Thinking About Retiring in Arizona? Ask Yourself These 5 Questions First

Arizona has become a hot spot for retirees . It boasts warm weather, tons of recreational activities (particularly if you enjoy the great outdoors), and a wide presence of communities for people aged 55 and up.

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If you’re thinking about moving to the Grand Canyon State, there are a number of points to consider. Ask yourself the following questions to determine whether Arizona is the right place for you to spend your retirement years .

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Can You Afford a Home There?

The cost of living in Arizona is 6% higher than the national average, and the cost of housing is 18% higher, according to RentCafe. The average home value in the state is $433,271 — up 3.2% over the past year, according to Zillow.

Can you afford a home in Arizona?

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Do You Have Over $1 Million in Savings To Last 25 Years?

According to a GOBankingRates study, Arizona ranked as the 15th most expensive state to retire, with average annual retirement expenses costing more than $60,000 and the needed minimum savings for 25 years of retirement weighing in at just over $1 million.

Do you have enough saved to comfortably retire here?

Can You Fund Long-Term Care in Your Old Age?

One of the unfortunate side effects of getting older is the increased likelihood that you will need long-term care. This may be care in your home or an assisted living facility.

In Arizona, costs for long-term care are particularly pricey. For example, the monthly cost of a home health aide in Arizona is approximately $6,864 (above the national average of $6,292), according to Genworth Financial .

Be sure you’re prepared to shell out close to $7,000 a month in case you need long-term care in your senior years. Your spouse, if applicable, should also be ready to cover this cost. Bear in mind that you could be doing just fine on your own now, but that can all change as you age.

Can You Protect Yourself From an Elevated Consumer Fraud Risk?

Regardless of where you live, you need to be proactive and vigilant; frausdsters are everywhere, and they’re increasingly efficient at scamming you. But Arizona happens to be particularly high risk when it comes to consumer fraud.

In February 2024, the Federal Trade Commission published data that ranked Arizona 6th in the nation with respect to consumer fraud. More than 86,000 reports of consumer fraud were filed in 2023, which amounts to 1,216 reports per every 100,000 people.

Can You Tolerate Extreme Heat?

Retirees may be attracted to Arizona because of its famously warm weather. But “warm” can be quite an understatement. Here, extreme heat is not uncommon during the summer months. In July, the temperature at Sky Harbor Airport reached 118 degrees by midday, breaking the record daily high of 116 degrees that was set in 1983.

Retirees may be especially prone to heat-related health problems, as older adults are more likely to have a chronic medical condition that changes normal body responses to heat. Additionally, they are more likely to take prescription medicines that affect the body’s ability to control its temperature or sweat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Make sure you know your health risks in a place where extreme heat is common, and also be sure that you can afford a steep AC bill, as you’ll surely rack one up to stay comfortable and healthy in an Arizona heat wave.

Though Arizona has many perks, including the lovely (when not terribly hot) weather, relatively low property tax rates and a growing community of fellow retirees, there are cons to living here, and prospective residents should be inquisitive with themselves to ensure that the Grand Canyon State is the right place for them to live out their golden years.

Methodology: In order to find out exactly how much you need to retire in your state, GOBankingRates found the annual cost of expenditures for a retired person in each state by multiplying the 65 year and older expenditures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey by the cost of living index for each state from the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s Q3 2023 cost of living series. To find how much money a retired person would need to save, we divided each state’s annual expenditures, minus the annual Social Security income as sourced from the Social Security Administration’s Monthly Statistical Snapshot, March 2022, by 0.0333%, 0.04% and 0.05% — assuming 20, 25 and 30 years of retirement respectively. All data was collected on and is up to date as of Jan. 8, 2024.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Thinking About Retiring in Arizona? Ask Yourself These 5 Questions First