20 US Cities To Retire on $3,000 a Month

Are you considering joining the approximately 47 million Americans already in retirement? Have no fear, because you are not alone. Approximately 14% of the U.S. population has closed the door on the working world.

Making the decision to retire is momentous, but it leads to many other decisions. One of the biggest is where to live and how much you can afford to spend each month on all the necessary expenses.

GOBankingRates is here to help you, giving you the best cities to retire on a monthly budget of $3,000 or less for a person 65 and older. In addition to looking at the cost of living for each city, GOBankingRates used only cities that scored well for livability and had a significant portion of the population over the age of 65.

See the best cities to retire on a lower fixed income.

• Total Population: 191,483
• Livability Index Score: 81
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,361.45

• Total Population: 10,372
• Livability Index Score: 78
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,344.24

• Total Population: 18,647
• Livability Index Score: 78
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,350.58

• Total Population: 16,817
• Livability Index Score: 76
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,290.64

• Total Population: 3,414
• Livability Index Score: 84
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,574.87

• Total Population: 7,282
• Livability Index Score: 85
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,617.85

• Total Population: 17,882
• Livability Index Score: 82
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,543.31

• Total Population: 21,992
• Livability Index Score: 78
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,436.29

• Total Population: 12,612
• Livability Index Score: 73
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,276.22

• Total Population: 67,695
• Livability Index Score: 81
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,567.00

• Total Population: 16,085
• Livability Index Score: 79
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,517.15

• Total Population: 40,202
• Livability Index Score: 15,909
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,532.44

• Total Population: 46,923
• Livability Index Score: 81
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,636.28

• Total Population: 28,479
• Livability Index Score: 91
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,984.33

• Total Population: 18,122
• Livability Index Score: 76
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,487.00

• Total Population: 44,114
• Livability Index Score: 76
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,487.71

• Total Population: 21,864
• Livability Index Score: 76
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,488.42

• Total Population: 95,536
• Livability Index Score: 83
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,720.84

• Total Population: 13,969
• Livability Index Score: 81
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,664.03

• Total Population: 374,861
• Livability Index Score: 70
• Total Monthly Expenses + Mortgage: $2,311.83

George Malone contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: To find the Best Cities to Retire on $3,000 a month, GOBankingRates used a list of cities from US Census American Consumer Survey and using Sperling’s BestPlaces the cost of living across many expenditure categories are calculated with the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey for people aged 65 and older, giving the expenditure costs for each expenditure category for each city. Using the Zillow Home Value Index to find the average July 2023 home value for each city and the 30-year fixed national mortgage rate sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data, the average monthly mortgage cost can be calculated for each city. Adding the mortgage cost and the expenditure costs to find the average total monthly costs. All cities above $3,000 were removed and for the remaining cities the livability index was sourced from AreaVibes. The livability index and the total monthly cost were scored with the livability index weighted at 1.5 and the total cost weighted at 1.0. The scores were combined and sorted to show the best cities to retire on $3,000 a month. All data was collected and is up-to-date as-of September 13th, 2023.