The Towns In The Northern United States Where Retirees Are Moving To
Not every retiree heads south. A growing number of older Northerners are staying close to home instead, trading a crowded metro for a smaller town just down the road. The shift is clear on Cape Cod, where residents 65 and older grew by more than 11,000 between 2020 and 2025, most of them arriving from the Boston suburbs of Middlesex County. It holds in the Midwest too, where Carmel, Indiana, drew nearly a third of its recent newcomers from neighboring Indianapolis. The eight towns that follow sit in eight northern states, but each tells the same story of retirees who stayed close to where they started.
Falmouth, Massachusetts
The Shining Sea Bikeway is a 10.8-mile path between North Falmouth and Woods Hole, with salt marshes and cranberry bogs beside it and views of Vineyard Sound near the southern end. At the Woods Hole end, the Woods Hole Science Aquarium is free and open on weekdays, 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Seals live in its outdoor enclosure, where staff answer questions around 11 a.m. and again at 3:30 p.m., and a touch tank is inside.
Back on Main Street, the senior center's schedule includes chair yoga and line dancing, along with Medicare counseling through the state's SHINE program, and a month in its fitness room is $10 after the first. The Sunday farmers market at Mullen-Hall School is open through November 15, and on Thursdays there is a market at Marine Park on Scranton Avenue. A typical Falmouth home was worth $849,382 in September 2026. From Falmouth Harbor, Martha's Vineyard is a $30 round trip on the Island Queen ferry, plus $8 for a bike, between Memorial Day weekend and Columbus Day.
Wolfeboro, New Hampshire
New Hampshire's tax on interest and dividends was repealed for tax periods after 2024, and there is no state tax on wages or pensions, so a Wolfeboro retiree owes no state income tax on a pension or a brokerage account. Homes in the 03894 ZIP code sold for a median of about $757,000 over the three months ending in July 2026. On Lake Winnipesaukee, passengers board the M/S Mount Washington at the Town Docks for daytime cruises May through October, and a summer walking round at Kingswood Golf Club is $69 Monday through Thursday.
Thursday is market day at The Nick, the town recreation park on Trotting Track Road, where local meat and maple syrup are sold between 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. through early October. After mid-October, the market is held indoors at the Abenaki Ski Lodge on Thursday afternoons until just before Christmas. Carroll County's 65-plus population grew by about 3,500, or 24%, between 2020 and 2025, and University of New Hampshire demographer Ken Johnson describes many of the county's newcomers as amenity migrants who are "older and reaching retirement age." Neighboring Strafford and Belknap counties are the top two sources of movers, and more than 160 people apiece came from Middlesex and Essex counties in Massachusetts in one year. Older residents gather for Coffee and Conversation on Tuesday and Thursday mornings in the Great Hall at Town Hall, and Huggins Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital with an ICU and an infusion center for cancer care, is on South Main Street.
Milford, Pennsylvania
During Milford Music Fest in June, musicians play in front of almost every store on Broad Street, and the 2026 Saturday crowd was estimated at between 3,000 and 4,000 people. Admission is free, and a classic car show and food trucks are part of the weekend. The three-day Black Bear Film Festival is held at the Milford Theater in October, with $20 opening-night tickets and pay-what-you-can screenings of local films on Sunday.
Raymondskill Falls, listed by the National Park Service as the tallest waterfall in Pennsylvania, is at the end of a steep third-of-a-mile trail with two viewing platforms. Orange County, New York, across the Delaware River, is the most common origin for Pike County's newcomers, and the hospital nearest Milford is on that side of the river too, in Port Jervis, since Pike County has never had one. Over the three months ending in June 2026, the median sale in the Milford ZIP code was about $360,000. Ukulele and ceramics are on the activity lists at Pike County's senior centers, including the Blooming Grove center in Lords Valley, open on weekdays. No Pennsylvania income tax is due on Social Security or on retirement income received after retirement age.
Carmel, Indiana
At the Monon Community Center in Carmel's Central Park, a senior membership is $47 a month for people 65 and older. Hamilton County had 62,030 people in that age group in 2025, a third more than in 2020. The membership includes an indoor walking track, a lap pool, open pickleball, and more than 100 group fitness classes a week. The Monon Trail is right outside the building, and about 5.2 miles of it are in Carmel, between 96th and 146th streets, with the downtown Arts and Design District along the way. Social Security is exempt from Indiana's 2.95% flat income tax, though pensions are not. The median Carmel sale price was $569,729 in September 2026. On Saturday mornings May through September, 84 vendors sell Indiana produce at the farmers market on Carter Green, and the same green is the site of the free Carmel Christkindlmarkt between November 21 and December 24, 2026.
Traverse City, Michigan
The 100th National Cherry Festival, July 4 through 11, 2026, had eight days of events, nearly all of them free, and the 101st is set for July 3 through 10, 2027. Downtown, the Sara Hardy Farmers Market is open on Saturday mornings starting in May, with a Wednesday market added June through October.
North of downtown, the Old Mission Peninsula wine trail has 10 wineries, among them Chateau Grand Traverse and Brys Estate. A seven-day vehicle pass at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is $25, and visitors 62 and older can buy an $80 lifetime federal senior pass that is valid there. Most of Grand Traverse County's newcomers move from elsewhere in Michigan, especially neighboring Leelanau and Benzie counties and suburban Oakland County, outside Detroit. A typical Traverse City home was valued at about $425,000 in January 2026.
About 100 inches of snow falls in an average winter, and Munson Medical Center in town is a Level II trauma center. On weekdays all year, the Grand Traverse County Senior Center is open on East Front Street, in a bayfront building in use since February 2025, with a covered porch on the bay side and pickleball and shuffleboard courts. Membership is free for county residents 60 and older. Grand Traverse County had 24,288 residents 65 and older in 2025, 19% more than in 2020, and "retirees remain the primary source of new arrivals," Yarrow Brown of Housing North told the Northern Express in 2025.
Spearfish, South Dakota
Most people moving to Lawrence County cross a state line to get there. In 2022-23, 1,641 of the 2,386 newcomers came from another state, about half of them from Western states, and between 2020 and 2025 the number of county residents 65 and older went up 30%, by about 1,800. On the 19-mile Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, Bridal Veil Falls is right beside the road about six miles in, and the aspen and birch along the drive turn yellow in early autumn. In July, 185 craft and food vendors set up in Spearfish City Park for Festival in the Park, where the pickleball courts are free to use, and the Spearfish Rec Path, more than 7.5 miles long, is mostly along Spearfish Creek. Spearfish homes had a typical value of $450,602 in September 2026. South Dakota has no state income tax, and its residents 65 and older pay 45% less tuition at Black Hills State University in town.
Bend, Oregon
In summer, mid-June through early September, a $5 river shuttle is available for people floating the Deschutes River through Bend. At Bend Whitewater Park, floaters can take the Fish Ladder channel for a few small rapids or climb out and walk around to McKay Park, while kayakers and surfers use the four wave features in the center channel. The Old Mill District is a short walk along Shevlin Hixon Drive, with more than 40 stores and summer concerts at the Hayden Homes Amphitheater beside the river.
The Bend Senior Center is inside the Larkspur Community Center, where the leisure pool has a current channel and a wheelchair lift and a drop-in visit is $9 for residents 65 to 79. About 1,900 people moved to Deschutes County from the three Portland-area counties of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas in a single year, more than from any other metro area, and county residents 65 and older numbered more than 49,000 in 2025, up 17% from 2020. The typical value of a Bend home was $720,933 in November 2025. St. Charles Bend, on NE Neff Road, has a 24-hour emergency department.
Opening day at Mt. Bachelor, west of town, is scheduled for December 4, 2026. Back in town, more than 30 breweries and tasting rooms are on the Bend Ale Trail, with a free web-app passport.
Sequim, Washington
Almost half of Sequim's residents, 45.6%, are 65 or older. Out-of-state movers outnumber in-state ones among Clallam County's newcomers, and King County, around Seattle, is the leading in-state origin. The Shipley Center on East Hammond Street is a nonprofit senior center with its own cafe and a schedule of classes and trips. Radiation therapy and PET scans are available at the Olympic Medical Cancer Center in Sequim, and the main hospital is in Port Angeles. Each July, Carrie Blake Park is the site of the Sequim Lavender Festival, and visitors are welcome at farms along the Sequim Lavender Trail through the summer. At the end of 2025, the typical Sequim home was worth $555,565, in a state where pensions and Social Security are untaxed.
About 17 inches of rain falls on Sequim in an average year. The walk to the lighthouse on Dungeness Spit, in the Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge, is 5.5 miles each way from the parking lot, and pets and bicycles are not allowed on the spit. Entry is $3 for a group of up to four adults, or $12 for an annual pass, and visitors must be out by a half hour before sunset. Closer to town, Railroad Bridge Park has a restored trestle more than 700 feet long over the Dungeness River, with a ramp to the deck for wheelchair users.
Where the Movers Come From
Across the Northeast, the population 65 and older grew 14.6% between 2020 and 2025, the slowest pace of any U.S. region, and Carroll County's 24% gain was well above it. In each of these places, the most common single county of origin is a neighbor or a metro area a few hours away. Lawrence County, around Spearfish, has a neighbor at the top of its list too, Pennington County, but more than two-thirds of its newcomers came from other states. The median Milford-area sale, about $360,000, was less than half the $849,382 value of a typical Falmouth home. A retiree who leaves Middlesex County, Massachusetts, where income from most private pensions is taxed, and settles in Wolfeboro owes New Hampshire no income tax on that pension.
