One reason you should buy instead of rent: New York is a great place to grow old in

By Virginia K. Smith | April 23, 2015 - 12:30PM

New York is often said to be a city for the young, and plenty of us have seen a steady exodus of friends from the city right around the time everyone gets old enough to start having kids. However, there's strong evidence in favor of sticking it out, courtesy of the AARP's new livability index, which ranks NYC as a pretty great place to spend your twilight years.

Given that this is coming from the AARP, the index is geared toward the 50-and-over set, but most of the factors—transportation, health, civic engagement, cultural institutions—are applicable to just about anyone. (You can also customize the livability score to weight certain factors more heavily—say, if you don't care about public transportation, but do want to live around people who vote.) As an AARP Policy Advisor told CityLab, "When you plan for older adults, you plan for everyone."

You can play around with the tool here, and check out ratings for your specific address, neighborhoods, or entire cities. Though ratings vary by neighborhood, New York City as a whole scored a 62. Compare that to Boston's 65, Los Angeles' 47, or Boca Raton's 44. Just for fun, we compared the Upper West Side with the Upper East Side, and it turns out the UES has a slight edge, largely due to better housing and transportation options:

Now, excuse us while we start looking around for a nice, affordable apartment with some long-term potential. It may take a while.

(H/T to Curbed for the link.)

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