Rankings 61 through 65. See picture for scoring.
Sample houses:
61 69.18
Laguna Niguel (CA)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-25452?view=qv
62 67.6
Boise (ID)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-62549?view=qv
63 67.54
Cambria (CA)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-53586?view=qv
64 67.03
Grand Junction (CO)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-11606?view=qv
65 66.95
Camdenton (MO)
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...-11815?view=qv
My summaries (lower to higher rank):
Camdenton is on the Lake of the Ozarks, so my impression is that it’s THE place to be in Missouri. There’s a nice housing selection there, as you’ll see with the sample lake view condo. I could definitely live in that condo and like it. The area's not inexpensive in total due to taxes and stuff, but would still cut half a year off of my retirement timeline. The winters get little snow and are slightly warmer than Denver, though still cold. Summers are similar in temperature but more humid. It’s actually not an unreasonable option, though I have little desire to move back to Missouri for unrelated reasons. The small community also has drawbacks in terms of service access.
Grand Junction is reasonably affordable, so it would cut a year off of my retirement timeline. It’s hotter than Denver in the summer with slightly more humidity, and just as cold in the winter, but with a lot less snow. It leans pretty far right politically so I'll get covid. It gets penalized at the moment for pretty weak housing selections, but I’ve seen some nice houses for sale there in the past. Find the right house and the score would move up a lot, so I wouldn’t give up on it. I like the town overall.
Cambria - It’s California so the cost is higher, and would require another half-year of work for me. But oh, look at that climate. Mild winters with no snow and mild summers. It’s humid on the coast, but with those temperatures it probably doesn’t matter. It’s a small and remote community so there’s not a lot of community options, and the big downside is the housing supply. It would be hard to find a decent-sized place in my price range, and the sample house seems to be an outlier, which makes me suspicious. I have a feeling that a more in-depth investigation would discover obstacles, but oh, that climate is nice.
Boise – It’s a lot lower in altitude than Denver (under 3,000 feet), so even though it's further north the climate is warmer than Denver by a few degrees, with similar humidity and one-third the snowfall. It’s a nice big city with a decent housing selection. The affordability is similar, but in part that’s because I picked a condo in downtown Boise that’s close to a lot of stuff, so it’s expensive for the area. Nice condo, though, and more affordable options are likely that could bring the cost down. I don't know that it's a big enough difference to warrant a post-retirement move.
Laguna Niguel. We can’t afford Laguna Beach, but what if we move up the hill and slightly inland? Laguna Niguel is still more expensive than staying in Denver, but not by much. The climate is pretty much ideal with mild winters and mild summers, even if the humidity is a bit higher. We’d have to live in a much smaller and kind of nondescript home, though, and single story homes are hard to find. Other than the great weather, there aren’t many boxes checked. My wife loves this area, but moving inland would negate a lot of the things we like there.