Study: New Mexico fourth worst state to retire in

(The Center Square) – Led by a sky-high property crime rate and key bottom half rankings for its senior friendly jobs market and life expectancy, New Mexico is the nation’s fourth worst state to retire in, according to a new report.

The study by WalletHub, a personal finance web site, places the state at number 47 on a list of states that seniors might want to consider for retirement, followed at the bottom of the analysis only by Mississippi, New York and New Jersey.

Leading states for retirement according to the analysis were, in order, Florida, Colorado, Delaware, Virginia, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

To come up with its rankings, WalletHub considered 45 metrics over three key main categories: affordability, health care and quality of life. Of the total of 100 points, affordability accounted for 40 points, health care 30 and quality of life 30.

While property crime is high in New Mexico, it stood for only 1.43 points out of the 100 points, said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.

“It was fairly important, but still just one of the 45 that were included in the analysis,” she said.

More important, however, were the cost of adult day health care and the share of the state’s population aged over 65 who could not afford to visit a doctor.

“In terms of life expectancy and the elderly friendly labor market, New Mexico ranked 35th and 34th respectively,” Gonzalez said. “While this is indeed in the bottom half, there were other areas where the state ranked lower. For example, the annual cost of adult day health care is the sixth highest in the country, and the share of the population aged 65 plus who could not afford a doctor visit is the second largest.”

Two areas where the state fared much better were the number of health care facilities per capita, where the state ranked 25, and COVID-19 positive testing rate in the past week, where the state came in at 20. The state’s generally warmer weather was also a plus.

Health care measurements were important because of the pandemic, the report said.

The state, already expecting to lose a significant chunk of its annual revenue under new oil and gas policies under both Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and President Joe Biden, is looking for ways to recoup revenue losses from 2020 and replace lost revenue moving forward.

Boosting recreation is one move the state is looking at to hike revenue. So is the Legislature’s pending legalization of recreational pot and a proposed $25 million marketing boost for tourism in fiscal 2022, which lost $4.3 billion in revenue in 2020.

The state, Gonzalez said, could become more attractive to seniors by taking steps to lower crime and provide better health care for older Americans.

“Making health care more affordable for senior citizens is one of the things New Mexico could work on to increase retirement attractiveness,” she said. “Another thing would be including senior citizens in various activities to decrease the risk of social isolation, and overall trying to improve their quality of life. In terms of health care, the state would benefit from having more nurses and geriatrics hospitals.”

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