Shopping for Your Dream Retirement Home? Check Out These Popular Destinations

Are you one of the millions of Americans approaching retirement and are thinking of moving to a top retirement destination? Whether you are seeking golf, an oceanfront locale or an urban environment with accessible amenities, there are many cities and towns nationwide that are increasing in appeal among retirees. Each year, TopRetirements.com compiles a list of the 100 most popular places Baby Boomers go to retire. The list is essentially a “popularity contest,” says TopRetirements, because it reflects the towns and areas that visitors to the website are most interested in finding out more about for their retirements. The most popular region Boomers are interested in moving to for retirement is “very clear,” says TopRetirements.com: the Sunbelt. With 77 towns making the cut, the Sunbelt dominated the top 100 list, peppered with multiple cities and towns in the Carolinas, Florida, and Texas. Meanwhile, only three states in the Northeast made it onto the most popular retirement destinations list, and the Midwest was shut out completely. The remaining top retirement destination cities for 2014 were located in the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. Top 10 Places Where Boomers Want to Retire Asheville, N.C. Sarasota, Fla. Venice, Fla. Beaufort, S.C. Ft. Myers, Fla. Charleston, S.C. Austin, Texas Prescott, Ariz. Naples, Fla. Myrtle Beach, S.C. The 2014 list of Where Baby Boomers Go to Find Their Best Place to Retire calculated the 100 towns receiving the most online visits out of the 900+ cities viewed at Topretirements.com during the last half of 2013. Using a reverse mortgage to buy a home No matter where you’re interested in moving, be it Oregon or Delaware or anywhere in between, your other consideration is how you’ll finance a new home. One option is using a reverse mortgage to buy your dream retirement home. The federally-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase program allows eligible borrowers to buy a home and take out a reverse mortgage at the same time. Getting a HECM for Purchase can help save on time and closing costs as well as cutting down on paperwork. But even more than that, it’s a way for you to buy your dream home without having to make monthly mortgage payments in retirement. As with the standard HECM, borrowers must be at least 62 or older and must agree to stay current on certain obligations such as home maintenance, property taxes and homeowners insurance. You can even use the HECM for Purchase program to purchase a brand new home, as long as the house is completed and a certificate of occupancy has been issued. Want to find out more about using a reverse mortgage to buy a home? Contact one of our pre-screened reverse mortgage specialists today.