That Forbes retirement locations article appears to be from 2014.
Hmmm⊠this one says the list is from 2017:
https://www.aarp.org/home-family/friends-family/info-2017/25-best-places-to-retire-fd.html
Iâve heard of folks who are happily retired in The Villages in FL. Iâm not too familiar with the rest of the listâs locations. Iâm not planning to move â H canât imagine moving. Our Relatives and friendâs are here in HNL, except for our kids who are still figuring out what they want and where they will settle.
IF one is retiring to FL, I canât imagine not trying to live near a coast. Many people go north for a month or so during the summer; they live near kids/grandkids, or take course, or travel.
^ you donât have to try to live near the coast in FL too hard; it will come to you if you give it enough time.
Years ago, my sister worked for a company that had 401(k) matching and she never signed up. My husband was fond of saying she had cement between her ears. It worked out, thoughâ she married rich.
Yes. If you are in a hot market and there is a property you really want, call the listing agent. They will be highly motivated to make your offer the one accepted.
Several years ago when we were buying short sales, we kept getting our offers turned downâŠfull price, cash, move out whenever you want, no requests, inspections or special requirements. I got sick of it and called an agent whose listing had just gone on the MLS within the last 30 min. He met us at the property 30 min later, wrote an offer for us that he knew would be accepted, condo went off the MLS quickly. Great agent, he jumped through hoops to make it happen.
Itâs not in a hot market. It seems to move slow. For some people, they also seem to sell a lot lower than the listing price. I guess the owners price too high.
Iâve been to a number of those places on the best places to retire listâŠand Iâm wondering if their Chamber of Commerce had a hand in putting them on the list. Fargo, ND for retirees, seriously??? Brrr, and not much going on. Bethlehem, PA? I donât think so!
Boise and Colorado Springs maybe, if youâre very active. I can see some of the sunny places in Florida being an attraction.
Actually, Iâve been to Fargo (S1 and DIL lived there last year) and it is a charming small city. Yeah, it can get colder than a certain art of a witcheâs anatomy, but it is a charming small city. S1 and DIL are now in an even colder, more isolated part of ND and canât wait to return to civilization. Charming, yes, but I wouldnât retire there.
I donât know if I will, either, but I expect as I grow older my expectation of cultural offerings will diminish sharply probably down to peace and quiet and homely comfort.
@BunsenBurner, I mentioned my thought to ShawWife this morning and she said, âShould we go take a look at Vancouver?â It is a great place â though rainy in winter time. She has a cousin there and I have a friend who teaches at UBC, but we donât have the big family there that we do in Calgary or Toronto. But, it has elements of what I like about San Francisco (mountains, water, good restaurants). So, my answer to her was yes.
@CIEE83, per concrete between the ears, one of my sonâs schoolmates had a mother who seemed completely scattered. If you asked her how she was doing, you got a core dump of the whole day including the minor trials and tribulations. She couldnât organize her way out of a paper bag. At that point, I donât think she worked and I think the dad did almost everything â schedules, meals, ⊠. ShawWife and I wondered what life was like for the husband. She was however, genuinely sweet and extremely attractive (in a way that matched her personality). We guessed that was sufficient. Although it was sometimes hard to get through to her, I thought maybe she was severely ADD but not unintelligent.
âShould we go take a look at Vancouver?â
I hope you realize that you will have to pay an additional 15 % surtax , if you are not Canadian citizens, in order to buy property in Vancouver.
Isnât @shawbridgeâs wife a Canadian citizen? If so, that would not be an issue. 
15% surtax? Wish we have that in the US. Property prices may come down a bit.
We have some of those couples here in town. Pardon me for being gender based, but in my experience it is the husband who is the grounded one and the wife who is the flighty one (although some people might say that my marriage is the exception that proves that rule 
). When they have kids, it usually works out, but every now and then my wife and I look at each other and with a shocked look say âOh no! Dadâs looks and Momâs brains.â
Yup, I would not mind that RE surtax on foreign investors, but I suspect the local governments like property values to go up⊠and the realtors are going to revolt. Vancouver finally did it because there were so many âghost housesâ that entire blocks became trashed and unsafe. Foreign money here buys homes and lets their offspring live there while âstudyingâ at local colleges (my niece saw how hard they âstudiedâ when she took summer classes hereâŠ)
Inserting my .02 on the âplaces to retireâ topic. I love Maine, but retire to Lewiston, ME?
Maybe the thinking behind the list is âyou donât have long to live, this will work for you.â
My 0.01, I think we need more than one places to retire, for a retirement period when we are still physically active we need a different place from when we are a lot less active. One canât lump 60-70 year olds with 80-90.
The issue is that most donât want to leave an established community network when they get to that less active, 80+ stage. Thatâs when friends/family/community can become even more important, I would think.