Read this before you sign a lease in Naples.
In the next several years, America will contain the highest surge of new retirees in the country’s history. If you’re one of those people approaching retirement age, then you’re likely thinking about where you want to spend your golden years. Traditionally, two states, in particular, have been absolute retirement meccas: Arizona and Florida. But given how both states fared this year weather-wise, you might want to look elsewhere before you sign a lease in Phoenix or Fort Myers any time soon.
Rising temperatures result in high insurance rates (hello, Florida) and major water concerns (hello, Arizona), both of which should be taken into consideration before settling down. But there are also very real risks to your physical health that you take on by living in areas of extreme heat.
This July, Phoenix broke multiple heat records. The city experienced one of its hottest days on record, reaching 119 degrees Fahrenheit, and also logged the longest-ever streak of consecutive days of extreme heat, with over 31 days straight of at least 110-degree heat.
As for Florida, the sunshine state also saw history-making temperatures this summer. Miami, for example, experienced its hottest month on record in July. South Florida was under heat warnings all summer, with cities like Naples and Fort Lauderdale consistently seeing forecasts of over-100-degree heat.
What’s going on in Florida and Arizona is, unfortunately, a microcosm of what’s happening to the planet at large. According to the World Meteorological Organization (who spoke at COP28, the United Nations climate summit in Dubai), 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, with the average temperature up 1.4 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. For reference, that’s just one-tenth of one point below the 1.5-degree cap set during the Paris Agreement in 2015.
At the risk of sounding a bit tongue-in-cheek about climate change, retirees and extreme heat are a match made in hell.
Here’s why you might not want to move to these traditional retirement locations, and where you should consider moving instead.
Why moving to traditional retirement states like Arizona and Florida might be risky right now
Extreme levels of heat are dangerous for any human. But they’re especially dangerous for older people, who are more likely to suffer from health conditions like diabetes, heart diseases, and other forms of medical frailty that make it harder to weather different kinds of, well, weather.
A retiree doesn’t need to have a preexisting condition to be vulnerable under these conditions, though. In general, an elderly body is less able to withstand intense heat than a younger body. To The New York Times, James Diaz, a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at Louisiana State University’s School of Public Health, explained, “When we look at what happens with these heat waves, most of the deaths occur in the homebound elderly…They’re at extremely high risk of heat stroke and death.”
There’s also the simple fact that enduring extreme heat requires energy from your body, and elderly people tend to have less energy than younger people. So in the best-case scenario, retirees are finding themselves in situations where they’re increasingly sweaty and exhausted from the heat. The worst-case scenario is, obviously, much worse: They could suffer a stroke or a heart attack.
That’s nothing to say of the financial consequences of intense heat, which, of course, aren’t as important as one’s literal life, but are still of huge consideration for people who aren’t working anymore and need to maintain a budget. If you live in an area where the temperature is routinely over 85 or even 100 degrees, you can expect to rack up a small fortune on air conditioning bills.
Where are the retirement hot spots of the future?
If these heat waves are dashing your dreams of an Arizona golden era, fear not. There are plenty of cities around the country that are affordable, welcoming to seniors, and experiencing much more reasonable temperatures than Arizona and Florida these days.
Ever been to Lancaster, Pennsylvania? What about Asheville, North Carolina, or Eugene, Oregon? All of these cities rank in the top 30 of the best cities to retire in 2022-23, per US News & World Report. And while no city on the planet is completely immune to the effects of climate change, these cities are all poised to fare much better in the decades to come than Phoenix, Naples, and other current retirement hot spots.
If you currently live in or plan to move to an area that regularly experiences wildly high temperatures, you should make a point to learn how to keep yourself safe during those conditions. For example, keeping an eye on the forecast and staying inside during the hottest hours of the day (usually, around 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) are easy habits to adopt when you live in an area like Phoenix.
If you rely on air conditioning to stay cool inside (and let’s face it: in Florida or Arizona, you probably do), then you should also have a plan for what to do if the power goes down during a heat wave. You can keep cool by placing damp towels on your face, putting your feet in ice water, and making sure all the curtains or blinds in your home are closed.
If you’re still desperate to spend some time around the saguaros or plant your feet in the cool waters of the Gulf Coast, then maybe consider a winter timeshare instead.
