Forget Florida. Why Many Retirees Are Settling Down in Alabama | WSJ Your Money Briefing

[Music] here's your money briefing for Friday May 19th I'm J.R Whalen for the Wall Street Journal as the cost of living Rises and people live longer lives many retirees are passing up Florida to spend their later years and many have chosen to live in neighboring Alabama Wall Street Journal contributor Cecile rodder joins us to discuss why Alabama and what other states and cities can learn from the shifting trend so Cecile traditionally Florida often comes up as a retirement destination option for people and for a lot of retirees it makes Financial sense Florida is one of a handful of states with no income tax so why are retirees being priced out this story actually was born from another story I was writing about Fort Lauderdale which of course is a traditional retirement community and I was interviewing a professor at Florida Atlantic University was talking about how much that region was changing how much home values were going up because so many Tech workers and Financial Services Workers were moving there and almost as a throwaway line he said well the only collateral damage is that there were Tyrese and snowbirds that traditionally would come and move to Fort Lauderdale or spend months of the year here can no longer afford to be here because house prices are so high and so I said well where are they going and he said a lot of them are moving to Alabama as it happens home prices with the changing Florida economy and people from every everywhere moving there to work especially to these traditional retirement destinations on sort of the western coast of Florida and in Southeastern Florida home prices have exploded and really are no longer affordable for a lot of Americans now you spoke to several people who've looked outside the Sunshine State and have settled in Baldwin County Alabama where is that in Alabama so Baldwin counties and the southwestern part of Alabama and if you imagine it like an oval on the on the right side on the Eastern side you have the Florida Panhandle and on the other side you have Mobile Bay but the bottom of your oval that's the Gulf Shore it's the Gulf of Mexico so Baldwin County is one of two counties in Alabama that borders the Gulf of Mexico and the beaches are called Orange Beach Gulf Shores and they're literally if you look at a map right next to Pensacola Beach or beaches that you may know from Florida so it's a continuation of the Florida coast except it's in Alabama Obama and therefore more affordable now in your story in the Wall Street Journal you cite Census Data showing the Baldwin County was the fastest growing County in Alabama between 2010 and 2020. what's the appeal of that specific area of Alabama and how do the living expenses compare to Florida so the largest appeal of course is affordability you set it houses are cheaper there than they are either in southwestern Florida or on the southeastern shore of Florida where people may have retired in the past the cost of living is lower as well cost of living of course depends on the average salary in an area those things are linked very closely and so in Baldwin County the average salary is forty nine thousand dollars and that compares to fifty seven thousand dollars in Lee County that's the county around Fort Myers and 67 in Broward County now of course if the average salary in a region is lower that means your massages are lower your dinners your grocery bills and your gas ever everything is more affordable I wanted to come back to one thing you asked initially which is isn't it great that in Florida there's no state income tax well if you're an older American who's no longer working you don't have an income that's not so relevant what is really relevant and makes Baldwin County even more attractive especially to older Americans is that it has one of the lowest property taxes in the country in the nation all of Alabama and Baldwin County as part of Alabama is no exception your property taxes are so low that some of the home buyers I interviewed for the story when they first bought their homes they couldn't believe how low it was they thought oh wait is that yearly oh no so that's another appeal so what does this say about how economics have changed for not only retirees but also people planning for their retirement and where they'll live it shows that people are watching their dollars just a lot more and as they're planning for retirement they're also thinking about where is a place where where I could buy a property that I may be able to rent out until I retire so while I'm still winding down my job and in the last few years of my career perhaps I already lock in those low prices in this part of Alabama now before they go up because that will undoubtedly get discovered as well I lock in that low price and rent out this property have someone else pay the mortgage until I'm ready to retire there full time you mentioned the economist with Florida Atlantic University that you spoke with and that person said that Baldwin County is tailor-made for retirees is this A playbook that other cities could follow well what it has going for it what a lot of other places may not is those sugary beaches that has that small town feel it has that affordability for now but playbooks that other regions in the country could follow is keeping their property taxes low making themselves attractive to seniors I think a big Trend as well that we come across a lot in our reporting is that second home markets that are markets that may be first attractive for snowbirds or people who may want to rent their homes out second home markets are increasingly in driving distance from Big capitals where in the old metropolitan areas where perhaps in the past people would have gotten that second home if they're living in Philadelphia in Nantucket but now they might get it in Cape May right so for Baldwin County Alabama which is in driving distance to Nashville to Atlanta to some of the big Southern capitals it's also by the way the first County that you hit when you drive from Texas it's the first really nice white Beach that you can get those markets are on the up much more perhaps in second home markets there traditionally were in Airplane distance people are attracted to that white sand on the beach they are and of course there's a Flora Bama the world famous Honky Tonk and they are very local attractions such as the deep sea fishing rodeo things that only happen in Alabama that's Wall Street Journal contributor Cecile row wetter and that's your money briefing I'm J.R Whalen for the Wall Street Journal [Music] thank you

Channel: WSJ News

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Keywords: florida, alabama, orange beach, gulf shores, baldwin county, retirement, retirees, retirees are settling down, cost of living in florida, fort lauderdale, fort lauderdale beach, the wharf orange beach, real estate in baldwin county, real estate, where should i retire, your money briefing, wsj, sunbelt state, florida cost, moving to florida, florida real estate, retirement florida, income tax, gulf of mexico, south west, panhandle, best place to retire, living expenses, pfin

Id: 6-4jN3ejm-s

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023