MULTIMEDIA
David Savageau, author of "Retirement Places Rated," talks with CNN's Bill Hemmer
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May 17, 1999
Web posted at: 1:48 p.m. EDT (1748 GMT)

(CNN) -- "Go West!" Especially if you aren't a young man.

The updated edition of "Retirement Places Rated" by David Savageau ranks Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado, as the No. 1 retirement place in America, and includes six more Western towns in the top 10 best U.S. places to retire.

"Boomers planning for retirement may be headed away from the traditional California or Florida spots where their parents settled," says Savageau. "The fastest-growing parts of the country now are on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and in suburban parts of the Desert Southwest."

Although Florida has long been considered a top destination for retirees, only two locations -- Boca Raton and Fort Myers-Cape Coral -- made the top 10.

In addition to Fort Collins-Loveland, which ranked fourth in the previous edition, the new top 10 retirement communities are: Charleston Sea Islands, South Carolina; Henderson-Boulder City, Nevada; Wickenburg, Arizona; St. George-Zion, Utah; Boca Raton, Florida; Scottsdale, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Prescott-Prescott Valley, Arizona; and Fort Myers-Cape Coral, Florida.

In the new edition, the first update in four years, Savageau rated 187 locales on six factors -- costs of living, climate, crime, services, job prospects and leisure living.

"A basic rule for successful relocation says that the day-to-day attractions of a destination must be much, much stronger than the day-to-day attractions of home," he said.

How can places across the nation be rated at all? "Livability can be measured with statistics; It's been done for decades," Savageau said. "Houston is hotter than New York, New York has more crime than San Diego, San Diego is more expensive than Kansas City, and Kansas City is more exciting than Little Rock. Statistics can bear this out."

According to Savageau, the 187 places in "Retirement Places Rated" are chosen from among the hundreds of possibilities by one major criterion: The place should be attractive to footloose older adults. In each of the places profiled, one in seven persons over 60 is a newcomer. The place should be safe, affordable, and have natural endowments in the form of protected recreation land, ocean coast and inland water. Also, the place must be growing. Between 1990 and 1999, the U.S. population grew by 8 percent; the retirement places profiled here together grew by 19 percent.

Since 1982, Savageau has traveled throughout the country visiting locations that attract older adults. He is the author of the best-selling "Places Rated Almanac."