St George, Utah Adult Community
Active Adult Lifestyle
Healthy lifestyle seems to sum up life in Saint George. Healthy in every way - weather is factor, people enjoy outdoor activity, and the sense of community and family creates good feelings as well. A low crime rate, good health care, and patio lifestyles sometimes around the pool make living here very attractive.
Best Place to Retire in the West
Best Place to Retire in the West: St. George was singled out by Money magazine as the best place in the West to retire, after appearing on several top 10 lists in national surveys.
Active Adult Communities
St. George offers planned developments that cater specifically to retirees. These range from modest senior parks featuring small retirement homes and park models, to very spacious, elegant homes located in beautiful golf course or planned communities. The adult communities offer many advantages for our senior adult population, including beautiful facilities and numerous activities.
Culture
The list of cultural activities available is extensive, with the beautiful Tuachan Theater and School for the Performing Arts. This theater shines as a brilliant star, often lighting up the red rock canyon it’s nestled in. Professional Broadway-style musicals are offered each summer. Nearby Cedar City offers the world-renowned Shakespearean Festival, and St. George hosts an excellent Arts Festival each spring. Dixie State College and the St. George Musical Theater offer wonderful year-round entertainment. In addition, there are numerous museums and historical sights to capture and hold your attention. St. George is truly a Broadway in the Desert, attracting Broadway from Las Vegas as well.
Golfing
St. George is a golf course community stringing the horizons with groomed grass to go with the desert and red rock cliff environment. Suffice it to say, many golf enthusiasts already know about St. George with its highly publicized world-class golf courses.
Outdoor Activities
The entire St. George area is laced with gorgeous walking trails and paths wandering through stunning red rock canyons. Rock climbing and hiking are favorite activities here, and in nearby Zion National Park. Having national parks nearby allow for many sightseeing adventures. Three reservoirs are nearby, offering red rock cliff jumping, boating, water skiing, swimming and sun bathing.
Bicycling and horseback riding are fun pastimes, and off-road vehicles can be found in abundance in nearby deserts and sand dunes. Riding a unique Segway (a two-wheeled balancing vehicle you stand up in) through beautiful Snow Canyon is an especially delightful activity. The wonderful desert climate truly makes possible an abundance of year-round outdoor activities.
Physical Fitness
St. George and nearby communities are known for their emphasis on fitness. Every morning is a conundrum of busy bodies running, walking or golfing. Golfing looms large, but it is not the sole activity. For example, Sun River (an exclusive Adult Living Community built around an exclusive golf course) tries to dispel the myth by saying that only 20% of their people actually golf. The emphasis is on an overall active lifestyle that is not exclusive. St. George is home to the international Huntsman Senior Games, as well as the annual St. George Marathon. There are several world-famous spas, including The Red Mountain Spa, located in nearby Ivins. If fitness is one of your priorities, there are many opportunities available in St. George.
Fitness Facilities and Programs
There are numerous state-of-the-art fitness facilities, with many of the adult communities offering their own top-notch facilities, including beautiful indoor and outdoor pools. One buyer we worked with wanted to move close to the new downtown Senior Center, that not only offers exercise, but many group programs as well - water aerobics, crafts, computer classes, etc. That couple later bought the rental we found for them.
This lifestyle of shared communal activities is available as key lifestyle ingredients for many retirees that live here. Just ask any of the folks out at Sun River who get out to these events and socialize. I’ve heard of one grandmother there, who (torn out of family roots and grand kids in California) raves about “not one-day wishing to move back to California." "We visit our family often, and they visit us.”, she says. It takes effort and a desire to stay active.
Second Home
According to the U.S. Postal Service, a staggering 20% of the homes in St. George are part-time or second homes. Many of these are investors avoiding being taxed on monies that they roll over into a 1031 exchange, into a home or condo here. Another phenomenon is at work too. We call them “Snowbirds”. These are people who “fly” south for the winter. During winter months they spend their time in St. George and then “fly” back north in the spring. On a side note, an interesting statistic... based off of licenses renewal data: 31% moving to St. George come from northern Utah, while 23% come from California.
Second Career
Second careers are given place here in the St. George area. Aside from retiring, many otherwise “retiring” adults do not like the word. Many constrain that they have less time to fit it all in. Indeed, playing is hard work. Nothing is wrong with staying productive, and here it is encouraged with opportunity.
Utah ranked fifth among states for "economic freedom" according to a study by the Pacific Research Institute, a San Francisco, California-based organization. The study is titled "The U.S. Economic Freedom Index: 2004 Report" and factored in more than 140 variables including: taxes, environmental regulations, tort laws, and property rights. These rankings are based on five types of government intervention in markets: fiscal, regulatory, judicial, size of government, and welfare. BestRetirementSpots.com ranks St. George for employment opportunities at a 94 on a scale of 1-100 (with 50 being average) when it comes to job growth in retail, services, finance, insurance, and real estate industries.
