The Towns In The Southern United States Where Retirees Are Moving To
Everybody knows retirees head south. The real question is where they land once they get there. Florida still gets the headline, but North Carolina and South Carolina each took in nearly as many, on a fraction of the population, and seven of the eight states gaining the most sit in the South. These aren’t the moves you picture. Not Miami, not The Villages, but small towns a tank of gas from the grandkids, close enough that Sunday dinner still happens. Someone leaving New Orleans just crosses Lake Pontchartrain; someone leaving Austin heads up Interstate 35 into the Texas Hill Country. And the towns taking them in share something no brochure mentions: more people die there each year than are born, so all of the growth is folks showing up with a moving truck.
Crystal River, Florida
Visitors reach Three Sisters Springs by trolley from the Three Sisters Springs Center, any time between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., since the only parking at the springs is for cars with a disabled parking permit. Between November 15 and March 31, manatees crowd into the warm spring water on cold mornings and at high tide, and swimmers can get into the springs only from the water. A winter senior ticket is $17.50, or $11.25 for a Citrus County resident 55 or older, in a county where 38% of residents are 65 or older and there are about 8,200 more of them than in 2020. Crystal River's manatee swims are billed by the city as the only legal swim-with program in the country, and the Florida Manatee Festival is downtown on January 16 and 17, 2027, for a $10 suggested donation.
The 24-passenger boat Monroe heads out from the Crystal River Preserve State Park office on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., and ospreys and bald eagles can be spotted along the river. Many of the county's newcomers came from close by, 529 households from Marion County, around Ocala, and 426 from neighboring Hernando, and Crystal River's August median was about $312,000. TGH Crystal River is in town, and HCA Florida Citrus Hospital in Inverness has what HCA describes as the county's only heart surgery program.
Sebring, Florida
Half the Sebring homes sold in August went for less than about $213,000, and at Buttonwood Bay, a 55-and-older community on Lake Josephine, residents have their own 210-foot fishing pier. Highlands County gained about 5,000 residents 65 and older in five years, and more than a third of the county is now in that age group. More households moved down from the Midwest, 551 of them, than from any single Florida county. AdventHealth Sebring, with 171 beds, is a primary stroke center. Highlands Hammock State Park, a 13-minute drive west, costs $6 a carload, and its shaded 3-mile paved loop can be driven or biked, with the Cypress Swamp catwalk just off the road and a $15 tram at 10 a.m. and noon in winter. The trunk of the park's Big Oak measures 36 feet around. Downtown shops and restaurants are arranged in a ring around Circle Park, and the 12 Hours of Sebring is run every March at Sebring International Raceway. January highs average about 73 degrees, and Lake Jackson has three public swimming beaches and a boat ramp at Veterans Park.
St. Simons Island, Georgia
A ride south on the Frederica Road bike path, part of more than 30 miles of paths on St. Simons Island, goes past Sea Palms Golf Course on the way to Pier Village, where the public fishing pier is next to Neptune Park's pool and miniature golf. The St. Simons Lighthouse is a short walk away, and the climb is 129 steps on a $12 adult ticket. Anyone who would rather skip the stairs can take a 3D virtual climb on a tablet at the docent station and then tour the keeper's dwelling. Faces called Tree Spirits are carved into trees around the island, and seven of them are on public land.
Across the causeway in Brunswick, a hot lunch is cooked on site and served at 11:30 every weekday at the Roosevelt Harris Jr. Senior Citizens Center on I Street, in a county with about 20% more Medicare enrollees 65 and older than in 2019. Southeast Georgia Health System's Brunswick hospital has a cancer care center that was among the first in Georgia where CyberKnife treatment was available. About 1,430 of the roughly 2,600 households moving into Glynn County came from another state, 71 of them from Duval County, around Jacksonville, and island homes sold over the summer had a median of about $715,000. Social Security is untaxed in Georgia, and residents 65 or older can each exclude up to $65,000 of retirement income. At the College of Coastal Georgia in Brunswick, Georgia residents 62 and older can take courses tuition-free, space permitting, after a $25 application fee.
Seneca, South Carolina
Mornings on Lake Keowee can start at South Cove County Park, where parking is $5 and there is a sandy beach with an accessible fishing pier. Keowee Key, a gated community on the lake in Salem, has 324 boat slips and an 18-hole golf course, and in Seneca itself, home to Prisma Health Oconee Memorial Hospital, the September median was about $248,000. The largest groups of newcomers came from just east, 285 households from Pickens County and 263 from Anderson. Later in the day there is OLLI at Clemson, with more than 200 courses a term for over 1,000 members, and Oconee County's 65-and-older Medicare rolls are up 22% since 2019.
On Thursday evenings, April through October, Ram Cat Alley and North Townville Street are closed to cars for Jazz on the Alley, free between 7 and 9 p.m. On busy nights every seat at the tables is taken, so it pays to bring a folding chair. At BREWS on the Alley, beer flights are served on paddles made by a local craftsman, and supper is bought from the food trucks or at Vangeli's Bistro.
Murphy, North Carolina
The 50th Fall Festival was held at the John C. Campbell Folk School in nearby Brasstown on the first weekend of October, and Monday-night concerts in its Festival Barn were $25 a ticket this year, rain or shine. Tuition for a class depends on its length, whatever the craft, and a Sunday-through-Friday class costs $950 in 2027, with materials extra. Students who live in the area can commute each day and add a week of meals, $285 this year.
The Murphy River Walk is about 3 miles one way along the Hiwassee and Valley rivers, between Konehete Veterans Park and the old L&N Depot on Railroad Street, and on first Fridays, May through December, the Murphy Art Walk is held downtown. Of the 929 households that moved into Cherokee County, 751 came from another state, including households from Union and Fannin counties just over the Georgia line and from Pinellas and Lee counties in Florida. The number of Cherokee County residents 65 and older rose about 19% between 2020 and 2025. Homes in Murphy sold for a median of about $306,000 over the three months through June 2026, a figure drawn from a small number of sales. Residents 60 and older can get a meal at the J. Robert Penland Senior Center on Alpine Street, near the library. Murphy's hospital is Erlanger Western Carolina, a 25-bed critical access hospital.
Crossville, Tennessee
At about $340,000 in September, the median Crossville home cost about $80,000 less than the three-month median in Fairfield Glade, the retirement community northeast of town. In the Glade, the Yacht Club meets Thursdays at 2 p.m. through November on a different one of the community's small lakes each time, and guided hikes leave every Tuesday at 9 a.m. In the IRS figures, about 300 households arrived in Cumberland County from the Midwest and about 290 from the West. In the county, where 35% of residents were 65 or older in 2025, a share that stood at 33% in 2020, there were 1,096 deaths and 554 births in the year ending July 2025, and the population grew by 670 on the strength of people moving in.
Nearly 500 performances a year are staged at the Cumberland County Playhouse on Tennessee Avenue. This fall's The Addams Family played at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a radio-play version of It's a Wonderful Life is among the Christmas shows. Ozone Falls, off U.S. 70 near Crab Orchard, is a 110-foot waterfall reached by a rugged three-quarter-mile trail along the bluff, and the paved Byrd Lake Trail at Cumberland Mountain State Park is wheelchair-accessible. Cumberland Medical Center is in town, and the fall 2025 term at Roane State's Center for Lifelong Learning cost $20 for unlimited classes, mah jongg among them.
Gulf Shores, Alabama
The Gulf State Park Pier is open 24 hours, and fishing costs $10 a day, with an Alabama saltwater license required on top. Regulars fish for sheepshead and pompano, and anyone without gear can rent a rod for $10. A walk out over the Gulf is $3, with lunch at ByWater Beachside Bar & Grill on the pier. In a single year, 1,002 households moved across the bay from Mobile County and 438 came over from Escambia County, Florida, around Pensacola, and Baldwin County had about 63,300 residents 65 and older in 2025, up from about 50,600 in 2020. The median sale price in Gulf Shores was about $493,000 in August, nearly 15% lower than a year earlier. Baldwin Health has a 24-hour freestanding emergency department on Gulf Shores Parkway, with its hospital about 10 miles north in Foley. Inside the park, the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail has 32.4 paved miles, and in town the Gulf Shores Sportsplex has 12 lighted pickleball courts, free and open until 10 p.m.
Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
On the second Saturday of each month, Old Town's Main Street and Beach Boulevard are busiest in the late afternoon, with gallery openings and live music for the Second Saturday Artwalk. Shop and restaurant specials are part of the afternoon too, and walking it costs nothing. Along Main Street at Toulme, the Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum has been in a temporary home since late February, open every day with no admission charge.
Hancock County's newcomers include 293 households from Harrison County, home to Gulfport, and 157 from St. Tammany Parish across the Louisiana line. At the Hancock County Senior Citizen Center on Bookter Street, residents 60 and older take oil painting and quilting classes, and about one in four county residents is now 65 or older, against one in five in 2020. OLLI at Southern Miss's Gulf Park campus in Long Beach costs $40 a year. Homes in Bay St. Louis sold for a median of about $420,000 in the three months through September, 11% more than a year earlier, and Ochsner's Hancock hospital on Drinkwater Boulevard has a 24-hour emergency room. The Municipal Harbor on Jody Compretta Drive has its own sand beach on the north side, with the Rutherford Fishing Pier along the harbor wall.
Covington, Louisiana
The Covington Farmers Market is set up outside City Hall on North Columbia Street on Saturday mornings between 8 a.m. and noon, with vendors taking cash only, and on Wednesdays it is held a few blocks away at the Covington Trailhead, beside the bandstand and campanile. The trailhead is the Covington end of the Tammany Trace, 31 paved miles through Abita Springs and Mandeville, open during daylight hours.
Across the lake, 1,115 Jefferson Parish households and 971 Orleans Parish households moved into St. Tammany, where Medicare rolls for those 65 and older are up 24% since 2019. A Covington home cost about $290,000 at the median over the summer, about 15% less than a year earlier. St. Anthony's Gardens is a community for adults 55 and older, and St. Tammany Health System's hospital is on South Tyler Street. Louisiana's income tax is a flat 3%, and each person 65 or older can exclude up to $12,000 a year of retirement income. The public is welcome at daily prayers with the Benedictine monks of Saint Joseph Abbey, north of Covington, and Vespers is at 5:30 p.m. for anyone dressed for it, which means no shorts.
Bella Vista, Arkansas
Every boat and paddleboard on Bella Vista's seven lakes needs a property owners association sticker by March 31. The Bella Vista Farmers & Makers Market is in the Sugar Creek Shopping Center lot on Sunday mornings, May through October. Later on Sunday, through November 22, there is live jazz at Gear Garden, the association's beer garden in Blowing Springs Park, and the park is also a trailhead for the Back 40, part of roughly 100 miles of trail inside city limits.
With an association Activity Card, fishing and paddling on the lakes are free and an 18-hole round of golf is $40 this season. Largemouth bass caught at Lake Brittany go back in the water. More than 680 of Benton County's out-of-state arrivals came from Texas and more than 590 from Missouri, and the county's 65-and-older population grew by about a quarter between 2020 and 2025. The median Bella Vista sale in August was about $385,000, and Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers is a Level III trauma center. OLLI at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville, has a $50 annual membership, and members book courses individually.
Granbury, Texas
Granbury City Beach Park on East Pearl Street, a short walk from the courthouse square, costs nothing and stays open until 8 p.m. or sunset, whichever is later, in a town where July highs average about 96 degrees. Kayaks and paddleboards for getting out on Lake Granbury are rented at the Tiki Hut. Life jackets hang at a free loaner station, and beach monitors in neon vests keep an eye on the rules.
The Granbury Opera House has senior discounts for its musicals and tribute concerts, with Irving Berlin's Holiday Inn among the December shows. Hood County's newcomers include 614 households from Tarrant County, on the Fort Worth side, and 203 from Parker, and the county had about 19,400 residents 65 and older in 2025, up from about 16,200 in 2020. A Granbury home cost about $367,000 at the median for May through July 2026, and Texas homeowners 65 and older get $200,000 off a home's taxable value for school taxes. The hospital, Lake Granbury Medical Center, is on Paluxy Road. Bingo is called on Mondays and Fridays at the Hood County Senior Center on East Moore Street, and there is dancing on Thursdays, with meals for a suggested $3.50 donation.
Georgetown, Texas
Homeowner dues at Sun City Texas, about 6 miles north of downtown Georgetown, are $1,535 a year, and the community has 26 pickleball courts and three golf courses. More than 17,000 people live there, and among its more than 50 chartered clubs is a resident theater troupe staging a comedy called Social Security, about a fresh start late in life, on November 2 through 7.
The Red Poppy Festival is on the courthouse square every April, free, with a parade around the square on Saturday morning and the POPP Pup Parade for dogs on Sunday. The next Market Day on the square is November 14, and an eight-show flex pass at the Georgetown Palace Theatre is $272, with senior rates.
Some 12,394 households moved up Interstate 35 out of Travis County, home to Austin, and more than 2,000 came from California. Williamson County's 65-and-older population passed 100,000 in 2025 after growing about 30% in five years, and the median Georgetown home sold for about $405,000 in September. St. David's Georgetown Hospital is a Level IV trauma center, and classes at Lifelong Learners GTX have included welding and sign language. Wading at Blue Hole Park on the San Gabriel River is free, and the gates open at 5 a.m. There are picnic areas and trails along the river, and the park stays open until 10 p.m.
Where the Growth Is Heading
Since 2019, the number of Medicare enrollees 65 and older has risen 35% in Williamson County, outside Austin, and 28% in Baldwin County, across the bay from Mobile, against about 18% nationally. In Foley, near Gulf Shores, Kolter's Cresswind at Sandy Creek is expected to open in 2027 with 30 pickleball courts planned, even as the Gulf Shores and Covington medians are about 15% below a year earlier. Hospital care is the practical question as these counties age, and Murphy's hospital has 25 beds, while AdventHealth Sebring's count could reach 275 beds, up from 171, once a tower now under construction is finished, with a first phase due in fall 2027. Getting to appointments is part of the same question, and in Williamson County, Faith in Action's volunteer drivers marked 25 years this July of taking older neighbors to the grocery store and the doctor.
