10 Best (and Worst) Places To Retire If You Have No Savings

When it comes to saving for retirement, Americans are finding out more and more that they have a lot of catching up to do. A GOBankingRates survey found that 40% of adults have saved less than $300, which isn’t enough to live comfortably for even one year in retirement. Or is it?

If you have little to no savings and will likely have to rely on Social Security benefits, don’t assume that you won’t be able to have a comfortable retirement. There are places in the U.S. where you can get by without much in retirement savings.

On the whole, the best places to retire with no savings tend to be more affordable and relatively safe, and they have larger populations of older adults. The worst places for retirement tend to have a more expensive cost of living or other strikes against them, such as high crime rates.

Here are the best and worst places to retire if you have no savings.

Affordability is the key reason these cities are the top 10 places to retire if you have no savings. Almost all have an average home price under $200,000. Plus, retirees can hang on to more of their income in these places because, except for two cities in West Virginia and one in New Mexico, Social Security income isn’t taxed.

• Percent of residents 65+: 32.5%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $20,700

• Percent of residents 65+: 52.5%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $21,177

• Percent of residents 65+: 37.2%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $20,855

• Percent of residents 65+: 31.9%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $20,378

• Percent of residents 65+: 40.2%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $21,151

• Percent of residents 65+: 57.5%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $20,950

• Percent of residents 65+: 32.2%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $20,974

• Percent of residents 65+: 85.9%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $21,500

• Percent of residents 65+: 31.8%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $21,661

• Percent of residents 65+: 61%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $21,114

These 10 places are not such great cities to retire if you have no savings. Most of these cities have home prices that range from $450,000 on the low side to almost $4,000,000 on the high end. While many of these cities do not tax Social Security benefits, most of them do tax retirement income.

Additionally, the safety in these cities varies wildly, and the annual costs of services and expenditures remain on the high end.

• Percent of residents 65+: 33.9%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $24,122

• Percent of residents 65+: 34.7%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $23,596

• Percent of residents 65+: 40.8%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $23,750

• Percent of residents 65+: 28.5%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $23,777

• Percent of residents 65+: 33.5%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $24,074

• Percent of residents 65+: 33.9%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $22,988

• Percent of residents 65+: 31.1%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $25,974

• Percent of residents 65+: 29.3%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $25,825

• Percent of residents 65+: 30.4%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $22,812

• Percent of residents 65+: 29.5%
• Social Security benefits taxed: No
• Annual necessities: $25,547

Methodology: For this piece, GOBankingRates first found the 100 towns or cities with the (1) highest percentage of population aged 65 years and older, as sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau 2022 American Community Survey. GOBankingRates analyzed those 100 cities across the following factors: (2) property tax as sourced from Tax Foundation 2024 data; (3) the average 2024 home value for a single-family residence as sourced from Zillow’s October 2024 data. GOBankingRates then took the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey’s 2023 annual expenditures for consumers 65 years and older for groceries (“food at home”), healthcare, utilities (“utilities, fuels and public services”) and transportation (gas, other fuels & motor oils” and “other vehicle expenses”). These annual expenditures were then factored out for each city using Sperling’s BestPlaces cost-of-living indices and combined to give a (4) total annual cost of living expenditure for each city; (5) taxes on Social Security benefits. The (6) annual cost of an adult day healthcare service on the state level, (7) the annual cost of homemaker services on the state level and (8) the annual cost of a home health aide on the state level were all sourced from Genworth’s annual Cost of Care Survey. These eight factors were then scored, with a lower score being better. In final calculations, annual expenditure scores were weighted 3x, home value scores were weighted 2x, and taxes on Social Security were weighted 0.5x. All research was conducted on and is up to date as of Nov. 20, 2024.