Welcome, geezers! Idaho is top 10 place to retire, study says. You’ll love the logic.

Idaho is growing quickly. The out-of-state avalanche can’t be stopped.

Are you ready to retire yourself to that fact?

Good. Now don’t be surprised if your new neighbor knocks on your door with a cane.

A new study, “Best and Worst States for Retirement in 2020,” makes Idaho look like a diamond in the aging rough. The Gem State finished No. 8. Florida is only six spots higher.

Come on down, elderly folks! We’re a welcoming state. Besides, with each day that passes, we’re all getting older.

You know what’s really getting old, though? Idaho making Top 10 lists because of questionable logic.

The latest ranking, brought to us by Retirementliving.com, analyzes data ranging from population age to assisted living costs.

“Idaho offers quiet and friendly mountain living,” the article says, touting our “abundant recreational opportunities.” I can’t argue. Heck, I’m a snowboarder with increasing gray in his beard.

But one of the primary reasons that Idaho finished so high in the ranking?

Our world-famous “low cost of housing.” If you’ve lived in the Boise area for a decade or more, this all-too-prevalent claim makes you want to smack yourself over the head with the nearest “for sale” sign.

I get it. If you’re from California (ranked the worst state to retire), this place still looks (sorta) cheap. Out-of-state buyers from larger markets define “low” real-estate prices differently than backwoods Idahoans do.

But in the Boise area, the median price of a single-family home increased 75 percent between 2014 and the third quarter of 2019. “I’m beginning to sense the dropping unaffordability of Boise is beginning to hinder job-growth potential,” Lawrence Yun, an economist for the National Association of Realtors, told the Idaho Statesman last month.

Good news, kids! Retirees don’t need paying jobs.

Or perhaps older newcomers plan to enjoy their golden years where Idaho housing is more affordable — say, Yellow Pine.

Better bring your four-wheel-drive mobility scooter, Gramps.

The retirement study manages to note that Idaho’s “population is growing.” It also brags that “Idaho has outstanding medical facilities, but most are located in the major cities.”

Just one concern. The more Geritol-popping transplants who move to one of our major cities (or in the general vicinity), the more overwhelmed our Treasure Valley hospital system will become.

Does that make sense? Are we ready for that? Am I getting senile?

I’ll bite my tongue. After a few more Idaho-friendly rankings like this, we’ll all be doing it with dentures, anyway.

This story was originally published February 27, 2020 at 12:20 PM.