{"id":109187,"date":"2026-01-07T16:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/109187\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T16:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:06:14","slug":"cape-coral-fort-myers-takes-top-spot-in-national-retirement-rankings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/109187\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Coral\u2013Fort Myers Takes Top Spot in National Retirement Rankings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cape Coral\u2013Fort Myers has grabbed the number one slot for retirement living across America, based on fresh data from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.storagecafe.com\/blog\/best-places-to-retire-in-2026\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">StorageCafe<\/a>. This Southwest Florida metro beat out over 100 big cities that made the list.<\/p>\n<p>Close to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gulfshorebusiness.com\/gb-daily\/southwest-florida-leads-as-a-top-retirement-location\/article_a7c53c53-2b5a-4ddb-bb0d-e270bd4df2ab.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">29% of people living there are 65 or older<\/a>. That&#8217;s way higher than what you&#8217;ll find in most places. Life expectancy hits 80.6 years, and retirees bring in around $42,000 each year. Waterways criss-cross the area. Warm weather lasts most of the year, and there&#8217;s plenty built for older adults.<\/p>\n<p>Naples\u2013Immokalee\u2013Marco Island snagged third place. Life expectancy there? A whopping 84 years \u2014 the best in the country. More than 32% of residents are seniors, pulling in about $59,000 on average. Clean air, good hospitals, and things to do matter here.<\/p>\n<p>Half the best retirement spots sit in the Southeast. Florida dominates. North Port\u2013Sarasota\u2013Bradenton landed at number four, with Port St. Lucie rounding out the top five.<\/p>\n<p>New York\u2013Newark\u2013Jersey City came in second. It costs more to live there, but hospitals are everywhere and trains run all the time. Madison, Wisconsin, and Boise, Idaho, also cracked the top 10.<\/p>\n<p>Over 4 million Americans will turn 65 in 2026. Experts call this the &#8220;Peak 65&#8221; wave. Medical bills keep climbing. Housing prices won&#8217;t quit. Retirees now care as much about what they can afford and where they can get help as they do about sunshine and beaches.<\/p>\n<p>StorageCafe looked at how long people live, what things cost, how safe areas are, and whether seniors can find doctors and housing. Turns out the best places to retire aren&#8217;t just warm \u2014 they&#8217;re places where your money lasts and help is close by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral\u2013Fort Myers has grabbed the number one slot for retirement living across America, based on fresh data&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,897],"class_list":{"0":"post-109187","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-fort-myers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}