9 Welcoming Towns to Retire on the Atlantic Coast
The Atlantic Coast runs roughly 2,000 miles of US shoreline. The nine towns below sit on it, from Bar Harbor in Maine down through Beaufort in South Carolina, with each one running an established retirement community on the coast. Some are working harbor towns, some are resort towns, and a couple are full-on historic destinations. Costs vary widely (Bar Harbor and Newport sit at the upper end; Beaufort and Ocean City run more reasonable). The thing they share is that the ocean is part of daily life, not a weekend trip.
Beaufort, South Carolina
Beaufort sits in the South Carolina Lowcountry between Charleston and Savannah, on a series of bridged sea islands surrounded by tidal salt marsh. The town runs about 13,500 residents, was founded in 1711, and is the second-oldest city in South Carolina. The historic district covers 304 acres and is a National Historic Landmark, with antebellum houses and live oak streets that run on a 1700s grid layout.
Hunting Island State Park 17 miles southeast holds the beach and the 1875 Hunting Island Lighthouse. The Beaufort Shrimp Festival each October runs as the major community event. Beaufort Memorial Hospital handles in-town acute care. South Carolina's retirement tax treatment is among the more favorable in the country, with significant exemptions on Social Security and retirement income.
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth sits at the mouth of the Piscataqua River where it enters the Atlantic, on a working deepwater port shared with the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard across the river in Maine. Founded 1623, the city is the third-oldest in the United States after St. Augustine and Jamestown. The Strawbery Banke Museum on Marcy Street is a 10-acre outdoor history museum with restored buildings dating from the late 1600s through the early 1900s.
Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion State Historic Site preserves the 1750 home of New Hampshire's first royal governor. The Portsmouth Maritime Folk Festival runs each spring. Portsmouth Regional Hospital is the main facility. The catch is the cost: median home prices have run around $720,000 in recent years, on the high end of the New England small-city market. New Hampshire has no income tax or sales tax, which offsets the housing cost for retirees living on investment or retirement income.
Mystic, Connecticut
Mystic is not actually a town but a village shared by two towns (Stonington and Groton) along the Mystic River in southeastern Connecticut. The 19th-century shipbuilding industry built Mystic into a working seaport: at its peak in the 1850s, the local shipyards built clipper ships including the famous David Crockett and the Andrew Jackson. The Mystic Seaport Museum preserves that history on a 19-acre working waterfront with 60+ historic buildings and four restored ships including the 1841 Charles W. Morgan, the last surviving wooden whaleship in the world.
The Mystic Aquarium on Coogan Boulevard runs the regional aquarium and marine science institute. Mystic & Noank Library is the community library and senior gathering point. Amtrak's Mystic station handles trains to New York and Boston. The Mystic Outdoor Art Festival runs the second weekend of August. Home prices run close to the Connecticut state median, which is more reasonable than most coastal-New England towns.
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware
Rehoboth Beach sits on the southern Delaware coast on a one-mile mile-and-a-quarter stretch of Atlantic beach. The 1873 Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk runs the length of the beachfront with shops, restaurants, and the historic Funland amusement area. The town runs about 1,400 year-round residents, with summer populations approaching 25,000. Retirees account for a large share of the year-round community.
Brandywine Living at Seaside Pointe and the Lodge at Truitt Homestead handle the local senior-housing market. The Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival each November is a fixture on the local arts calendar. Delaware has no sales tax and a relatively favorable retirement tax structure, which adds up substantially for retirees compared to neighboring Maryland or Pennsylvania.
Newport, Rhode Island
Newport packs a lot into a small footprint on Aquidneck Island. The 3.5-mile Cliff Walk runs between the Gilded Age mansions on Bellevue Avenue and the Atlantic-facing cliff line, with The Breakers (the Vanderbilt summer estate completed in 1895) as the headline mansion. Newport hosted the America's Cup from 1930 until 1983 and is still the home of the New York Yacht Club's Harbour Court.
The Newport Folk Festival each July (the festival where Bob Dylan plugged in electric in 1965) and the Newport Jazz Festival run consecutive weekends at Fort Adams State Park. Newport Hospital handles in-town acute care. The cost of living and home prices run above the Rhode Island state average, which is the trade-off for the setting and the cultural calendar.
Jekyll Island, Georgia
Jekyll Island is one of Georgia's barrier islands, owned by the State of Georgia and managed by the Jekyll Island Authority. The Jekyll Island Club, founded in 1886 by a group that included J.P. Morgan, William Rockefeller, and Joseph Pulitzer, used the island as an exclusive winter retreat from 1888 until 1942. The Club property is now a hotel and historic district open to the public.
State law restricts development on the island to 35 percent of the total land area, which keeps the maritime forests, dunes, and salt marshes intact across most of the island. The Georgia Sea Turtle Center on the island runs the state's sea turtle rehabilitation operation. Driftwood Beach on the northeast end is the most-photographed stretch of shoreline in Georgia. Housing options are limited by the state-managed land trust structure: residents lease rather than own land, which is unusual.
Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City runs 10 miles of barrier-island beach on Maryland's eastern shore, with the historic 1902 Boardwalk on the southern three miles. The town is about 7,100 year-round, swelling to 350,000+ on summer weekends. The Ocean City 50Plus Center on 41st Street handles year-round senior programming. Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, about 9 miles inland, handles regional acute care.
Assateague Island National Seashore is across the inlet to the south, with the famous wild horses on the beach and the strongest undeveloped dune system on the mid-Atlantic. The historic Boardwalk runs from the inlet north to 27th Street, with Trimper's Rides (operating since 1893) and Thrasher's French Fries (since 1929) as the long-running fixtures. Maryland's retirement tax treatment is moderate, with some Social Security exemption but full taxation of pensions.
Asbury Park, New Jersey
Asbury Park has reinvented itself several times. Founded 1871 as a Methodist beach town, it spent the 1960s and 1970s in steady economic decline, then rebuilt itself starting in the 2000s as an arts-and-music town. The Stone Pony on Ocean Avenue is the bar where Bruce Springsteen built his early career; Springsteen still plays unannounced shows there occasionally. The Convention Hall on the boardwalk, opened 1929, runs concerts year-round.
The boardwalk parks along the beach give residents space for walking and ocean access. Ocean Grove, the adjacent Methodist tent-city community immediately south, runs as a quieter retirement option with its own assisted-living facilities. The Seastreak Ferry to lower Manhattan runs from Atlantic Highlands (about 12 miles north of Asbury Park), making New York City a one-hour commute when needed. Monmouth Medical Center, 15 minutes north in Long Branch, is the regional hospital.
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bar Harbor sits on Mount Desert Island on the central Maine coast, with Acadia National Park covering most of the island around it. The park is the second-most-visited national park in the United States most years, behind only Great Smoky Mountains, which gives a town of about 5,500 a substantial summer tourism economy. The 27-mile Park Loop Road, Cadillac Mountain (the highest point on the US East Coast at 1,530 feet), and the Wild Gardens of Acadia anchor the park's headline attractions.
The retiree share of Bar Harbor's population runs about 26 percent over age 65, well above the Maine state average. Mount Desert Island Hospital handles in-town acute care. Whale-watching boats run from the town pier from May through October. The downside: Bar Harbor effectively closes in winter, when many businesses shut down through the off-season and the seasonal population thins out considerably.
How the Nine Compare
Each runs a different version of the Atlantic Coast retirement. Beaufort has the Lowcountry sea islands and the antebellum historic district. Portsmouth has the working port and the New Hampshire tax setup. Mystic has the Seaport Museum and the train access. Rehoboth has the Delaware boardwalk and no sales tax. Newport has the Gilded Age mansions and the festivals. Jekyll Island has the barrier-island state-managed setup. Ocean City has the 10-mile beach and the Boardwalk. Asbury Park has the music scene and the NYC ferry access. Bar Harbor has Acadia National Park at its door but closes down half the year. Tax treatment, weather, and cost spread across a wide range; the right fit depends on which factors matter most.
