Where Can Retirees Find Affordable Housing? These 10 Cities

U.S. News scored 100 major cities on factors like cost of living and affordable health care.

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Where you retire, and how much the housing costs are in that location, can mean the difference between a better or worse quality of life, advance or delay your retirement date, or just give you a bit of a cushion—or bite into your retirement savings.

(Related: 20 Best US Cities for Retirement: 2018)

So reminds a report from U.S. News, which decided to see which places offered the best opportunities for seniors in search of affordable housing. They settled on the following 10 as the best in that category:

  1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania │Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $142,800 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $667/month
  2. Grand Rapids, Michigan │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $171,100 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $769/month
  3. Nashville, Tennessee │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $234,000 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $829/month
  4. San Antonio, Texas │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $161,800 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $830/month
  5. Lakeland, Florida │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $146,500 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $826/month
  6. El Paso, Texas │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $107,600 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $621/month
  7. Daytona Beach, Florida │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $185,300 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $924/month
  8. Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $191,200 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $899/month
  9. Greenville, South Carolina │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $157,400 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $699/month
  10. McAllen,Texas │ Median Home Price for Older Homeowners: $72,900 │ Median Rent for People 60+: $577/month

To make its determinations, U.S. News had a look at the facts and figures for the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. to see how they score on five different indexes, taking into account numerous factors from housing costs to cost of living to the job market and affordable health care.

(Related: 20 Best US Cities for Retirement: 2018)

To do this, U.S. News used data from such sources as the Census Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Labor and its own internal resources, and came up with a job market index, a value index, a quality of life index, a desirability index and net migration. Each area was then ranked based on its score in all five, determining its overall placement in the U.S. News Best Places to Retire ranking.

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