7 Southwest Cities Where You Can Retire on $3,200 a Month

Jami Farkas

4 April 2024 at 10:00 am·5-min read

While the Southwest can be a pricey place to live, retirees who want to settle there don’t need to fret. Even if you’re on a fixed income, places exist in the region where you can live comfortably.

To help you identify locations where you and your significant other could live on a budget of $3,200 a month, GOBankingRates studied cities in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah to find affordable places.

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We looked at the monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment — as well as monthly costs for groceries, healthcare and utilities — to come up with this list of seven cities where a couple can live on this budget. Ready to explore GOBankingRates’ findings? Here are the seven best cities in the Southwest for retirees to live on $3,200 a month.

Tucson, Arizona

Livability Score: 73
Average Monthly Rent: $1,498
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $382
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $537
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $351
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $398
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $3,165

Arizona is a haven for retirees, but Tucson is the only city in the state to rank in the study. Despite an average high of 100.2 degrees in July and 98.6 in August, according to the National Weather Service, the air-conditioning bills won’t break you. The monthly utility costs of $351 are $2 less than the national average.

Also, while the average rent of $1,498 is among the highest on the list, that’s still much lower than the national average of $2,019.

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Albuquerque, New Mexico

Livability Score: 71
Average Monthly Rent: $1,515
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $384
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $501
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $343
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $368
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $3,112

If the cost of healthcare is a concern to you, Albuquerque deserves consideration as a retirement location. At $501 per month, healthcare there costs the lowest among the cities on the list, and it’s a whopping 20% less than the national average of $628.

On the other hand, the monthly average rent is second highest in the study, but still about $500 less than the national average.

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Grand Junction, Colorado

Livability Score: 76
2023 Average Monthly Rent: $1,549
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $407
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $542
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $364
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $319
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $3,181

Living surrounded by the awe-inspiring beauty of Colorado’s red rocks comes at a price. Retirees in Grand Junction, which is near the Utah border, will be pushing that $3,200 monthly budget, largely due to an average rent of $1,549, the largest in the study. While you’ll pay the least for transportation, the price of groceries tops the list and utilities rank second.

Greeley, Colorado

Livability Score: 71
Average Monthly Rent: $1,427
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $392
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $548
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $351
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $364
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $3,081

If you want to live closer to Denver but stay in Colorado, you might prefer Greeley, about 300 miles northeast of Grand Junction. Rent is approximately $120 lower than in Grand Junction, and groceries and utilities are more affordable. Overall, the price to live in Greeley is a tad lower than in Grand Junction but still above $3,000 a month.

Provo, Utah

Livability Score: 85
Average Monthly Rent: $1,480
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $376
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $639
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $334
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $352
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $3,181

Provo owns the highest livability score of the cities in the survey, likely aided by its easy access to recreational opportunities, whether on the water or on the ski slopes. It also has the highest cost of necessities, leaving a couple living on $3,200 a month with about a $20 bill left. While the cost of healthcare ranks No. 2 in the study, all other necessities fall comfortably under the national average.

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Pueblo, Colorado

Livability Score: 73
Average Monthly Rent: $1,259
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $377
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $549
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $374
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $350
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $2,909

Pueblo offers the lowest price tag when it comes to necessities for couples over 65 — just over $2,900 per month. That’s helped by the second-lowest rent, but the overall monthly expenditures would be lower if Pueblo didn’t have the highest utility bills of the municipalities in the study. City residents pay almost $375 per month for utilities, 5.9% above the national average of $353.

DenisTangneyJr / Getty Images/iStockphoto

Ogden, Utah

Livability Score: 80
Average Monthly Rent: $1,249
Monthly Grocery Cost Per Couple: $369
Monthly Healthcare Cost Per Couple: $643
Monthly Utilities Cost Per Couple: $338
Monthly Transportation Cost Per Couple: $358
Monthly Necessities Cost Per Couple: $2,957

Ogden, the second Utah locale in the study, tops the list of Southwest cities, despite having the highest cost of healthcare. The livability score of 80, the lowest average monthly rent and grocery expenditures — plus costs for utilities and transportation that fall below the national average — combine to make Ogden an attractive option for retirees on budgets.

Methodology: GOBankingRates determined the best cities in the Southwest (AZ, CO, NM, NV and UT) to retire on $3,200 or less a month. GOBankingRates first isolated all cities in the Southwest with a 2023 average monthly rent under $1,900 and a size rank below 1,000. GOBankingRates then used Sperling’s Best to find the cost-of-living index for each listed city, looking at grocery, healthcare, utilities and transportation index scores. Next, GOBankingRates used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 Consumer Expenditure Survey to find the annual expenditure amount for grocery (“food at home”), utilities, healthcare and transportation costs for people aged 65 and older in order to find how much a couple 65 and over would spend on necessities in each city on a monthly basis. GOBankingRates then added monthly housing, grocery, utilities, transportation and healthcare costs together to find where a couple 65 and older could survive on $3,200 or less. For a city to be qualified for the study, it had to have a livability score above 70 as sourced from AreaVibes. GOBankingRates scored and combined the livability score and monthly necessities expenditure, with the lowest score being best, to determine final rankings. All data was collected on and is up to date as of Sept. 13, 2023.

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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 7 Southwest Cities Where You Can Retire on $3,200 a Month

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