2 small cities great for retirement

By Jane Bennett Clark and Garry Lenton
Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Published: Sunday, June 17, 2007 12:32 a.m. MDT
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If moving to a small city that combines the best of urban and suburban living is tempting, we've found two attractive candidates — one out West, one on the East Coast.

• Boulder, Colo. What's better than raising a family in Boulder? Living in Boulder after the kids are gone. You can sample Boulder's 300-odd restaurants, shop the boutiques on the Pearl Street Mall, take tea at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse and bike along Boulder Creek Path. No worries about intellectual stimulation, either: Boulder has enough artists, techies and activists to keep you on your toes indefinitely.

If you want to move to a close-in neighborhood, however, expect to downsize. Because of Boulder's tight growth restrictions, downtown housing is scarce and expensive. A single-family detached home averages $500,000, says Barry Friedlander, of Re/Max of Boulder. The same house runs $200,000 to $300,000 10 miles outside of town. You can find a two-bedroom condo for $250,000 or a one-bedroom loft with a view of the Flatirons for $280,000.

Or you can enjoy nature's glories close up — and without the yardwork. "I'm 15 minutes from the edge of town," says Friedlander, 58. "I live on a mountaintop, so I can see Denver. I don't mow grass. I ride my motorcycle to the office once a month. This morning I was outside watching a bald eagle fly."

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• Harrisburg, Pa. Alfred Baker, a retired U.S. Army colonel, moved to Harrisburg from Berlin, Germany, because his wife didn't want to give up the four-season climate. The fact that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania doesn't tax retirement income didn't hurt, either.

Low housing prices more than offset the relatively high property taxes. Baker's home on five wooded acres in Susquehanna Township, a northern suburb where the median home price is less than $112,000, is only minutes from the golf course, theaters, restaurants and medical care.

Baker, 66, loves cigars, and he opened Rae's Tobacco in Strawberry Square, the city's trendy downtown office-and-shopping complex. It's just a couple of blocks from the Susquehanna River. Each day an eclectic mix of cigar aficionados gather in the shop to fire up a favorite smoke and burn through the subject du jour.

The region's strong economy has helped foster a thriving cultural scene that includes the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts — home to the city's symphony orchestra, led by Tony Award-winner Stuart Malina — and the National Civil War Museum. The region also supports theater and jazz. "It gets better every year," says Baker. "I made the right choice."

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