Baby boomers are scouting retirement's hottest spots

By MARY LU ABBOTT

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Some vacation spots capture your heart and never let go. You may have a serendipitous onetime fling with a place or a longtime affair, drawn back every year. The town lingers on your mind -- and you find yourself calling it home when you buy a vacation house or a place to retire.

Baby boomers and younger professionals today are looking at travel brochures for more than a holiday destination. They're keeping an eye out for a second home or a retirement destination. Many want to live daily with all the amenities of a resort, enjoying golf, tennis, swimming, hiking, biking and spas with high-tech workout gear. Add good restaurants and arts and culture, and life is, well, one long vacation.

"With rising affluence, people in their 30s and 40s are thinking about second homes in places they vacation -- which in many cases eventually will turn into retirement homes," says R. Alan Fox, who has witnessed a boom in the retirement industry as editor and publisher of Where to Retire magazine at Houston-based Vacation Publications.

The first wave of baby boomers will hit 60 in three years. With the increased number of people opting for early retirement, literally millions are starting to ask, "Where should we retire?"

Many are choosing vacation destinations, Fox says. People usually vacation in places that are pleasing to the eye, have activities they like and leave them feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. It's no surprise that retirees might opt for this lifestyle year-round.

Consider Ron and Deb Bayne, formerly of Omaha, Neb. They traveled extensively during their careers in management -- Ron with Union Pacific Railroad and Deb with a credit card processing company. On their trips, Ron says they always thought about potential retirement sites.

Business frequently took Deb Bayne to Tucson, and she suggested they vacation at a golf resort there about three years ago. Six months later they seized opportunities for early retirement and initiated a serious search for a new home, taking vacations to investigate San Diego, San Antonio and the west coast of Florida. But Tucson kept beckoning them.

"We just felt good about the desert and the climate and the environment here in Tucson," Ron Bayne says.

In the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona, Tucson satisfies sybarites with numerous spa and golf resorts, tempts hikers to explore the diverse landscape, and gratifies culture enthusiasts with notable museums and galleries emphasizing western and American Indian works of art.

Carpeting a valley

Tucson is one of 10 popular vacation destinations that Fox says are among those attracting many retirees. To the west, another star is the Palm Springs-Palm Desert area in Southern California.

A string of small towns carpets the valley beneath a half-dozen mountain ranges topping 10,000 feet. Tennis, golf, hiking and upscale shopping are the lures, complemented by art museums and live theater.

Not all the popular spots are in the Sunbelt. Destinations with four seasons appeal to an increasing number of retirees.

Generations of families have whiled away summers on Cape Cod, Mass., enjoying its villages, concerts, art galleries, beaches, golf and excursions to nearby Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard islands. Many vacationers linger longer each year, discover they like the quieter off-season even better, and retire there. Moderated by the water, winters are milder there than elsewhere in New England.

See grandma in Orlando

Florida is synonymous with beach vacations and retirement, but the Orlando area of central Florida has a special lure. Not only does it attract retirees, it virtually guarantees that newcomers will be popular with vacationing family and friends. After all, who wouldn't want their grandparents to live in Orlando?

Florida has no state income tax, and the cost of living is lower in the Orlando area than in many parts of the country. Just as Walt Disney World is 25 miles outside Orlando, so are many quieter havens within easy reach of Orlando's amenities. Among them are Winter Park and Mount Dora, which fill the bill for retirees who seek the slower pace of small-town life.

In New Mexico, Santa Fe sings with scenic beauty that has helped make it an art colony beneath the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico.

Renowned for its summer opera festival, art galleries and multicultural heritage, it also beckons those who enjoy the outdoors in all seasons. A bonus: Santa Fe's tax bite on retirees is comparatively low, although the cost of living is somewhat high.

Regional destinations have taken on added significance as many vacationers seek getaways within driving distance. Bend, Ore., in the Pacific Northwest, and Wisconsin's Door County are popular resorts where retirees find a fulfilling four-season lifestyle.

Robert and Sue Pfaendler love the outdoors environment and high- desert climate of Bend, where they had vacationed frequently when they lived in Portland. They built a vacation home in Bend and moved there four years ago when he retired.

On the eastern side of the Cascade Range, Bend is higher, drier and sunnier than the western side of Oregon, on the Pacific Ocean. Within minutes of the desert are pine forests and alpine lakes, and the Mount Bachelor ski resort is less than 30 minutes away. An added bonus: There's no sales tax, and Bend is tax-friendly for retirees.

Door County fans

Door County also attracts those who enjoy the beauty of the land. When Dick and Dottie Shappell lived in Appleton, Wis., they started camping at Door County's numerous parks, later built a home and now have retired on the shore of Lake Michigan in a small town north of Sturgeon Bay.

They love Door County's "natural undisturbed beauty surrounded by Lake Michigan on the east and Green Bay on the west," Dick Shappell says. They like the combination of quiet, rural nature and city amenities about an hour away in Green Bay and Appleton. The lower part of Door County is also about 150 miles from Milwaukee and 240 miles from Chicago.

Viva Las Vegas

One of the most popular choices may also be the most unexpected. Las Vegas rings up a winner for far more than slots and roulette. It draws 35 million visitors a year -- and an estimated 6,000 new residents a month. It's one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation, in part fueled by retirees moving there.

A re-energized star that wins accolades for outstanding chefs, this city has everything from top shopping and entertainment to outdoor recreation. It's convenient to a half-dozen national parks, from Death Valley in California to the Grand Canyon in Arizona and several canyonland parks in southern Utah. Also, Nevada has no state income tax.

Vacationing is an invaluable way to "test drive" a place for retirement, Fox says. But there are other considerations beyond amenities and attractiveness. Research shows that retirees want to move to a place with a low crime rate, an active, clean and safe downtown, good hospitals in the vicinity, and favorable tax rates and costs of living. However, Fox advises vacationers to delve deeper into the personality of a town.

"Whether you're looking in your 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s, you want a community that has a welcoming attitude toward outsiders," Fox says. "The earlier you start looking at retirement towns, the more aware you have to be about how fast the town is growing. There are places that were idyllic retirement towns 20 years ago that are now very congested during peak seasons," he says.

"Look for ways to plug into the local community. How are you going to get involved? What are you going to spend your time doing? What happens to the community when the off-season hits if it's a popular vacation spot?" he says.

"A lot of places roll up the sidewalks at the end of the summer or winter, depending on the high season, and many people leave. There are a lot of communities and developments that tend to attract snowbirds, or sunbirds, and there's no one there during the off- season," he says.

Having a vacation home allows easy sampling of community life at different times of the year -- With 75 million baby boomers moving into their 40s, 50s and 60s, states, cities, small towns and planned communities all across America are snapping to the statistics -- and the dollars that this well-traveled group can bring into their coffers. Foresighted states have been wooing mature travelers for several years, creating enough competition that Florida -- the queen of retirement destinations -- now is mounting a campaign to recruit the new generation of travelers as they start thinking about places to retire.

It means that there's a lot of fun ahead for today's travelers looking for vacations that do double duty as a scouting expedition for retirement or a second home.

Mary Lu Abbott of Houston writes about vacation travel and retirement relocation.

RETIRING TO VACATIONLAND

Vacations can be stepping-stones to the perfect place to retire. Here are tips from R. Alan Fox, editor and publisher of Where to Retire magazine.

-- Think early about retirement sites. In your 30s and 40s, note destinations you particularly like on vacations or business trips.

-- Make a wish list well ahead of retiring -- five to 10 years isn't too soon -- and use your vacation time to visit each place.

-- See how friendly residents are. Read the local newspaper. Observe the traffic. Drive around neighborhoods. Ask yourself, "Would I like to live here?"

-- List your favorites and request relocation data from each one. Investigate and collect data on the crime rate, medical care, housing costs and taxes.

-- Compile the data on crime rates, medical care, housing costs and taxes, then narrow your list to three or four to revisit.

-- Return to your final favorites, this time in a different season. Check out the hospitals. Look at prices in grocery stores. With a real estate agent, investigate what kind of housing is available. Talk to as many local residents as possible about life in the community, including things they don't like and issues of concern, such as growth rates that may outstrip town services.

Information on Where to Retire magazine can be found at (713) 974- 6903 or www.WheretoRetire.com.

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