Iowa has earned the top spot as the best state to retire in 2026

[LunchBox50]

We were both gone on vacation yesterday. I had so much fun baby! Just think, we could have that much fun everyday. Instead you play around on this site with your fake friends.

 

[LafayetteBear]

Well, we've just recovered from a hellscape winter ... it was awful. Didn't see grass for months upon months. Snow on snow on snow ... with bitter cold. Before that we actually had a series of very mild winters, with minimal snow (thank you, global warming, for that reprieve ... Mid-Atlantic-living friends and family were jealous of how little snow we were getting) ... that was after some apocalyptically snowy winters probably a decade or so ago.

The one thing we do have here in Massachusetts, is civilization. You get that cold and snow in Iowa, that's it. It may be years before someone finds your frozen body. Here in Massachusetts, we can just go enjoy some indoor activities, or walk a few steps to someone else's house and socialize. Or if you're dumb enough to want to go out in the cold, we have plenty of mediocre skiing and other outdoor winter activities nearby. Sure, Iowans can stick corn cobs in their nether regions, and have conversations with their scarecrows to pass the time ... but other than that, what else is there?

But, then again, no Massachusetts folks are sitting here saying "Look! This is a great place to retire! We ARE somebody! It's not as bad as we all know it is!"

And the average winter temperature ... or even the average high winter temp ... in Iowa is not, in fact, 18 degrees. That author screwed up. But they're from Iowa, so they have an excuse.

No one in their right mind is gonna compare the quantum of restaurants, professional athletics venues, or cultural amenities that Des Moines has with what Boston has. Boston is considerably older and many times larger.

That being said, Des Moines (current population of roughly 212,000) is large enough to support plenty of restaurants and, likely, some cultural amenities. Iowa City is a college town (the University has just under 32,000 students), so it also affords its residents and visitors with some similar amenities.

Lastly, Iowa has a number of lakes, and lake resorts built up around them. As a kid, I spent a number of summers at Lake Okoboji, a lake in the northwest corner of Iowa. It is a natural, glacier fed lake, the deepest natural lake in the state. It features blue water rather than the muddy green water you see at so many eastern and midwestern lakes. There are actually two lakes, West Lake and East Lake, and believe it or not, they are ringed with homes that carry some surprisingly large price tags. A waterfront home is gonna start at a little over $1,000,000, and there are a large number in the $4,000,000 range. My cousin, a retired neurosurgeon, owns one.

I mentioned this stuff not because I feel any inclination to serve as an Iowa booster. (I like living where I do.) But my experience with people who have never visited Iowa (which is most of the people I know) is that they are shocked to hear me say that there are multi-million dollar homes anywhere in Iowa, or that anyone would want to spend a vacation there.

 

[lucas80]

Please provide a link of that happening.

People who cannot answer simple questions don't get to make demands of other posters.
What are your favorite activities in Iowa? What areas do you like to recreate in? Until you answer simple questions, people will continue to view you as an unserious person.

 

[lucas80]

Oh, look, Keokuk checking in by discharging sewer water directly into the Mississippi upstream of a boat ramp.
https://www.kcrg.com/2026/08/04/dnr...ater-discharge-into-mississippi-river-keokuk/

 

[Moogy]

No one in their right mind is gonna compare the quantum of restaurants, professional athletics venues, or cultural amenities that Des Moines has with what Boston has. Boston is considerably older and many times larger.

That being said, Des Moines (current population of roughly 212,000) is large enough to support plenty of restaurants and, likely, some cultural amenities. Iowa City is a college town (the University has just under 32,000 students), so it also affords its residents and visitors with some similar amenities.

Lastly, Iowa has a number of lakes, and lake resorts built up around them. As a kid, I spent a number of summers at Lake Okoboji, a lake in the northwest corner of Iowa. It is a natural, glacier fed lake, the deepest natural lake in the state. It features blue water rather than the muddy green water you see at so many eastern and midwestern lakes. There are actually two lakes, West Lake and East Lake, and believe it or not, they are ringed with homes that carry some surprisingly large price tags. A waterfront home is gonna start at a little over $1,000,000, and there are a large number in the $4,000,000 range. My cousin, a retired neurosurgeon, owns one.

I mentioned this stuff not because I feel any inclination to serve as an Iowa booster. (I like living where I do.) But my experience with people who have never visited Iowa (which is most of the people I know) is that they are shocked to hear me say that there are multi-million dollar homes anywhere in Iowa, or that anyone would want to spend a vacation there.

So, you wrote to tell me that the entirety of Iowa isn't a vast wasteland which no one wants to visit? Just most of it?

 

[DoubleDutch]

I know it’s not, thank you for having my back. He will pay for what he did.

 

[Moogy]

I know it’s not, thank you for having my back. He will pay for what he did.

Didn't you complain that everything here was so negative that you were going to leave? And this, after you stalked everyone and followed them to this board, even though they wanted to get away from you?

And your solution to being considered a psycho stalker is to become another version of a psycho stalker?

 

[LunchBox50]

Didn't you complain that everything here was so negative that you were going to leave? And this, after you stalked everyone and followed them to this board, even though they wanted to get away from you?

And your solution to being considered a psycho stalker is to become another version of a psycho stalker?

That would be the Gibbles that everyone loathes.

 

[HawkeyeSwarm]

To the humble hosts of this board, the Iowa posters who incessantly criticize our state only do so because they are bitter that democrats are not in charge.

 

[Anon1750875978]

You realize it gives the actual metrics correct? The housing wasnt just accounting for Adair.


Its deceiving because you ***** tirelessly and are going to find something to consistently ***** about.

"Old people dont give a ****" is your opinion and has zero weight outside of your head. You didnt explain anything dipshit.

Republicans are, and have been, buying votes with tax cuts.
In Reynold's case, it wasn't enough to save her political career.
Eff that beotch!

Same with Ole BreadBags.
Midterms gonna be great.
Go back to watching Radical Right media for your talking points.

 

[DoubleDutch]

That would be the Gibbles that everyone loathes.

I loath you and only you.

 

[lucas80]

You're limited only by your imagination.

Typical Northern. Cannot back up his assertions. Cannot list any exciting activities or locales that he enjoys.
He fails at posting.