10 Best Retirement Cities In America

Gainesville, Fla.
Median home price: $125,500  
We couldn't leave Florida out of the picture altogether, especially with that lack of income tax and all. But Gainesville is no ordinary Florida town. As with most college towns, Gainesville has great perks, including abundant health care, cheap eats,  increased biking infrastructure, museums, theaters and even free access to the University of Florida's Griffin Stadium for running and training. Bands are everywhere and art festivals abound, but even those looking for a slower pace can stroll by the Victorian homes and wrought-iron gates, watch the butterflies at the Florida Museum of Natural History or take a hike by Newnans Lake or through The Devil's Millhopper Geological State Park.

Traverse City, Mich.
Median housing price: $155,715  
You can get yourself a lakehouse just about anywhere, but will it be in a town with its own film festival, historic theaters, scores of wineries or streets lined with restaurants and flowing with craft beer? Traverse City is parked along 180 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 149 large lakes, many of which have a restaurant dining deck aimed right at them. You could just climb the beaches and lay on the sand at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore or take a ferry out to the Manitou Islands. But that wouldn't get you to the more than two dozen wineries encircling the town, a ticket to the Traverse City Film festival in the summer or to any of the local slopes during the winter.    

-- Written by Jason Notte in Boston.

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