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Virginia Popular Spot for Retirees State in Top 10By D'Vera Cohn Virginia became one of the most popular places in the nation for the elderly to move in the 1990s, and Florida attracted fewer retirees for the first time in decades, according to a Census Bureau report to be released today. A broad reshuffling of the top retirement destinations means that a growing number of older people are moving to the Southwest and a swath of mild-weather Atlantic Coast states that include Virginia and Delaware. Florida still gained far more new elderly residents than any other state, but it drew fewer in the late 1990s than in the late 1980s. So did Oregon and Washington state, which were 1980s hot spots. State officials, political analysts and businesses are studying the shifts closely, hoping for clues to what the post-World War II baby boom generation will do as it ages. In five years, the oldest baby boomers will turn 62, the leading edge of the biggest retirement generation ever. Today's retirees are becoming less predictable, the numbers show, with more choosing places like Loudoun County, for example, and fewer moving to California. They are moving to a wider array of states, so they are not as concentrated in traditional destinations. And the choices of the "young old" are different from those of the "old old" -- for example, a rising number of people older than 85 are leaving retirement communities and moving to snowy states to be near family or better health care. "The states that have gotten the big proportions [of retirees] are beginning to lose that," said Charles F. Longino Jr., a Wake Forest University demographer and leading expert on the movement of retirees. "The biggies are beginning to lose a bit of their market share to newcomers." That is roiling the retirement scene so much that Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) named a commission last year to recommend ways the state could attract more retirees. The panel, which issued its report in February, recommended a formal marketing program and other steps to increase the state's appeal, such as improving transportation for disabled people. The report noted that Florida's older residents paid $2.8 billion more in taxes in 2000 than they received in state and local services, an economic boon that explains why so many states are chasing the elderly market. In the Washington region, Virginia has ascended the ranks of states in attracting people 65 and older each decade since at least 1970. In 2000, it ranked in the top 10 states for the first time in its net gain of retirees from other states, according to an analysis by Brookings Institution demographer William H. Frey. According to census figures, Virginia's Northern Neck, Charlottesville, Williamsburg and Loudoun County ranked among the areas in the nation with the sharpest increase in new older residents in the 1990s. On the Eastern Shore and communities near the Chesapeake Bay, one in five new arrivals is older than 60, according to demographer Kevin Byrnes of Virginia's Department of Aging.
In the District, where the general population has declined for decades, older people are also leaving and have been since at least the 1960s. The new numbers come from the 2000 Census question that asked people where they lived five years earlier. In Virginia, Byrnes said he receives a growing number of calls from local aging agency directors trying to learn who is moving into their regions. "They are seeing a growing number of out-of-state license plates," he said. Frey and Longino said Virginia benefits from a variety of factors. It is part of the "new Sunbelt" that also includes Georgia and the Carolinas, with relatively mild climates and affordable housing in some areas. The state also gets elderly people moving out of the District. And because the state has so many younger families, it also acquires older people who want to be near their children. Alexander Rusanowsky, 80, moved in May with his wife, Jane, to the Summerville assisted-living community in Woodbridge to be near one of their daughters. They had lived near Cape Canaveral, Fla., for 26 years, but his wife needed more medical care than was available there and they were ready for a smaller residence. They knew the Washington area because they had lived here when he was stationed at the Pentagon during his Army career. "I wanted to be near somebody other than strangers," Rusanowsky said. "Florida is too far away from everybody."
One overriding theme of America's changing retirement patterns, experts say, is that older people are leaving costly and crowded areas for those that are cheaper and quieter. Nevada got half its retiree gains from California. Florida exported more older people to the Carolinas, Georgia and Nevada than it gained. Frey said retirees who left California, for example, "are
basically cashing in their equity during the '90s, the good times, and
trading it for an area with better amenities, a lower cost of living and
lower density." Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
Delaware,
where beach and rural retirement areas are drawing more older people, also
became one of the most popular states. Maryland has lost elderly people to
other states since the 1970s, but that trend has slowed. Most of the
growth in retirement areas such as Worcester County is fed by relocations
from elsewhere in Maryland.