Bradenton recognized in ‘Where to Retire’ magazine

The City of Bradenton is one of eight cities featured in a national magazine's profile on cities that currently boast the best deals on homes.In the September/October issue of Where to Retire magazine, a national magazine geared toward helping people with retirement relocation decisions, the Bradenton-Sarasota area was named along with Ocala; Phoenix; San Diego; Myrtle Beach, SC; St. George, UT; Santa Fe, NM; and Brevard, NC.

"Bradenton is still a paradise," Bradenton Mayor Wayne Poston said. "The housing market has adjusted so we are more competitive with other communities and the Baby Boomers are still retiring daily and looking for a friendly community in which to spend their new lives. We already knew Bradenton is one of the best places on earth to retire, but it is nice to be recognized."

According to Where to Retire editor, Mary Lu Abbott, many popular retirement cities currently have historically low housing prices, while other smaller towns boast a stable market with good seller incentives.

"Amid the miles of Gulf Coast beaches and the prime amenities of Sarasota-Bradenton, FL, housing prices have dropped 30-40 percent since 2005," she wrote.

The magazine was launched in 1992 with the goal of helping its readers find the ideal place to retire. Now published six times a year, the magazine covers the best retirement regions, towns, and master-planned communities, and has a national average circulation of 220,000 and an average readership of 500,000.

This isn't the first time Bradenton has been recognized by a national magazine this year for its quality of life.

Art Calendar magazine's March edition named Bradenton one of the country's Top 10 cities for working artists because of the Village of the Arts, a downtown-area neighborhood where special zoning laws allow artists and other craftspeople to live and operate small businesses, like art galleries, from their homes.

In the May/June issue of Going Places, AAA's traveler's guide that profiles popular vacation destinations around the country, Bradenton was recognized as a "sunny waterside town that boasts a unique collection of museums and marinas ... and one of the state's most vibrant artists' communities (the Village of the Arts)," along with abundant fishing, beaches and beautiful sunsets.