According to the latest issue of CNN Money Magazine, Williamsburg VA comes in at number 25 in their listof the 25 Best Places to Retire.
For this year’s edition of Best Places to Retire, MONEY identified 25 towns with notable lifelong-learning programs, as well as other attributes that retirees can appreciate, from low taxes to affordable to high-quality health care. In all of these places, you can enjoy the traditional trappings of retirement, be it warm weather or water views, and savor a rich intellectual environment too.
Click through to see MONEY’s other top picks for retirees in 2010.
Population: 12,434 ( I should note that our combined area population of neighboring James City County and upper York County ( Bruton District) is approximately 80,000)
% over 50: 22%
Median home price: $270,000 ( A little misleading doesn’t buy much in the city of Williamsburg.)
State income tax: 5.75%*
Where to take classes: The College of William and Mary
Walking through the center of Williamsburg is like living history: Colonial Williamsburg, the heart of the town, is a functioning restoration of an 18th-century British colonial capital. Of course, you’ve got to like — or at least tolerate — the heritage shtick to make this place home. Here restaurant servers wear breeches and petticoats; the likes of George and Martha Washington wander through the historic area; and passers-by routinely hear fife and drum music.
Williamsburg also has many modern-day comforts. There are three airports and half a dozen hospitals within an hour’s drive. You can golf almost year-round at one of about 20 nearby golf courses. You can shop till you drop at one of the multitude of malls (no petticoats here).
The local university, College of William and Mary, is famous for both its academics and for having educated three U.S. presidents. And thanks to the school’s Christopher Wren Association, retirees can take courses where Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler once tread
Rankings like these really tell us about where we stand as a community. It’s easy to see why Williamsburg VA is continuously recognized in these kinds of publications."
The rest of the Top 25 are: Durham, N.C. (Duke University); Hanover, N.H. (Dartmouth College); Lexington, Ky. (University of Kentucky); Prescott, Ariz. (Yavapai College); Bellingham, Wash. (Western Washington University); Boise, Idaho (Boise State); St. Petersburg, Fla. (Eckerd College); Huntsville; Austin, Texas (University of Texas); Tucson, Ariz. (University of Arizona); Ann Arbor, Mich. (University of Michigan); Fort Collins, Colo. (Colorado State University); Lincoln, Neb. (University of Nebraska); San Luis Obispo, Calif. (California Polytechnic State University); Fayetteville, Ark. (University of Arkansas); Ashland, Ore. (Southern Oregon University); Ames, Iowa (Iowa State University); Beaufort, S.C. (University of South Carolina); Brunswick, Maine (Bowdoin College); Athens, Ga. (University of Georgia); Northampton, Mass. (Smith, Amherst, Hampshire and Mount Holyoke colleges and University of Massachusetts-Amherst); Asheville, N.C. (University of North Carolina-Asheville); Duluth, Minn. (University of Minnesota-Duluth); Davis, Calif. (University of California-Davis); and Williamsburg, Va. (College of William and Mary).
How it rates places: Hard to say for Money’s “25 Best Places to Retire,” because the magazine doesn’t divulge its criteria on its site.
What’s good: You can easily find a long list of stats for each of these winners, from weather to house prices. And you can see how any of the Best Places to Retire measure up against Money’s overall Top 10 Best Places in the same key measurements.
What’s not good: Without explaining why the 25 Best Places to Retire made the cut, this list comes off as random.
Best for: Generating names of places you might not have thought about and then doing your own research about the ones that pique your interest.
Filed under: Retiring in Williamsburg VA, williamsburg va
