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If you think that New York is too big, too expensive, and too boring of a state to spend your retirement years, you're wrong.
And, folks, HomeSnacks is here to tell you why. More importantly, we've created a list of the best places to retire in NewYork for 2022. Incidentally, this is our ninth time ranking The Empire State's best places to retire, so trust us when we that these are the best of the best.
How'd we determine the best places to retire in New York? Well, we know that when people are searching for the best places to retire, they are looking for things like nice looking homes, great parks, and friendly neighbors; and folks, New York's best places to retire have all this and then some. But in order to rank the best, we had to give each place an actual concrete score: we call this a city's overall 'Snackability'. To get this score, we consulted the numbers. In total, we analyzed 40 cities. We looked at important factors like cost of living, crime, amenities, rent and distance to closest airport for every place with over 10,000 residents.
Living in upstate New York does seem to be the best deal for most retirees, but there are awesome places sprinkled throughout the state for every retirement budget. There's Tonawanda for the retiree that can afford a boat and a boat slip, Beacon for the retiree that likes a quaint downtown with plenty of coffee shops and local chatter, and make sure to give Lockport a second look if living close to Niagara Falls is your schtick.
So, where are these amazing places in New York where the cost of living is doable on a retirement budget, where crime is low, and neighborhoods are safe? Read on.
The 10 Best Places To Retire In New York For 2022
Why did North Tonawanda take the top spot? And where are New York and Buffalo?
New York really looks out for its retirees. Did we mention that New York is great for people looking to retire because the state offers lower property taxes for people over 65 and there are no taxes on Social Security benefits or retirement account distributions? New York really looks out for its retirees.
So, where is the best place to retire in New York? Well, according to the latest data, North Tonawanda is the best place to retire in New York for 2022.
Want to know the other places that made this list? Take a look below; and if you don't see what you're looking for there, head to the bottom.
For more New York state reading:
- Best Places To Live In New York
- Cheapest Places To Live In New York
- Best Places To Raise A Family In New York
- Best Places To Retire In America
The 10 Best Places To Retire In New York For 2022
/10
Population: 30,338
Rank Last Year: 2 (Up 1)
Median Rent: $735
Distance to Closest Airport: 5 miles
More on North Tonawanda: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 10,241
Rank Last Year: 3 (Up 1)
Median Rent: $856
Distance to Closest Airport: 25 miles
More on Canandaigua: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 13,723
Rank Last Year: 4 (Up 1)
Median Rent: $1,330
Distance to Closest Airport: 7 miles
More on Beacon: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 15,769
Rank Last Year: 6 (Up 2)
Median Rent: $2,258
Distance to Closest Airport: 21 miles
More on Rye: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 20,420
Rank Last Year: -
Median Rent: $731
Distance to Closest Airport: 13 miles
More on Lockport: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 11,812
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 3)
Median Rent: $724
Distance to Closest Airport: 44 miles
More on Dunkirk: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 14,490
Rank Last Year: -
Median Rent: $797
Distance to Closest Airport: 26 miles
More on Batavia: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 33,475
Rank Last Year: 7 (Down 1)
Median Rent: $2,026
Distance to Closest Airport: 7 miles
More on Long Beach: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 30,341
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 2)
Median Rent: $1,127
Distance to Closest Airport: 16 miles
More on Poughkeepsie: Real Estate | Data | Photos
/10
Population: 13,580
Rank Last Year: 8 (Down 2)
Median Rent: $640
Distance to Closest Airport: 61 miles
More on Olean: Real Estate | Data | Photos
Methodology: How We Determined The Best Places To Retire In the Empire State for 2022
To create our list of the best places in New York to retire, we first used Census data to find all places in the Empire State -- 1186 cities and towns.
We then narrowed it down to places with at least 10,000 people that weren't townships. This left us with 40 places from across the state.
For these 40, we looked at the following criteria taken from the Census, the FBI's Crime Report, National Weather Service, and OpenFlights:
- Low cost of living as measured by rent
- Low crime
- Things to do (Museums, Colleges, and Libraries in town)
- Nice weather
- Distance to the closest international airport
- Other retirees (High median age)
We then ranked each of these places for each criteria from one to 40, with the lowest number being the best.
Finally, we took the average rank across these criteria. The place, in this case North Tonawanda, with the lowest average rank was crowned the best of the best, a place for you to start your second careers. You can download the data here.
Summary: Maybe You're Not Ready To Retire In New York Yet...
So there you have it, the best place to retire in New York goes to North Tonawanda.
If you're not ready to hang up your office apparel yet, then these places might be up your alley:
- Ithaca
- Utica
- Binghamton
For more New York reading, check out:
- 30 Things To Know About Moving To New York
- Richest Cities In New York
- Safest Places In New York According To Science
Where Are The Best Places To Retire In New York?
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Tonawanda | 30,338 |
| 2 | Canandaigua | 10,241 |
| 3 | Beacon | 13,723 |
| 4 | Rye | 15,769 |
| 5 | Lockport | 20,420 |
| 6 | Dunkirk | 11,812 |
| 7 | Batavia | 14,490 |
| 8 | Long Beach | 33,475 |
| 9 | Poughkeepsie | 30,341 |
| 10 | Olean | 13,580 |