If you are looking to retire to Rhode Island, Warwick may just be the city to do it in.
SmartAsset, a financial technology company based out of New York, has recently completed a study to find …
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If you are looking to retire to Rhode Island, Warwick may just be the city to do it in.
SmartAsset, a financial technology company based out of New York, has recently completed a study to find the best cities and states throughout the country for senior retirees based on their “tax friendliness,” although overall, Rhode Island isn’t tax friendly, the report finds.
The organization used the hypothetical control of a retiree receiving a $50,000 income, $15,000 from Social Security, $10,000 from a private pension and $15,000 from savings like a 401(k) and then $10,000 in wages.
Then the policies and taxes from cities across the nations, taken from the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, state and local government websites, as well as the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey, were applied to the standard individual.
The study also took into consideration property taxes, whether or not Social Security is taxed.
Using this methodology SmartAsset ranked Warwick the 6th friendliest city in Rhode Island, Central Falls being the first.
Between the top 10 cities listed by SmartAsset, there were very small differences affecting the decision by this hypothetical retiree; there was no change whatsoever in average income taxes, being $6,701 across the board, and the paid property tax spanned from $2,600 to $4,043.
Warwick’s average was listed as $3,394.
Mayor Scott Avedisian said in Warwick, with stable taxes retirement dollars can go further. He admitted cities throughout Rhode Island are still “lagging” in economic recovery, but said “we are starting to move past that challenge going forward.”
Outside of statistics, Avedisian believes Warwick is a great place to retire. With great senior services from the Pilgrim Senior Center, to therapeutic pool programs and “beautiful shorelines” to walk, Warwick offers seniors many of the things they could be looking for when retiring.
“We have a great balance of cultural and historical events,” he said. “And great commercial shopping.”
The top 10 cities in Rhode Island, in order, are Central Falls, Westerly, Woonsocket, Pawtucket, Providence, Warwick, East Providence, Tiverton, Newport and Greenville.
Although Warwick has a high rank within the state, Rhode Island remains very low on the national list overall for several reasons.
Central Falls is ranked 4,329th in the country for cities.
One reason Rhode Island received such a low ranking is because unlike a majority of states, Rhode Island has no special income tax exemptions and/or deductions for retirement income. Previously, Social Security and other forms of retirement income were taxable, but this year’s budget wrote out several exceptions for single filers and married/widowed filers, which will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016.
To make matters worse, property taxes in Rhode Island are the 10th highest of any state, averaging at 1.55 percent property tax rate matched with high property values.
According to the study, “A typical Rhode Island homeowner pays more than $3,800 annually in property taxes. Including property taxes, housing costs in Rhode Island are 34 percent higher than the national average.”
To read the full study and use the interactive map, visit SmartAsset’s website.
6 comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
Marccomtois
Talk about burying the lede....
Let's re-write the story based on the actual facts of the study. Central Falls is the "best" "city" in Rhode Island to retire - but 4,329th "Best" "City" to retire in in the country (!). Warwick is 5 places below CF.
But framing it that way wouldn't allow the Mayor to proclaim something "positive" about retiring in Warwick.
The real takeaway: You'd be crazy to retire in Rhode Island when there are at least 4,000 other cities that are better!
Tuesday, November 17, 2015 Report this
Bob_Cushman
Your assessment is spot on JohnBarry.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Report this
Norm88
Mr. Cushman,
With your forecasted impending dome and the fact that your presentation fell on deaf ears one has to wonder why are you still here?
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Report this
Reality
The article is correct .....Warwick is a good place to retire....what the forgot to say however, it's only good for retired city workers that get lifetime healthcare with no copays that cost the taxpayers $8 million yearly. They also didn't mention that the unfunded healthcare obligation for the taxpayers is over $250 million and pension obligations are short $250 million. Warwick taxpayers who worked in private industry won't be seeing a cola this year in social security again his year but our retired police and firemen will be getting another 3% cola increase this year.
Scottie has given us 15 yrs of tax increases to pay for all the benefits that our city workers get. If the city debt was calculated in our property tax bills the only people left in Warwick would be the city retirees.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Report this
Bob_Cushman
Norm88, the fact that Warwick city leaders have intentionally failed to address the issues I have addressed over the last decade and conditions continuing to get worse, (City hired retirement expert stated this year that the city is beyond the brink and that he would run away from this model of government) have led me to begin to devise a plan where in the future I will not be a retiree in Warwick or in Rhode Island for that matter.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Report this
patientman
Mayor Scott Avedisian said in Warwick, with stable taxes retirement dollars can go further.
The tax increases are stable, that's about it. How does the Mayor make this comment when our taxes go up every year? How does the writer not follow up that statement by pointing out the obvious? Ridiculous.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Report this