Looking For Your Ideal Place To Retire?

AARP The Magazine selected Columbus as one of the top ten places to retire – few who live here were surprised. As the Mayor said to the crowd gathered to receive the award, “I knew it all along and you knew it all along. If you’re looking for the good life for less, we want you to check out Columbus.” The criteria for selection included: house prices, recreational opportunities, tax rates, climate, cost of living, arts and culture.

Ginger Lirette chose to settle down in Columbus. In a Republic newspaper article, she said, “When I moved to Columbus 20 years ago, I felt that I had stepped into a fairy tale land, a Mayberry of the Midwest. Everywhere I turned were delightful moments: Philharmonic concerts, neighborhood street festivals, extensive family free events and wonderful access to architecture, parks and clean, friendly shops and streets. The Midwestern friendliness and neighborly, generous spirits of the people who live in Columbus made it an ideal place for my family to establish our long-term home.”

The website Considerable.com put Columbus in its list of the top six most affordable places to retire – choosing “six beautiful U.S. cities with low cost of living and other bank account-friendly features.”

See the architecture videos

To help you determine if Columbus might be a good fit for you, we’ve gathered some reasons we think Columbus might just be the perfect place for you…

• You can choose from terrific playgrounds, a children’s museum, an ice cream parlor that’s a destination all its own, an award-winning parks system – you’ll have plenty to do with your favorite little buddies.
• And, for longer stays, you’re only an hour or so away in any direction to so much more, such as The Louisville Slugger Museum, major and minor league sports (including the Colts and the Reds), or Brown County State Park. And, yes, Columbus does have a Chuck-E-Cheese!

• Columbus has a community center for active adults, Mill Race Center, which has all kinds of activities as well as large meeting and exercise areas.
• Learn more about Mill Race Center.

• Columbus is lucky enough to be able to host many events every year, and even luckier to have an amazing number of community members who regularly step forward to act as volunteer organizers and greeters.
• You can make many great new friends this way and enjoy meeting the people from around the country that visit our community.

• The choice of activities and destinations within an hour or so of Columbus is extraordinary. Downtown Indianapolis is less than an hour away (and a convenient, easy interstate drive), all of the culture and sports that Indiana University and Bloomington offer is less than an hour’s drive, and Louisville and Cincinnati are both just a little over an hour away.
• If you like state parks, hiking, and wildlife, you need only drive half an hour to Brown County State Park or Muscatatuk Wildlife Reserve, or only an hour to Clifty Falls State Park.
• See photos of many things to do that are oh-so-close to Columbus on Pinterest.

• You’ve heard about the famous modernist architecture, and it is indeed an amazing story and experience that will become a part of your daily life.
• At the same time, there’s also a wonderful mix of beautifully maintained historic buildings, seven of them National Historic Landmarks

• It’s rare to find a downtown in a small city like Columbus that’s both inviting and lively. The new Commons, a new hotel, a famously renovated ice cream parlor, and new restaurants make for a pleasant setting to enjoy on your own or to entertain your guests.
• You’ll be surprised by the little touches that make such a difference, such as carefully tended flower pots, healthy trees in the parking lots, and alleys that are beautifully landscaped. You will enjoy showing off your new home to all your friends!

• And of course, there is the public art, seemingly around every corner, including the largest Henry Moore and Jean Tinguely sculptures in America, all free and in public spaces!
• See over 100 photos of the public art posted on Pinterest.

• Columbus Regional Hospital has been ranked one of the top 100 hospitals in the nation, always ranks in the top of the best places to work in Indiana, and was named one of the top five most beautiful hospitals in America.
• See photos of Columbus Regional Hospital HERE

• You can take advantage of over twenty five miles of people trails around and about the town, as well as through city parks.
• Columbus was also cited as one of Indiana’s seven “bike friendly” communities by The League of American Bicyclists.
• Columbus was named one of the nation’s “most walkable” communities in April 2008 by Dan Burden, Executive Director of Walkable Communities, after a visit to the city. He has given the title to just 100 of the 2,500 cities he has visited, and noted that Columbus has the cleanest alleys of any city he has visited.
• See photos of the people trails.

• In the Spring, Columbus becomes a kind of wonderland when everything seems to be blooming – seriously.
• Check out some Spring photos in Columbus.

• You’ll enjoy both the quantity and diversity of vendors at the Saturday Farmer’s Market in downtown Columbus.
• See photos of the markets.

• For a town its size, Columbus has a surprising number of festivals and events that bring out the whole community.
• Find out about all festivals HERE

• In July 2016, USA Today ranked Columbus #3 on the Top Ten list of “Factory Towns Rebounding from Recession”
• The largest employer in Columbus is Cummins, which has been reporting steady sales growth, even during the economic downturn.
• Business is so good, in fact, Cummins has built a new office complex in downtown Columbus. Columbus has hired over 1,000 new employees in the past few years, most of those professional engineering positions (Columbus has more mechanical engineers, as a percentage of its population, than any other American city, by a great margin).
• Read what a prominent blogger described as the unique “Columbus Values Proposition”

• Columbus has two symphony orchestras, music organizations that host visiting musicians, active community theater groups, an independent movie theater, a downtown independent bookstore, a beautiful public library, and many cultural and educational activities to explore.
• Check the calendar to see what’s coming up.
• See dozens of Instagrammer’s photos of Columbus

• Near the Columbus airport, you have access to college courses through Indiana University, Purdue University, Ivy Tech Community College, and the Learning Center, with its library collection of academic books, resources, and magazines.
• Visit the IUPUC website.
• Visit the Ivy Tech website.
• Visit the Learning Center website.

• Seven percent of the county’s population are foreign born, nearly twice the state average.
• Columbus also has the highest concentration of mechanical engineers per capita in the nation.