SA 6th in Nation for best places to retire during Economic Downturn

[necropolis]

6. San Antonio, Texas


Stroll along San Antonio's River Walk and it's clear the city's economy is booming. The walkways feed into an expansive downtown district of restaurants, museums and boutiques adored by tourists and locals alike. While the city relies heavily on tourism to the Alamo and other area attractions, industries such as financial services, health care and national defense have kept the unemployment rate fairly steady at 4%, one percentage point lower than the current national average.

San Antonio's cost of living, at 7% below the national average, makes it one of the more affordable retirement destinations. Groceries, for example, are an incredible 22% cheaper than other metropolitan areas, notes Bland. "For a city with more than 2.5 million people living in the metropolitan area, that's really unusual."

Continued development has kept housing prices in San Antonio 10% lower than the national average. The average sale price for an existing home was $153,200 in 2007, according to the National Association of Realtors. Yet, despite the nationwide housing slump, home values here have increased 8% since 2006. Retirees will find the lower taxes an added relief, adds Peguero. Like Florida, Texas doesn't tax income. The average state and local tax burden is 7.8%, almost two percentage points lower than the national average.

Here's the full article>>> http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retir...ment-lifestyle


According to SmartMoney.com the Top 7 are:

1. Gainesville, Fla.
2. Ithaca, N.Y.
3. Orlando, Fla.
4. Pittsburgh, Pa.
5. Portland, Ore.
6. San Antonio, Texas
7. Tucson, Ariz.

[Dom"n"Converse]

"For a city with more than 2.5 million people living in the metropolitan area, that's really unusual."

I think we should just throw out all the population estimates and projections cause it's obvious that we don't know how many people live in this metro area.

[texastarkus]

Great...that's all we need are more retired folks driving 35 miles per hour in the freeway fast lane.

[Trae]

Where did they get 2.5 million people from? Are they including some of Austin's metro, because I doubt SA grew by 500,000 in one year.

[Raining Inside]

I don't understand this list. I would completely understand and agree with SA being the 6th best place to retire to or the 6th best recession proof metro. But what is the relevance of combining these two seemingly different issues? The lists that media organizations keep pumping out is getting ridiculous. How about combining two other silly lists such as the fattest cities list with the best walking cities list. Then we could have the best places for fat asses to walk if they would only get off their fat asses.