The Towns In Texas Where Retirees Are Moving To
Where Texans retire turns out to be close to where they already are. Nearly two in three who move after 65 stay in the state, and the busiest routes run one county out from the big metros, Dallas into Rockwall, Bexar into Comal, Harris into Brazoria, trading the city for a lake town still within reach of the old neighborhood. The arrivals from out of state follow a different map, concentrating in the Rio Grande Valley and Bell County. Underneath it is the over-65 school tax freeze, which locks a homeowner's school taxes in place and makes staying pay. These are the towns where both patterns land hardest.
Denison
About 5 miles northwest of town, Denison Dam holds back the Red River to form Lake Texoma. Denison's older population is both large and growing. Residents over 65 make up 20.1% of the city, well above the 13.4% statewide share. Their number rose from 4,606 to 5,178 between the two most recent Census surveys. In a single year, 376 older newcomers arrived, a rate about 2.5 times the Texas figure. Of those, 313 moved from elsewhere in Texas. Grayson County's tax-return data name Collin County as the leading source, ahead of Denton and Dallas.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was born here in 1890, and the house now operates as the Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site. Grayson College tends the T.V. Munson Memorial Vineyard, honoring the Denison grape breeder whose rootstock helped rescue European wine. Texoma Medical Center serves the city.
On the Lake Texoma shore, Eisenhower State Park keeps a boat ramp, two fishing piers, and more than 4 miles of trails. In town, Waterloo Lake Regional Park pairs 1.5 miles of accessible walking paths with kayak and paddleboard rentals.
Sherman
Sherman, the Grayson County seat, pulls a larger out-of-state crowd than nearby Denison. Of 464 residents over 65 who settled here within a year, 187 crossed a state line to do it. Federal migration data list Bryan County, Oklahoma, as the county's top out-of-state source. Sherman's newcomer rate of 6.3% is a little over twice the Texas rate of 2.87%. The city counted 7,338 residents over 65 in the 2020 to 2024 survey, up from 6,544 in the one before. They make up 15.8% of the population, against 13.4% statewide.
Austin College has been part of Sherman since 1876, when it relocated from Huntsville. Downtown joined the Texas Main Street program in 2016. The city itself has moved once. Its first townsite sat on open prairie short of water and wood, and land 5 miles east was deeded for a new one in 1848.
Out on Lake Texoma's Big Mineral Arm, Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge carries a Sherman mailing address and logs more than 300 bird species. Its visitor center is open every day, with shorter hours on Sunday afternoons.
Rockwall
Rockwall County covers just 147 square miles, the smallest county in Texas, yet its Medicare rolls are climbing faster than almost anywhere else in the state. Aged enrollment there rose 37.6% from 2020 to 2025, second only to Kendall County and double the statewide pace. Within the city, the population over 65 grew from 6,253 to 8,082. Movers from other states made up just over half of the 496 older newcomers in a year. IRS figures put Dallas County first among the county's origins, followed by Collin and Kaufman.
Well diggers struck an underground rock formation here in 1852, and the town took its name from it. The city bought the site in 2025 and plans to put the wall on public view.
At The Harbor on Lake Ray Hubbard, the city's Concert by the Lake series plays Thursday evenings from May to July. In May 2026, the Founders Day Festival spread across downtown and Harry Myers Park for the city's 172nd birthday. For emergencies, Texas Health Rockwall keeps a 24-hour department open.
Belton
In Belton, newcomers from other states outnumber Texas ones. Of 391 residents over 65 who moved in during a year, 239 came from beyond the state line. Belton's newcomer rate of 11.6% is four times the Texas figure. The older population jumped from 2,318 to 3,379, and Bell County's Medicare rolls for seniors grew 25.2% from 2020 to 2025, against 18.95% statewide. Bell's top out-of-state origins are El Paso County in Colorado, Los Angeles County, and Honolulu County in Hawaii. Inside Texas, Williamson and Coryell counties lead.
Belton Lake sits on the Leon River about 3 miles north of town, and Stillhouse Hollow Lake is roughly 5 miles southwest. The US Army Corps of Engineers runs both. In town, the Nolan Creek Hike and Bike Trail follows the creek for 1.26 miles.
The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor dates its charter to the Republic of Texas, in 1845. The school moved to Belton in 1886 and admitted only women until 1971.
Burnet
In 1938, Lake Buchanan became the first finished link in the Highland Lakes chain. The lake lies about 10 miles northwest of Burnet, where nearly one resident in five is over 65. Burnet County's IRS inflows rank Williamson County first, then Travis and Llano. Of 95 older newcomers over 12 months, 83 arrived from other Texas counties. That works out to a rate roughly two and a half times the statewide mark.
Nine miles west of town, Inks Lake State Park has a launch ramp, 9 miles of hiking paths, and the swimming hole known as Devil's Waterhole. Closer in, Ascension Seton Highland Lakes keeps emergency care open around the clock. Every April, the Burnet Bluebonnet Festival takes over the courthouse square, and the 2026 edition was its 43rd.
The Hill Country Flyer brings visitors into town by rail, with a two-hour stop in Burnet on its 66-mile round trip.
Lago Vista
Lago Vista's population over 65 rose from 1,872 to 2,767 in back-to-back Census surveys, a jump of almost 48% against about 13% statewide. Older residents now make up 28.7% of the city, more than twice the state share. Most older newcomers, 142 of 172, came from elsewhere in Texas. Williamson County sends more tax filers into Travis County than any other, with Harris and Hays next.
The city's own history records veterans and military retirees settling here in the 1950s and 1960s, well before Lago Vista incorporated in 1984. Most of the city occupies a peninsula on the north shore of Lake Travis. The city owns and runs the 18-hole Lago Vista Golf Course, as well as Rusty Allen Airport.
Travis County's Arkansas Bend Park puts two boat ramps on the water, and Lago Liberty Days marks July 4.
Bellville
About one in five older residents of Bellville arrived within the past year. All 212 of those newcomers came from other Texas counties, a rate of 20.7% and more than seven times the state figure. Harris County supplies the most returns moving into Austin County, followed by Fort Bend and Waller. The town's population over 65 edged up only from 998 to 1,025 between the two survey periods, a far smaller gain than the turnover suggests. Countywide, the number of older Medicare enrollees rose 21.2% from 2020 to 2025, ahead of the state's 18.95%.
Bellville has been the Austin County seat since 1848. Senior groups can reserve the city's Sens Activity Center at no charge, and the town has its own public library and a hospital, now part of MidCoast Health System. The 1896 Austin County Jail now serves as a museum.
The showpiece is the 12-sided Turnverein Pavilion, built in 1897 and recently rehabilitated for community events.
Canyon Lake
In Comal County, aged Medicare enrollment climbed 35.5% between 2020 and 2025, among the fastest gains in Texas. In Canyon Lake, an unincorporated community around the reservoir of the same name, the 65-and-older population rose from 6,267 to 7,964 from one survey period to the next. Nearly nine in 10 of its 424 older newcomers came from inside Texas. Bexar County leads Comal County's inflows by a wide margin, ahead of Guadalupe and Hays. San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange counties in California top the list of origins beyond Texas.
The Canyon Lake reservoir impounds the Guadalupe River behind a dam the US Army Corps of Engineers finished in 1964. In July 2002, floodwater topped the dam's emergency spillway for the only time in its history and carved out Canyon Lake Gorge, exposing dinosaur tracks in the rock. The Corps also runs lakeside parks such as Cranes Mill and Potters Creek.
The nonprofit Community Resource and Recreation Center of Canyon Lake runs the community's senior program. Every Independence Day, the Liberty on the Lake fireworks light up the water.
Lake Jackson
Harris County dominates moves into Brazoria County. Tax records count 5,157 returns arriving from Harris, far ahead of Fort Bend at 1,409 and Galveston at 843. Lake Jackson's older newcomers are mostly in-state too: 191 of its 211 arrivals over 65 came from another Texas county. The city's newcomer rate of 5.8% runs about twice the Texas level. Brazoria's count of Medicare enrollees 65 and up rose 28.1% from 2020 to 2025, well beyond the statewide 18.95%.
Planners mapped Lake Jackson on paper before anyone cut a single live oak, and Alden B. Dow gave the new town streets named This Way and That Way. The city runs a 55-and-over club, the Civic Center Fun-Timers, with games every Wednesday afternoon and bingo on Thursdays. Dow Centennial Bottomlands Park protects forest along the Brazos River, and St. Luke's Health-Brazosport Hospital keeps an emergency room open 24 hours a day.
Sea Center Texas, a state-run aquarium and fish hatchery, charges no admission and has an elevated boardwalk over its marsh.
Aransas Pass
Three counties claim a piece of Aransas Pass: San Patricio, Aransas, and Nueces. The city's wetlands border Redfish Bay. A 1997 Texas House resolution noted that the city has been aptly named the Shrimp Capital of Texas. Most of its older newcomers moved a short distance. Of 100 arrivals over 65 in a year, 92 came from inside Texas, and Nueces County leads San Patricio County's origins well ahead of the rest. The newcomer rate comes to 5.5%, nearly double the state's. Residents over 65 numbered 1,807 in the newer survey and make up 20.1% of the city, compared with 13.4% across Texas.
The Lighthouse Lakes Paddling Trail became the first Texas Paddling Trail when it was mapped in 1999. Its four loops run from 1.25 to 6.8 miles through black mangroves. On land, the city's Newbury Park Hummingbird Garden grows under coastal live oaks on the state's coastal birding trail.
At Conn Brown Harbor, public boat launches and picnic grounds share the waterfront with working shrimp boats.
Mission
Out-of-state arrivals account for 416 of Mission's 500 older newcomers in a year, a far higher share than in Harlingen, farther down the Arroyo Colorado. The 65-and-older population climbed from 10,777 to 13,380, lifting its share of residents from 12.9% to 15.4%, above the 13.4% statewide. Hidalgo County's out-of-state origins are scattered, with Los Angeles County in California, Maricopa County in Arizona, and Miami-Dade County in Florida each sending between 58 and 67 returns.
The city's original land grants fronted the Rio Grande. A Mission nurseryman, A. E. Henninger, won US Plant Patent No. 53 for the Ruby Red grapefruit after red fruit turned up in his orchard in 1929. Late January belongs to the Texas Citrus Fiesta, a tradition since 1932, with a style show of costumes made from citrus and other Valley produce. Every March, the Greater Mission Chamber of Commerce holds a Winter Texan Fiesta as a thank-you to its Winter Texan visitors.
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, headquarters of the World Birding Center, is open daily.
Harlingen
The Arroyo Colorado, an ancient channel of the Rio Grande, extends from Mission and runs through the middle of Harlingen on its way to the Laguna Madre. Harlingen's population over 65 rose from 9,779 to 11,797 across the two survey periods. Of the 544 older residents who arrived over one year, 259 crossed a state line, close to half. Hidalgo County tops Cameron County's in-state origins, followed by Harris and Bexar. Residents over 65 now account for 16.4% of all residents, versus 13.4% statewide.
Weekdays have a fixed address at the Harlingen Senior Activity Center, open Monday through Friday with free membership for anyone 60 and older. Its calendar runs to exercise, dance, computer classes, and bingo. Along the arroyo, Hugh Ramsey Nature Park covers 55 acres of reclaimed land planted in Texas ebony and is Harlingen's World Birding Center site. The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival runs November 11 to 15, 2026, at the Harlingen Convention Center, and Valley Baptist Medical Center is on Pease Street.
Sculptor Felix de Weldon's original full-size working model of the Iwo Jima Monument stands at Marine Military Academy, where it was dedicated in 1982.
Next Door, Mostly
The busiest routes into these counties are short: Collin County into Grayson, Dallas County into Rockwall, Bexar County into Comal, and Harris County into Brazoria. Movers from other states show up most clearly in Mission, Belton, Rockwall, and Harlingen. Medicare rolls in Rockwall, Comal, and Brazoria counties grew faster than the state's from 2020 to 2025, so their clinics face a larger older population each year. Bellville shows the other pattern, with heavy turnover and little net gain in older residents.
