This Mountain County Is The Best Place To Retire In Colo.: Study

COLORADO – More and more Baby Boomers are leaving the workforce. Whatever the reason for hanging it up, retirees in Colorado ought to consider heading to Chafee County, where about 24 percent of residents are at least 65 years old. That’s according to the folks at 24/7 Wall St., who claim to have determined last week the best place in every state to retire.

To determine the best place to retire, the authors created an index based on 17 health and economic factors, such as the number of dentists and primary care physicians per capita, as well as median home value and monthly cost of living for two people with no children. They only considered counties where the population of older adults grew at least as fast as the country and was larger than the national average.

Here’s a breakdown of Chafee County, located in the Upper Arkansas Valley, smack-dab in the middle of the state, home of county seat Salida and town Buena Vista (pronounced BYOONA Vista by the locals):

Population: 18,818
Population that’s at least 65 years old: 24.1 percent
Primary care physicians: 91.9 per 100,000
Estimated monthly living expenses for family of two: $$4,197.89 (37th out of 64 counties)
Median home value: $313,200

The best places to retire nationwide ranged from small counties with just 4,318 people (Nuckolls County, Nebraska) all the way up to 1.26 million (Cuyahoga County, Ohio). Most counties appeared to be rural, with populations in the tens of thousands. They often had estimated monthly living expenses in the high $3,000s or low $4,000s and a median home value in the mid-$100,000s to mid-$200,000s.

The most common reason for retirement, according to the study, is to spend more time with family. Other popular reasons include wanting to do different things, health problems and dissatisfaction at the job. But whatever the reason, the authors noted life changes “dramatically” in retirement.

“While retirees are among the least likely group of Americans to be poor, they typically rely on fixed and reduced incomes, and the cost burdens of housing and medical care, in particular, tend to go up substantially,” the study said.The researchers used tax burden data from the Tax Foundation from 2012, the most recent year available. Median home value data came from the 2017 American Community Survey’s five-year estimates and the monthly cost of living came from the Economic Policy Institute for 2017.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Shutterstock

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