13 Places To Retire That Are Just Like Hawaii but Way Cheaper
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Heather Taylor
6 min read
Don’t stress if you find your retirement budget won’t stretch far enough to cover retiring in Hawaii. There are 13 beach cities across the United States where retirees won’t need to dip too deeply into their retirement savings to enjoy a comfortable, and affordable, retirement.
To find out which cities offer Hawaii vibes at a lower cost for retirees, GOBankingRates used Honolulu, Hawaii, as the default Hawaii location to compare to other U.S. retirement locations. This is because Honolulu is both the most populated Hawaii city and offers the most accurate data.
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Ideal vacation spots with beautiful beaches were then scouted using sources like U.S. News & World Report and TripAdvisor, among others. Several factors were also sourced for each city’s cost of living (including expenditure monthly cost, the average home value as of January 2024, average monthly mortgage and total monthly cost of living), quality of life (livability score and household median income for ages 65 and older) and population (the total population and population of those ages 65 and older). All locations which cost more than Honolulu were removed, leaving 13 locations to rank on the list.
For context, Honolulu’s average total monthly cost of living is $9,833 and the average home value is north of $1.2 million.
Median household income (ages 65 and over): $49,387
Total population: 86,772
Population ages 65 and over: 14,427
Methodology: For this study, GOBankingRates analyzed beach cities across the US to find places to retire that are just like Hawaii but way cheaper. GOBankingRates used Honolulu, Hawaii as the location in Hawaii to compare to retirement locations as Honolulu is the most populated city in Hawaii and has the most accurate data available. Firstly, GOBankingRates found ideal vacation spots around the country with beautiful beaches as sourced from U.S. News & World Report for Best USA Vacations, U.S. News & World Report for Best Summer Vacations in the USA for 2024, TripAdvisor for 25 Best Beaches in the United States, and Travel + Leisure for 25 Best Beaches in the USA. For each city on the list a number of factors were sourced including: total population, population of ages 65 and older, median household income for ages 65 and higher all sourced from the US Census American Community Survey, the cost of living indexes as sourced from Sperling’s BestPlaces, average national expenditure cost as sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, the livability index as sourced from AreaVibes, average single family home value for January 2024 as sourced from Zillow Home Value Index, and the 30 year national fixed rate mortgage as sourced from the Federal Research Economic Data. Using the 30 year fixed rate mortgage, the average single family home value from January 2024, and assuming a 10% down payment the average mortgage cost can be calculated. Using the cost of living indexes and the national average expenditure costs the expenditure costs of living for each city can be calculated. Adding this to the mortgage cost gives the total monthly cost of living. All the locations that cost more than Honolulu, Hawaii were removed for this study. For all the places with a livability below 75 were removed as they are too far from the same level of quality as Honolulu, Hawaii. The household income was scored and weighted at 1.00, the expenditure cost was scored and weighted at 1.00, the mortgage cost was scored and weighted at 1.00, the livability index was scored and weighted at 1.00. All the scores were summed and sorted to show the places that are just like Hawaii but way cheaper. All data was collected and is up to date as of March 4, 2024.
