15 Southeast Cities To Retire on a Budget of $3,000 a Month

It might not sound like enough money to pay for the necessities each month, but it’s surprising how far $3,000 will go in some regions of the country — especially in the southeastern states.

A GOBankingRates study found 15 cities where you can pay the rent and the monthly necessities — groceries, healthcare, utilities and transportation — and have change leftover from $3,000. Three of them are in Virginia, with two each in Louisiana and West Virginia and the rest scattered about the region.

If you’re starting to think about retirement and looking at great places to settle, these 15 locations deserve a look. Part of the criteria for making the grade was a livability score — which ranks things such as community amenities, health and safety, cost of living and more — greater than 70.

• Livability Score: 71
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,321
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,996

Bossier City, near Shreveport, is tucked in the northwestern corner of Louisiana. At $1,321, the rent is the highest in the study, but the rest of the monthly expenses compensate for it. The price of groceries, utilities, healthcare and transportation all fall below the national average. In fact, Bossier city is just one of five cities on the list with healthcare less than the average cost.

• Livability Score: 70
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,188
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,969

If you envision spending your retirement at the beach, Jacksonville is just 30 miles or so from the Atlantic Ocean waters. Your commute to the shore won’t cost a bundle; transportation costs in Jacksonville are the lowest in the study at about 27% below the national average. The financial downside to living in Jacksonville? Healthcare prices stand about 20% above the average.

• Livability Score: 73
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,298
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,977

About a 5 ½-hour drive from Jacksonville is Spartanburg, a city of about 345,000. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people 65 and older make up 16.5% of the population, which increases your chances of finding built-in senior activities and your odds of making new friends. Rents, approaching $1,300 per month, are the second-highest in the study. The cost of utilities tops the list at almost 4% over the national average.

• Livability Score: 75
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,229
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,969

The first of three Virginia cities to appear on the list, Roanoke is one of five cities in the study where you’ll pay a monthly rent of more than $1,200. Healthcare also is pricey, at nearly 11% over the national average, though lower costs in other categories allow retirees to sneak in with monthly costs of less than $3,000 overall.

• Livability Score: 73
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,083
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,930

If you retire in New Iberia, expect hefty bills on two fronts: healthcare and transportation. Healthcare runs about 16% over the national average, and transportation about 3%. While the latter doesn’t sound like a big amount, consider this: every other city in the study has transportation costs at least 13% below the national average, with some locations approaching 30% less.

• Livability Score: 73
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,182
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,922

Costs of living in Macon, about 90 miles south of Atlanta, fall below the national average for groceries and transportation. Macon is second highest in the study for utility costs, at more than 3% above the average. Expect high air-conditioning bills as you cope with that steamy southeastern U.S. weather.

• Livability Score: 71
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,185
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,824

Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, sits comfortably below the $3,000 monthly threshold. That’s due in large part to healthcare costs that are 8% below the national average, tied for the lowest of the cities surveyed.

• Livability Score: 76
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,208
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,905

Transportation costs about 23% below and grocery prices about 6% less than the national average, combined with a respectable living score of 76%, helped Hattiesburg to earn its place on the list. It’s one of four cities studied where utilities are above the average.

• Livability Score: 75
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,150
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,836

Danville is the fourth city in the study where utilities exceed the national average. However, the livability score of 75 and the cost of groceries, nearly 8% less than the average, helped Danville to secure its spot on the list.

• Livability Score: 84
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,045
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,961

The capital of West Virginia, Charleston has a livability score of 84, ranked second highest in the study. It also performs well with the costs of rent, groceries and utilities. Where it doesn’t fare well is in the price of healthcare, which falls 36% above the national average.

• Livability Score: 76
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,193
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,812

Costs of groceries, healthcare, utilities and transportation all fall below the national average, giving Johnson City the third-lowest average cost of monthly necessities among the cities in the study.

• Livability Score: 83
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,121
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,895

There’s plenty to do in Florence, which is situated in an area of the state known as The Shoals. Listen to live music, shop in the fun stores or head outdoors to play golf. Given that monthly expenses are less than $2,900, you just might have some extra cash in your pocket for some of these pursuits. Florence’s livability score of 83 ranks third in the study.

• Livability Score: 90
• Average Monthly Rent: $1,267
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,956

Transportation costs in Lynchburg are among the lowest in the study, while healthcare expenses fall above the national average. However, Lynchburg has the highest livability score in the study at 90.

AreaVibes, which rates livability, reports it has the highest score in that category in the state and ranks it an A-plus in several categories, including amenities, cost of living, and health and safety.

• Livability Score: 74
• Average Monthly Rent: $998
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,627

North Little Rock is one of just two cities on the list with an average rent of less than $1,000 a month. Another advantage for retirees? It shares the honor of having the lowest cost of healthcare in the study with its neighbor, Little Rock.

If you retire in North Little Rock, there’s plenty to keep you busy, from touring historic sites to recreation adjacent to the Arkansas River. Average monthly necessities costs are the lowest overall, giving you extra money in the budget to do some fun things.

• Livability Score: 81
• Average Monthly Rent: $856
• Average Monthly Necessities: $2,725

With a livability score above 80 and the lowest average rent in the study, Huntington ranks as the No. 1 place in the Southeast to retire on a budget up to $3,000. Groceries, utilities and transportation costs rank well below the national average, but retirees will face a high cost of healthcare. Huntington is second-highest — lower only than the other West Virginia city in the study, Charleston — in terms of healthcare costs, at 33.1% over the national average and an average cost of just over $10,000 per year. 

Methodology: GOBankingRates determined the best cities in the Southeast (AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, SC, NC, VA, WV, KY and TN) to retire on $3,000 or less a month. GOBankingRates first isolated all cities in the Southeast with a 2023 average monthly rent under $1,900 and a size rank below 1,000. GOBankingRates then used Sperling’s BestPlaces to find the cost-of-living index for each listed city, looking at grocery, healthcare, utilities and transportation index scores. Next, GOBankingRates used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey to find the annual expenditure amount for grocery (“food at home”), utilities, healthcare and transportation costs for people aged 65 and older, in order to find how much a couple 65 and over would spend on necessities in each city on a monthly basis. GOBankingRates then added monthly housing, grocery, utilities, transportation and healthcare costs together to find where a couple 65 and older could survive on $3,000 or less. In order for a city to be qualified for the study, the city had to have a livability score above 70, as sourced from AreaVibes. GOBankingRates scored and combined both livability and monthly necessities expenditure, with the lowest score being best, to determine final rankings. All data was collected and is up to date as of Sept. 13, 2023.