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- Clearwater, Florida, topped SmartAsset's new list of where baby boomers are moving.
- All but two cities in the top 10 were in Florida, Arizona, or Nevada, though one was in Montana.
- Many are retiring in South due to better weather, lower cost of living, and retirement resources.
Boomers are perhaps unsurprisingly looking to retire in Florida and Arizona, though Nevada, Montana, and North Carolina are also pulling in older Americans.
An analysis by SmartAsset found that Clearwater, Florida, had the highest percentage of boomers who moved in last year as a percentage of the total population — totaling around 4,400 new boomer movers.
SmartAsset looked at 268 of the largest US cities and defined boomers as those between 55 and 74. The data was pulled from the US Census Bureau's 1-Year American Community Survey for 2022.
Four of the top 10 cities — as measured by boomers who moved in 2022 as a percentage of the total population — were in Florida. These included Orlando, Cape Coral, and St. Petersburg. Nearly 30% of Cape Coral's total population are boomers, while Clearwater is 27%.
Arizona had three of the top 11 cities, as Surprise, Mesa, and Scottsdale each attracted thousands of boomers last year. Over 28% of Scottsdale's total population are boomers. Reno, Nevada, located around 20 miles from Lake Tahoe, ranked second on the list. Only two cities in California — Santa Rosa and Oceanside — made it into the top 20.
Ranking fifth is Billings, Montana, the only city in the top 10 not in the South. Billings, Montana's largest city, saw 3,400 boomers move in last year, over 1,800 of whom moved from a different state.
Many who moved to these cities have cited better tax advantages, comfortable weather, and lower costs of living, in addition to strong retirement and healthcare resources.
These cities, though, don't correspond with U.S. News and World Report's latest ranking for the best places in America to retire. The ranking had seven of the top 10 cities in Pennsylvania, topped by Harrisburg, Reading, and Lancaster. The publication graded the 150 most populous metropolitan areas in the country on affordability, resident happiness, weather, the quality of healthcare, the dining-out scene, and how much retirees pay in taxes.
By contrast, SmartAsset's ranking had no cities in the top 20 located in Pennsylvania. U.S. News and World Report's list only had one city in Florida within the top 10 — Daytona Beach.
SmartAsset also recently looked at where Gen Xers — classified as those between 45 and 54 — moved last year. Arizona and Florida combined made up half the list, topped by Surprise and Scottsdale in Arizona, and Orlando and Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
Have you recently moved to a new state? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@insider.com.