ALTON – The City of Alton has made yet another list for retirees.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
After being included on the AARP list of best places to retire, Alton has been noted as the best place in Illinois to retire. It did not make the overall top list (unlike nearby Columbia, Missouri, and distant-but-close Iowa City), but it was noticed as the best place to retire in Illinois. The runner-up was the Northern Illinois Chicago suburb of Naperville.
According to an Aug. 28, 2018 article by Forbes, the list was assembled by seeking affordable places based on housing and overall living costs (Alton's cost of living is 22 percent lower than the national average with median housing prices around $60,000), high-quality retirement living, which was measured by doctor availability, crime rates, air quality and walking and biking. General violent crime rates were also factored.
Alton Mayor Brant Walker said the designation from the economics and wealth magazine is yet another victory for Alton placing it in the national spotlight. He said the last 12-15 months in the city have been “super exciting” with the AARP listing as well as the spotlight of the Deluxe Corporation's Small Business Revolution, which filmed in the city all summer.
“There's been a lot of development in Alton in a very short time,” Walker said. “I could never have imagined in all of my time here, we would see so much happening on the Broadway Corridor all the way to Ridge Street. If you haven't seen Broadway in a few weeks, look at it. There's always something going on, always something new. We're even running out of properties for sale in that area – and that's not a bad problem to have. Less and less places are going to be empty.”
With this most recent national designation, Walker said he could not have picked a better time in the city's history to be mayor, adding he's excited to be in his position and see all of the good things happening to the city.
More like this:
