Two North Carolina cities and one South Carolina city made the recently released Forbes 2016 list of the best places to retire.
Two cities, Asheville and Raleigh, made the list last year.
This year Bluffton, Brevard, and Mount Airy made the list.
The list is comprised of 25 places across the country, but their order is not ranked, so that no one place can claim to be Number 1.
Let’s take a closer look at the three cities in the Carolinas that made the list:
Bluffton, SC
What Forbes said about it:
“Bluffton is a coastal village on the Atlantic Ocean in South Carolina’s Low County between Savannah and Hilton Head. It is a rather warm place, with an average high temperature of 76 degrees and an average low of 57 degrees. Bluffton is also wet. It gets 52 inches a year of rain, but no snow. Air quality is good. Doctors per capita are slightly below the national average. The local economy is firm. Bluffton is one of the fastest-growing towns in South Carolina.”
Brevard, NC
What Forbes said about it:
“Brevard is set amid waterfalls, mountains and other beautiful scenery near North Carolina’s southwest corner. It’s a 33 mile drive south from Ashville, a city of 83,000. Brevard’s 2,200-foot elevation keeps the temperatures down a bit in the summer. Average yearly high is 67 degrees; average low is 42 degrees. Brevard gets an average of 66 inches a year of rain, and 8 inches of snow. Air quality is good. Doctors per capita are above the national average. The town is noted for an abundance of white squirrels.”
Mount Airy, NC
What Forbes said about it:
“Mount Airy is a scenic rural town in the rolling Piedmont terrain of northwestern North Carolina 35 miles from Winston-Salem. The yearly average high temperature is 68 degrees; the average low is 42 degrees. It is a wet place. Average annual rainfall is 47 inches, plus 9 inches of snow. Air quality is good. There are above-average doctors per capita. For those looking for a down home feel, Mount Airy is the birth place of the late actor Andy Griffith, and the model for Mayberry in his classic TV sitcom, “The Andy Griffith Show.””
Here’s the rest of the Forbes list, if you’re interested:
Forbes 2016 Best Places to Retire
Arizona
Apache Junction, AZ
Arkansas
Bella Vista, AR
Colorado
Colorado Springs, CO
Florida
Cape Coral, FL
Clermont, FL
Largo, FL
The Villages, FL
Georgia
Athens, GA
Idaho
Meridian, ID
Kentucky
Lexington, KY
Michigan
Traverse City, MI
Missouri
Columbia, MO
Nebraska
Lincoln, NE
North Dakota
Fargo, ND
Oregon
Corvallis, OR
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, PA
Tennessee
Smyrna, TN
Texas
Abilene, TX
Grand Prarie, TX
San Marcos, TX
Virginia
Blacksburg, VA
Washington
Walla Walla, WA
You can see the original Forbes Best Places to Retire 2016 story here.