#16 through 20. See the picture for details and scores.
Sample houses
16 – Boulder City (NV)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-70817?view=qv
17 – My house (CO)
It’s my house. I love my house.
18 – Cheyenne (WY)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-24817?view=qv
19 – Fort Collins (CO)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-89361?view=qv
20 – Flagstaff (AZ)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-56200?view=qv
Summary (in ascending order)
Flagstaff (AZ) – I’m a little surprised the Flagstaff scored this well. It’s an intriguing place to me, but on paper it has some drawbacks, most notably that it gets a couple feet more snow each winter compared to Denver and has slightly colder winters. But on the plus side, the summers are quite a bit cooler and the humidity is in the same zone as Denver, which is quite tolerable. It’s more affordable, cutting a year off my retirement horizon, and the housing choices are reasonable and affordable, though not really spectacular in style according to my tastes. It’s a decent-sized city that will have a lot of services and amenities. I guess the bottom line is that it scores well by being affordable, non-humid, and with decent housing and services.
Fort Collins (CO) – This is a place where the cool kids tend to live in Colorado. It’s a highly competent city with a big college, so what’s not to like? It’s a couple of degrees cooler in both the winter and the summer, and gets 20 percent less snow than Denver with similar humidity. The housing market is decent if not inspired. (Note that I had to pick a house with a basement for my sample, which isn’t ideal for an elderly tottering Rain Man.)
Cheyenne (WY) – Okay, there’s a pattern here. It’s another place that has snow but low humidity, with a so-so housing market but more affordability in a decent-sized city. The scoring algorithm seems to like these places in the #16 to #20 slots. Cheyenne is slightly colder in the winter with roughly the same snow as Denver, but summers are several degrees cooler, which is nice. I had to pick another house with a basement, which lowers the housing grade. Flagstaff, Fort Collins, and Cheyenne are all variations on a theme here.
My house (CO) – One nice feature of the model is that I can put my own house in and give it a score. Out of 87 choices it places 17th, which means that I’m in a good situation. As noted, the snow is getting to be a bit much, and it’s got a lot of stairs that won’t be compatible with old age, but on the positive side I would have no Realtor or moving costs, no remodeling to fit my tastes since that’s already done, and it’s got an apartment that provides about 10 percent of my required income. As long as I can do stairs, there’s a strong argument to age in place, and realistically that's the most likely bet for us.
Boulder City (NV) – I know nothing about this place other than seeing it on a “good places to retire” list. It seems to be a satellite city of Las Vegas, about 30 minutes from the Strip. It’s Nevada, so it’s got a very mild winter, though those 103 degree days in July would get old. It’s very affordable due to Nevada’s tax structure, and the housing quality is decent if not spectacular, pretty much like the other three cities in this group. I could go hang out at Boulder Dam, too, and visit the Grand Canyon frequently, and it's not far from cool stuff in California. This is not a place I would expect to rank high, but it has some notable advantages, and summer heat is really the only notable disadvantage. I'd consider it.