{St. Louis ranked fifth, tied with Austin, TX for recession-proof retirement}
It may be a worthwhile effort to pull out all the stops to attract the “creative class“, inserting cafes and bistros in every possible nook and cranny, designating more streets as bike routes and trumpeting funky art fests, but what about the aging baby boomers? Why not attract them?
According to Forbes Magazine St. Louis is an ideal place to retire. It’s relatively sunny, winters are mild, the local economy is more stable than many trendy retirement locals and most important, housing is extremely affordable. A retiree’s savings will simply go further.
While the St. Louis Metro area is challenged with sprawl, there are many communities that offer a comfortable smaller city lifestyle, such as Kirkwood, Manchester, Olivette and others. Parts of the City are wonderful places to retire, the Central West End and Holy Hills come to mind. They are affordable and close to cultural amenities.
Of course it only took two comments following a mention of the Forbes story on the Post-Dispatch website for someone to suggest that retirees would soon be robbed by “thugs” if they decided to live in St. Louis. I suppose that attitudes like that serve to keep housing prices affordable and St. Louis an attractive place to retire.
