Thinking about moving to just the right retirement locale? Retiring in Georgia should lead your list of inviting places. The Peach State combines a mild climate with inland beauty and coastal beaches, warm people, a senior-friendly financial environment, and much more. Retiring in Atlanta in particular — most notably the Buckhead neighborhood — offers a particularly attractive lifestyle for seniors, with big-city cultural venues blended with suburban seclusion. Retiring in Georgia adds up to a great quality of life for people 65 and older.
What are your key criteria?
In addition to helping you feel comfortable and safe, a retirement location has to work out from a cost-of-living perspective. How does retiring in Georgia stack up? The region’s cost of living weighs in below the U.S. average. Health care expenses are considered particularly affordable, with the sixth-lowest average costs in the country for a retired couple. Social Security income is exempt from state taxes, and for most retirees over age 62, many forms of retirement income, like pensions, annuities and rental income, are not taxed. There are also property tax breaks for seniors. For example, homeowners over age 62 who earn $10,000 or less are exempt from school taxes. Georgia state sales tax registers lower than average, and the state income tax rate remains right around 5%.
Kiplinger ranked all 50 states for retirement based on financial factors, considering low living costs and light tax burdens, as well as affordable health care options. They also favored states that are economically healthy and home to fit, active, and relatively prosperous residents ages 65 and over. After crunching the numbers, Georgia ranked third on the list of best states for retirement.
Is retiring in Atlanta for you?
The website Retirement Living lists Atlanta fourth among the best cities to retire in 2021. They take into account the cost of living in each metropolitan area, including quality of life measures such as median income, retirement taxes and real estate values, as well as crime rate, weather, parkland availability, and how much of the population is composed of retirees. They call Atlanta an affordable option for retirees with a low cost of living and favorable tax rates. Residents can expect a relatively low cost for assisted living care compared to the national average. They cite that Atlanta has a low crime rate, with weather that’s generally comfortable, with temperatures ranging from 50 to 60 degrees during the winter holidays, 36 total days under 32 degrees, and 32 days at 90 degrees and above.
Atlanta is also home to dozens of hospitals and medical facilities, so seniors in any of the area’s neighborhoods will have easy access to emergency and general medical care. A number of the city’s medical centers are rated high in geriatric care by U.S. News & World Report, including Emory Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, and Emory University Hospital.
The city features a profusion of parks and extended nature trails weaving in and out of tree-lined neighborhoods. Atlanta is known for its abundance of forested property, populated with live oaks, magnolias, maples and redbuds — trees that put on quite a show with fall color and spring blossoms.
And when it comes to occupying your time with interesting activities, just about everything you might want is here in Atlanta waiting for you — fine dining, major league sports, college sports, the Atlanta Symphony, live theater, pop concerts, golf courses, and everything else a major metropolitan area can offer. But how about independent living in a Life Plan Community? You’ll find one of the very best in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood.
A bit about Buckhead
Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood and its elegant residential streets are tree lined and filled with some of the most remarkable architecture and landscapes in the south, including the Swan House, located at the Atlanta History Center. Other landmarks include legendary shopping at Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza; LegoLand; Buckhead Theatre; Chastain Memorial Park; and the walkable, eight-block shopping, dining and entertainment complex called the Buckhead Village District. And for independent senior living in Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood, Canterbury Court provides easy access to everything appealing about the city, in a naturally beautiful setting that offers social engagement as well as security, seclusion and privacy.
Buckhead Senior Living?
It has to be Canterbury Court.
Canterbury Court is Atlanta’s original Life Plan Community. The people who live here blend a sense of warmth and acceptance with a love of life that keeps them happy and thriving. The lush green space on campus creates the perfect setting. Residents enjoy the simplicity and comfort of knowing that just about everything they need — from housing, dining, maintenance, utility bills, services, entertainment and social activities — is included and consolidated into a single, fixed monthly fee. This provides stability and predictability around monthly expenses and compares favorably to the costs of owning and maintaining a home. A full continuum of on-site care is also available, offering security and peace of mind.
Learn more about the story of Canterbury Court. Just contact us through our website or call 1-404-857-3927.