Choose the Southwest for Retirement, 3rd: Retirement Discoveries for Every Budget

by John Howells

Descriptions of scenic, vibrant places as well as information about the resources and activities available allows you to make an informed decision about selecting the Southwest as your ideal location... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762708018
• ISBN13: 9780762708017
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: GPP Travel
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Very Informative

This book is one of the better written on the southwest for retirement or relocation purposes. It gives you a lot of information to compare various areas of the state. It also allows you to compare one state to another, example AZ to NM.

Southwest Retirement

If you have lived in the Southwest (SW) in the past or have vacationed there, then you know what a magical place it is. Despite the enormous growth in the past few decades, there are still wonderful towns that have not changed and are ideal locations for retirement. My wife and I are trying to make the retirement location decision at this time and I have purchased at least a dozen books about retirement cities and towns. Most of the books focus on the financial aspects, some are merely a compilation of data from the census, FBI, Dept. of Agriculture, etc. Lots of numbers, but no other information. "Choose The Southwest for retirement" provides the important data about each town, mentions the financial economics, and uniquely paints a picture for each location. Having lived there in the 60s and visited frequently, we thought we knew all about the SW. What nice surprises we discovered in this book!

Great, but....

The book provides a fine overview of information every retiree will want to know about the communities the author includes in his survey: cultural life, health care, housing, and so forth. However, this region is the fastest growing in the country, with hordes of early retiring baby-boomers as well as Californians leaving for the cheaper, less congested Four Corners states. This means housing prices and the general cost of living have been skyrocketing in these states. Therefore, editions need to be updated with greater frequency for readers to get a better sense of what it will cost them to move into this region and what they might expect future living expenses to be. The region also has been afflicted with the worst drought in memory, and with worldwide climatic collapse apparently well underway, perhaps the worst drought ever. A most crucial piece of information is missing in the author's descriptions of these Southwestern communities, therefore: intelligence on local water supplies. As it is, much of the Southwest is teetering dangerously on the edge, with water harder and harder to come by and populations soaring. It goes without saying that present and future life in this most beautiful part of America is going to be impacted profoundly by these changes. Before investing large portions of their retirement in purchasing property in places like Phoenix, Tucson, Salt Lake City, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, or Albuquerque, readers need to know where and how local water supplies are obtained and what the long-term outlook is for what might be an ecological disaster in the making.

Choose the Southwest for Retirement

This book is similiar to his others which I have read and is quite good, but his omission of Henderson Nevada (2d fastest growing in Nevada) and Boulder City Both of which are rated #1 in "Retirement Places Rated" makes it less than complete.