Retire in a College Town – Tallahassee, Florida

Even though Tallahassee is not on Kiplinger’s Best Cities list, I decided to briefly write about its possible merits as a place to retire for three reasons.  First, it is a college town which some baby boomers may find attractive in retirement.  Second, I lived in Tallahassee for three years and now have relatives there.  Third, Florida State University has associated itself with Westcott Lakes, a new active adult, life long learning, and life care community in Tallahassee.

We have not visited Westcott Lakes but are on their mailing list.  We plan on taking a tour next time we are in Tallahassee.  You can watch the the Westcott Lakes promotional video below.  (To see all of the video content, you will need to press the “more” on-screen button after the first segment ends.)  By the way, Mr. GoTo is not endorsing this community or being paid to promote it.  I am just very interested in the life care community concept so I thought my baby boomer readers might enjoy learning more about it.

Apart from being a college town (Florida A&M University is also there), Tallahassee is the state capital of Florida. This brings a certain degree of sophistication and culture that extends beyond that offered by the college communities.

My recollection is that the weather is mild in the winter and early spring but is quite hot and humid in the summer and early fall. The gulf is only a 45 minute drive if you enjoy water activities.

One of the drawbacks of Tallahassee retirement living is that, compared to a lot of other college towns, it is not easy to fly in or out by commercial airlines.  On the other hand, you do benefit from the low taxes, as Florida is one of the states with no state income tax.

Health care should not be a problem because Florida State opened a new medical school there in 2000.

Sperling’s Best Places has more facts and figures about Tallahassee that will be of interest to a baby boomer who might be considering retiring there.

I invite any baby boomer reader who is familiar with Tallahassee in general or with Westcott Lakes in particular to add a comment with their views as to retirement living in the area.

More on retiring in a college town.

FREE UPDATES: If you enjoy what you read here, please consider subscribing to receive free updates automatically by RSS feed or by email. (I promise that your email address will not be shared or used for any other purpose.)

My Related Posts:

1. Affordable College Towns for Retirement
2. Where Baby Boomers Will Likely Retire
3. Retiring in a Small Town or Rural Area