Realtor.com Top 10 Fastest growing retirement hot spots "Traverse City"

#9Traverse City, MI

Median list price: $319,100 Percentage of residents age 60 and up: 29.7%

Traverse City brings back a lot of nostalgic memories for Midwestern baby boomers who remember coming here as kids and fishing and swimming in Lake Michigan. Now that they're retiring, many are returning to the city.

“They finally say ... “I’m moving where it's beautiful,’” says Bart Ford, managing broker at Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors. These retirees are often buying up older cottages in the woods or plots of land along the lake to build their dream homes on.

There's no shortage of things to do for those no longer ruled by 9-to-5 schedules. Folks can attend the annual Traverse City Film Festival, co-founded by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, or hit up the National Cherry Festival, which dates back to 1925.

"Some people spend $20,000 to stay here in the summer," Ford says. "Why do that when you could just buy something and snow bird to Palm Springs, Florida, or Arizona?"