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7 Best Texas Cities To Retire on $2,600 a Month
Written by
Heather Taylor
Edited by
Chris Cluff

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Where can you retire in Texas if your retirement budget is $2,500 a month?
GOBankingRates gathered a list of cities in Texas from the U.S. Census: American Consumer Survey and used Zillow Research Data to source the average rental cost in each city. The cost of living across grocery, healthcare, utilities and transportation were sourced from Sperling’s Best Places with expenditure costs added to the rental cost.
While the data GOBankingRates gathered showcases cities where the monthly costs are $2,500 a month or less, we also included four more cities from this data to this list where retirees can retire for under $2,600 a month.
These are the seven best Texas cities to retire on $2,600 a month.Â
Athens
- Population: 12,719
- Livability: 73
- Monthly rent cost: $975
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,592
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,567
Lufkin
- Population: 34,264
- Livability: 70
- Monthly rent cost: $896
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,664
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,560
Marshall
- Population: 22,862
- Livability: 67
- Monthly rent cost: $942
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,602
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,543
Port Arthur
- Population: 55,757
- Livability: 60
- Monthly rent cost: $911
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,611
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,522
Clute
- Population: 10,722
- Livability: 60
- Monthly rent cost: $822
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,674
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,497
Weslaco
- Population: 40,393
- Livability: 71
- Monthly rent cost: $848
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,587
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,435
Bay City
- Population: 17,918
- Livability: 74
- Monthly rent cost: $736
- Expenditures monthly cost: $1,604
- Total monthly cost (expenditures and rent): $2,340
Photo Disclaimer: Please note photos are for representational purposes only. As a result, some of the photos might not reflect the locations listed in this article.
Methodology: To find the Best Texas Cities to Retire on $2,500 a Month, GOBankingRates gathered a list of cities in Texas from the U.S. Census: American Consumer Survey and the average rental cost in each city sourced from Zillow Research Data: Zillow Observed Rental Index. Financial experts recommend not spending more than 50% of your income on housing, so the cities were filtered to cost $1,750 a month or less. For the remaining cities, the cost of living across grocery, healthcare, utilities, transportation and miscellaneous indexes were sourced from Sperling’s Best Places. Each index was multiplied by the average annual costs sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Expenditure Survey. The expenditure costs were added to the rental cost to find the cities where the monthly costs are $2,500 a month or less. For each city that qualifies, the livability score was found as supplemental information. All data was collected and is up-to-date as-of July 27th, 2023.
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