key factors it analyzed, Georgia got D’s in both health-related measures.
Factors that hurt the state: too few doctors and dentists and too many uninsured people. Georgia ranked 44th in that category – its worst ranking.
“There are not enough gerontologists. That is a huge need,” said Jennie Deese, CEO of the Athens Community Council on Aging. “We are also lacking mental health providers.”
The state ranked 38th in wellness, which includes estimated life expectancy for 65-year-olds and the number of adults with diabetes, obesity, inactivity and cigarette use. Many Georgia aging councils are implementing programs to address those health concerns, particularly chronic diseases that a significant factor for the aging population, Deese said.
The state’s biggest attractions for those ages 45-64 are financial, the firm found. Georgia ranked 8th and got a B in the financial category, trailing Texas, Tennessee, Wyoming, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington and Missouri. The financial measure was based on cost of living, median household income, private sector retirement assets, the health of state pension funds and the tax burden.
It also got a B for housing, based not only on home ownership, median home prices and median rents, but also on the cost of home health aides and nursing home costs. The state got a C grade for Community Quality of Life and Employment & Education.
Georgia’s overall grade was a C, with the financial category being the weighted the most in the calculation.
LPL is hardly the only organization ranking retirement destinations. Forbes recently had Athens on its list of 25 best places to retire, citing the tax and crime rates and housing costs. Bankrate.com lists the 10 best states for retirement, but Georgia did not make the cut.
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