The "I Live In The Best Place In America To Retire!" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking over the magazine section at a local news stand close to my house for a magazine or two to take with me on an upcoming vacation.  I picked up a U.S. News & World Report and before long knew I had to buy this one since it told of Lancaster County being the best place in the nation in which to retire.  Now, those of us who live in Lancaster County have known that for years and years and now everyone else in the nation will know that also.  Not sure how I feel about letting the world know they should move to Lancaster after they retire.  Our town seems to be growing too fast for those of us who have lived here all our lives.  Well, the magazine released their annual rankings recently and listed Lancaster #1 after taking into account housing affordability and the happiness of its residents.  Also took into account the quality of health care, the job market for retirees, the tax burden on retirees and desirability.  The rest of the top five were: Fort Myers, Florida; Sarasota, Florida; Austin, Texas; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Funny that #2 thru #4 were in the sunny south were many retirees from Lancaster migrate to for the winter months.  So what exactly does Lancaster have to offer?  We have 16 retirement communities with about 13,000 residents.  Many of those communities have begun to enlarge their size to accommodate more residents who will soon be arriving here due to this story in the magazine.  Many already know that Lancaster offers a balance between natural and commercial spaces that residents appreciate.  As I have typed many, many times in the past, Lancaster is known as the "Garden Spot of America" which naturally will draw those who want to get away from the big cities in our country.  

Idyllic Lancaster County farmland.

In Lancaster most of those retirement homes border Lancaster County farmland.  Millersville University, Franklin & Marshall College, Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and Lancaster Bible College are all inside the county limits with quite a few more directly outside Lancaster County's border.  I mention all these facts since they are some of the things that made Lancaster the Best place in our nation to retire.  20% of U.S. News & World Report evaluation of best places to retire was based on the Job Market Index and if there might be jobs for retirees if they so desired to work.  25% was based on the Value Index which tells if retirees could afford to retire to the area based on the cost of living in the area.  30% was based on Quality of Life Index which measured how satisfied residents are with their daily life who live in the area.  The crime rate, health care, quality of education, well-being and commuting time to services in the area also were part of the survey.  

One of Lancaster's many retirement communities.

Desirability Index was 15% of the evaluation which measured how people felt about living in the area and the final 10% was how often people who already lived in the area might want to move away from Lancaster.  I'm not sure how I feel about Lancaster being in the news like this.  Our County is growing at too fast a rate for me and a report such as this, thought it does show how good we have it here in Lancaster County, is only going to make it grow faster.  I have noticed that the half-dozen homes in my neighborhood that were placed "For Sale" recently all sold within a month.  Now I suspect I will begin to have people knocking on my door asking if I would like to sell my home.  Better get busy getting my name on the list of a few of those retirement homes.  Some take over a year to get into them.  Now that might change to a two year waiting list.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.