Florida tops U.S. best place to retire in 2021

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Florida tops U.S. best place to retire in 2021

Retirees are setting their sights on Florida more than any other state in the nation, according to a new study by U.S. News World Report.

The Sunshine State occupies seven of the Top 10 spots on the website's ranking of the best places to retire for 2021-2022.

The second year in a row, Sarasota won the top spot with downwards in health care, housing and happiness scores, according to U.S. News' Best Places to Retire Rankings. After over a year of staying at home, many people dream about a Florida beach retirement, said U.S. News senior editor for retirement Emily Brandon.

The report showed that Sarasota, in particular, had an increase in desirability, retirement tax and job market scores.

2 and Daytona Beach, which jumped 12 stops to No. 3 while swimming in Buffalo. Daytona broke the top three in this year's list partly due to its healthy air quality and low crime rate, which are cited to calculate the overall happiness score of a metro area according to the report.

When comparing retirement areas, Brandon notes that it is important to look for affordable housing, proximity to health care services and a strong economy, especially if you plan to work part-time. Lancaster also cracked the top 10 in this year's rankings with Pennsylvania and Michigan sitting at No. However, Pennsylvania metro areas accounted for seven of the Top 25 best places to retire, largely due to access to high-quality health care facilities, according to U.S. News.

For its methodology, U.S. News evaluated the 150 most populous metropolitan areas across the nation to see how they lined up with Americans' expectations for retirement by measuring factors such as housing affordability, health care and overall happiness.

In order to determine what matters the most to people who are retired, U.S. News conducted a survey of individuals across the country between the ages of 45 and 59 and 60 or older.