Your retirement home may be within a community association.  Community associations include Condominium Associations, Homeowner Associations (HOA's) or Cooperative Associations (Co-Ops).  They differ as follows:

• Condominiums - Members (owners) own their unit and an undivided share in the common elements.
• HOA's - Members own their homes and the association owns common property.
• Co-Ops - The association owns all property (everything) and members have an ownership interest (i.e., a lease to use the unit/property).

Although condominium or apartment-style living isn't for everyone, condominiums do have several appealing advantages:

• Typically located in urban areas, near the beach or in resort areas.
• Provide a maintenance-free lifestyle.
• Usually provide single-floor living with elevators in multi-story buildings.
• Include amenities such as swimming pools, spas, tennis courts, exercise facilities, barbecue patios, picnic areas, clubhouse, food service, covered parking, concierge desk, etc.
• Maintenance fees may include utilities such as cable TV, water, trash collection, security, fire protection, etc.
• May provide walking access to restaurants, attractions and shopping areas.
• May have great, high-level views.

Disadvantages include lack of privacy and high maintenance fees.  You could have noisy, disruptive neighbors or neighbors who smoke or barbecue on their patios.  Your condo could be located near a noisy generator, elevator, bar/restaurant, pool pump, traffic, etc.  There may also be restrictions on pets, occupancy rates, unit alterations, parking, etc.  Finally, most community associations, including condos, have leasing restrictions.

You can own your home or condominium or lease it.  Renting is cheaper than buying only if you plan to stay in a home for 3 years or less. If you don't plan on moving for at least 4 or 5 years, then buying has many advantages. However, buying a home requires a major financial commitment, good credit and significant up-front costs.

Following are some factors to consider in your own versus rent decision:

Many more seniors are seeking 55+ Communities for their retirement home.  These communities are for people over age 55 who want to remain active and enjoy associating with fellow retirees and participating in community activities in a vacation-like setting.  Most of these communities offer:

• A home maintenance-free lifestyle;
• Alternative accommodations -- single family homes, multi-family or condominium;
• Club houses with rooms for exercising, playing cards, dining, entertainment, billiards, etc;
• Recreational facilities -- golf, swimming, tennis, boccie ball, shuffleboard, softball, etc;
• Various clubs for residents with specific interests; and
• Activity directors.

55Places.com recently listed the 25 best value active-adult communities for retirement.  According to the article, these following communities offer the ultimate package of resort-style amenities, a vibrant lifestyle and finely-crafted homes:

The following happiness ratings were based on a survey of 1.3 million people across the country by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It used data collected over four years (2005-2009) that included a question asking people how satisfied they are with their lives.

Economists Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., compared the happiness ranking with studies that rated states on a variety of criteria ranging from availability of public land to commuting time to local taxes.

Their report in the journal Science found the happiest people tend to live in the states that do well in quality-of-life studies, which compare things like climate, crime rates, air quality and schools.  As you will see many of these states are in the southern US where outdoor living is more prevalent.

The state-by-state list (including Washington, DC), from happiest to lease happy are:

If you want your retirement income to provide the best lifestyle or last the longest, you may wish to select one of the cheapest places to retire. On October 4, 2019 Newsmax.com published an article on the nine cheapest places in America to retire.  This list, based on data from MarketWatch, includes (in order, starting with the cheapest):

On the opposite end of the spectrum, San Francisco, New York, and Pearl City, Hawaii were ranked as some of the most expensive places to retire.

2023 U.S. Census Bureau data shows a major migration to southern states for the 46% of people who moved to another state instead of relocating within their state. This out-of-state move was largely led by more affordable conditions and opportunities. States with the largest net migration included Florida (372,870 increase), Texas (315.301 increase), North Carolina (126,712 increase), South Carolina (91,853 increase), and Georgia (88,325 increase).

Contrary to popular opinion, only one percent of people, according to the Census Bureau, moved for climate-related reasons. Their data shows:

• 42 percent of moves were driven by housing reasons,
• 26 percent for family reasons, and
• 16 percent for employment reasons.

National Association of Realtors research revealed that 74% of respondents sold their previous residence when making their recent purchase and the remaining 26% kept their residence. Of those who kept their previous residence, most (20%) used their prior residence as an investment, rental, or vacation property. 94 percent made a permanent move to a new area or location, while six percent are splitting their time between their new and previous location. Nearly one in five (18 percent) moved back to an area in which they previously lived, particularly if they moved from the Midwest or West.

After you've done preliminary research, you'll need to narrow your selection to those areas which are most appealing.  Notice that I'm suggesting that you conduct your research first and then hone in on your requirements.  This will keep you open-minded to new possibilities that you may have initially eliminated.  One approach for narrowing your selection is to use a Kepner Tregoe decision analysis.  This approach employs a structured decision making methodology for gathering information and prioritizing and evaluating it.  It was developed by Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe in the 1960s.

An important aspect of Kepner Tregoe decision making is the assessment and prioritizing of risk.  So the idea is not to find a perfect solution but rather the best possible choice, based on achieving the best outcome with minimal negative consequences.  It is a way to replace emotions with factual data, and to make decisions with less conscious and unconscious biases that draw attention away from the outcome.

Kepner Tregoe Process

There are four basic steps when decision making Kepner Tregoe style:

1. Situation Appraisal - is used to clarify the situation, outline concerns, determine major factors for consideration, eliminate certain options and choose a general approach and direction.

2. Problem Analysis - here the problem (not knowing where to live in retirement) is defined and its resolution objectives are determined and weighted.

3. Decision Analysis - alternatives (options) are identified and a risk analysis is done for each.

4. Potential Problem Analysis - the best of the alternatives is further scrutinized against potential shortfalls/problems and negative consequences and actions are proposed to minimize risk.

Following the step-by-step approach of Kepner Tregoe decision making allows for the use of critical thinking skills in considering many possible factors that may be vital in making the decision.  The table at the bottom of this page exemplifies use of the Kepner Tregoe problem identification and decision analysis methodology in determining where and how to live in retirement.

1. Situation Appraisal

The situation is that you feel that you're ready to leave your current house/location and move to a more ideal place.  Before proceeding further you'll need to outline concerns associated with your move, such as the impact on current friends and family relations and adjusting to a new and strange environment.  Also, there's the cost factors in selling and buying a new house, determining what all needs to be moved (or sold or donated) and the logistics of working with a moving company.

Once you've clarified the situation, outlined concerns and considered the complexities with a move/ relocation, you're ready to narrow your options to a subset that meets your essential ("must have") requirements.  Your initial research presented many possible solutions from which you need to select a general solution/direction.  The next step is to develop a set of "must have" requirements for your retirement home.  These can be divided into three categories: 1) Location, 2) housing and 3) community (environment).  Following is an example of "must have" requirements:

Each possible alternatives is considered to be a "Go" if it meets your "must have" requirements or else it is a "No Go".  The alternatives generated by your initial research are evaluated against "must have" requirements (above example), and the "no go" ones are eliminated.

2. & 3. Problem & Decision Analysis

The remaining options (the "go" ones) are evaluated against your list of "want to have" requirements or objectives.  Note that the evaluation table below contains a sample list of many objectives, some of which you may consider as being "must haves", which would eliminate them from this table.

For this example, the same three major factors used above (Location, Housing and Community) are considered in analyzing the problem and reaching resolution.  Objectives are listed under each factor and rated (1 - 10) relative to their importance to the retiree.  Then, as a part of the decision analysis, the degree to which each option satisfies the objective is rated (1-10).  Finally, the two are multiplied (Importance times Satisfaction) to arrive at a Weighted Score.  Scores are then added down the columns to arrive at Total Scores.  The Option with the highest Total Score is the best fit for your situation.  This is of course just an example, and your individual objectives may differ considerably, leading to a highly individualized result.

4. Potential Problem Analysis

Once your objectives are analyzed for each identified option and a total score is calculated, it is now time to complete the final step – potential problem analysis.  Here the best of the alternatives is further scrutinized against potential problems and negative consequences and actions are proposed to minimize the risk.  Having completed the final analysis step, you're now in a position to aggressively work towards achieving the desired alternative.