By George Slaughter
The iconic Katy water tower has a “20” painting to honor the 2020 state champion Katy football team (City of Katy photo)
Katy boosters are always quick to promote their community as a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Now, for the second time in three years, a financial advisor website says Katy is also a great place to retire. In fact, this year the website said Katy is the best place to retire in Texas.
Ben Geier, who wrote the article for the SmartAsset.com website, said several factors were considered in creating the list. The first item was retiree tax burden, as retirees will want to protect their assets. The tax burden in Katy is 16.40%, Geier said, which is seventh on this particular list.
Healthcare options were another factor, so surveyors calculated the number of medical centers in each city per 1,000 residents. Katy has 17.60 medical centers per 1,000 residents, Geier said. This figure is the most of any on the list.
“A big part of retirement is staying active, so we also look at the number of recreation centers and retirement communities per 1,000 residents,” Geier wrote. Katy has 3.61 recreation centers per 1,000 residents.
The survey also calculated the percentage of senior citizens among the city’s population.
Proximity to Houston and its big-city attractions was another factor, but Katy-area sports fans know they can enjoy plenty of exciting high school sports locally. The Katy High School football team won the state title last season. But high school athletic success isn’t limited just to Katy, however. The Seven Lakes High School volleyball and cheer teams, and the Cinco Ranch cheer squad, all won state championships in the school year just ended.
Mayor Bill Hastings said he wondered why it took so long for SmartAsset.com to figure out that Katy was the best place to retire.
“We’ve always been the best place to work and retire,” Hastings said.
Ward A Council Member Janet Corte said she thought Katy was a great choice by the website.
“Many of the reasons SmartAsset.com used to pick Katy are some of the same reasons we choose to move here,” Corte said. “Katy offers the best of small-town living and we’re close enough to Houston to easily enjoy all it has to offer. We’ve lived in the Katy area for 40 years and can’t think of any other place we’d rather live.”
Katy missed out on last year’s list, but made the 2019 list. Katy is not the only community in the Greater Houston area to be cited. Richmond (#6), Tomball (#7), Webster (#8), and Humble (#9) also made the list.
Here’s the complete list:
- Katy
- Granbury
- Woodway
- Livingston
- Fredericksburg
- Richmond
- Tomball
- Webster
- Humble
- Burnet