Money Magazine: Best places to retire 2006: Kalamazoo, MI snapshot

Companies Economy International Corrections Pre-market Trading After-hours Trading Winners/Losers/Actives Bonds Currencies Commodities World Markets Money Magazine Real Estate Mutual Funds Taxes Ask the Expert Money 101 Autos Loan Center Best Places to Live Ask the Expert Millionaires in the Making Ultimate Guide to Retirement Retirement Calculators Best Funds Ask the Mole Best Places to Retire Personal Tech Big Tech Blog Techland Blog Sectors and Stocks Fortune 500 Techs Tech Talk 100 Best Places to Launch Ultimate Resource Guide Small Biz Makeovers FSB 100 Ask & Answer Fortune 500 Technology Investing Management Rankings Main Create Portfolio Edit Portfolio Create Alerts Edit Alerts

Winners

Kalamazoo, MI Population: 76,644 Population, age 50+: 17,338 Population growth, age 50+: 12.39%
Taxes
	City stats
State income tax rate (highest bracket)	3.90%^*
State income tax rate (lowest bracket)	3.90%^*
Retirement tax break from state?	Yes
State property taxes	Average
Sales tax	6.00%
State gas tax (cents per gallon)	19.0
Housing
	City stats
Median home price	$91,950
Home price gain (2004-2005)	6.10%
Financial
	City stats
Median household income (per year)	$34,152
Auto insurance premiums (Average for the state)	$2,575
Quality of life
	City stats
Air quality index (% of days AQI ranked as good)	53.6%
Personal crime risk (100 is nat'l average; lower is better)	179
Property crime risk (100 is nat'l average; lower is better)	128
Personal crime incidents (per 100,000)	676
Property crime incidents (per 100,000)	5,441
Leisure and culture
	City stats
Movie theaters (within 15 miles)	13
Restaurants (within 15 miles)	670
Bars (within 15 miles)	25
Public golf courses (within 30 miles)	58
Libraries (within 15 miles)	19
Museums (accredited by AAM within 30 miles)	2
Colleges, universities and professional schools	2
Ski resorts (within 100 miles)	5
Weather
	City stats
Annual precipitation (inches)	37.41
Clear days	64
High temp in July ° F	84.2°
Low temp in Jan ° F	17.0°
Health***
	City stats
Hospitals (within 30 miles)	43
Doctors' offices	222
Body mass index (avg. for residents)	27
Cancer mortality (per 100,000, age-adjusted)	185.0
Cardiac mortality (per 100,000)	227.0
Meet the neighbors
	City stats
Median age	27.1
Completed at least some college (% of residents)	62.9%
Married	29.0%
Divorced	10.5%

*Income tax notes:
15 states have statutory provision for automatic adjustment of tax brackets, personal exemption or standard deductions to the rate of inflation. Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio indexes the personal exemption amounts only.
***County data

Data: OnBoard, FORTUNE. Details

Nearby places

See city stats

Feedback on the Best Places to Live list?
E-mail the editors

Information powered by OnBoard LLC
Some data may be provided courtesy of its partners.

Additional data and consulting services provided by Bert Sperling's bestplaces.net.

Affordable homes
	Median home sale price 2005
Reading, PA	$42,850
Buffalo, NY	$45,000
Niagara Falls, NY	$47,000
See the rest

Most golf played
	Golf activity index (100=national avg., 200=twice national avg.)
Coconut Creek, FL	141
Palm Harbor, FL	139
Palm Desert, CA	134
See the rest

Tennis
	Tennis activity index (100=national avg., 200=twice national avg.)
Bethesda, MD	163
Greenwich, CT	161
Davis, CA	161
See the rest

Most country club members
	Percentage of households
Palm Desert, CA	2.0
Bethesda, MD	2.0
Greenwich, CT	1.8
See the rest

Most educated
	% residents with graduate degree
Arlington, VA	35.7
Davis, CA	34.6
Brookline, MA	32.5
See the rest

Oldest
	Median age
Tamarac, FL	49.69
Lake Havasu City, AZ	46.71
St. Simons Island, GA	46.66
See the rest

Special Offer:

Live Quotes automatically refresh, but individual equities are delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET.
* : Time reflects local markets trading time. † - Intraday data delayed 15 minutes for Nasdaq, and 20 minutes for other exchanges. Disclaimer

Copyright © 2008 BigCharts.com Inc. All rights reserved. Please see our Terms of Use.
MarketWatch, the MarketWatch logo, and BigCharts are registered trademarks of MarketWatch, Inc.
Intraday data provided by Interactive Data Real-Time Services and subject to the Terms of Use.
Intraday data is at least 20-minutes delayed. All times are ET.
Historical, current end-of-day data, and splits data provided by Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data.
Fundamental data provided by Morningstar, Inc..
SEC Filings data provided by Edgar Online Inc..
Earnings data provided by FactSet CallStreet, LLC.