I would like to know the 10 best towns or cities to retire in Florida,
New Mexico and Arizona based on the information gathered below. 
Please use the following criteria and the latest statistics.  Weight
each criteria equally for the final outcome.  Write a detailed report
telling how each locale stacks up on each criteria.  Then rank each
locale against the other 10 on each criteria to come up with a 1 to 10
ranking.

1) Crime rates (personal and property)
2) Car insurance rates
3) house insurance rates
4) School spending
5) SAT or equivalent scores
6) Number of cultural institutions
7) Number, average cost, variety and quality of restaurants
8) local Water rates
9) Amount of surrounding open space
10)Public golf courses and average 18 hole cost
11)Traffic congestion (average commute)
12)State income tax
13)local sales tax
14)local property tax
15)local parks
16)local professional and minor league sports teams
17)Monthly temperatures, rainfall and humidity throughout year
18)Natural scencery
19)Senior care and medical facilities
20)Cost of housing
21)Availability of commnunity swimming facilties
22)Average life expectancy
23)Cost, breadth and availability of local university classes
24)Air quality
25)Energy costs:  gas and heating gas
26)Proximity and variety of airline services
27)Seasonal water temperatures (if applicable)
28)Diversity of population
29)Work background and educational level of residents
30)Pet friendly locales
31)Local wage rates for plumbers and carpenters
32)Local wage rates for caregivers to the elderly
33)Proximity of recreational hot springs
34)Long-term water availability
35)Proximity and quality of farmers markets and craft markets
36)Household income
37)Average age of residents
38)Number of houses occupied yeararound
39)Proximity of toxic waste dumps
40)Medical costs (medicare supplement)

Thanks, RS

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Request for Question Clarification by websearcher-ga on 26 Mar 2003 11:30 PST

Hi huntva:

Thanks for the question. However, what you are asking for is way
beyond the price range you are offering. You are asking for *400*
"detailed reports" and then the extra analysis to make sense of it
all.

You might have better luck getting your question answered if you were
to pare down your expectations. Perhaps pick 4 - 5 criteria and then
also relax some other criteria as well.

Just something to consider. 

websearcher-ga

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Clarification of Question by huntva-ga on 26 Mar 2003 11:42 PST

I am asking for 10 reports.  A lot of the information is available on
http://www.bestplaces.net/.  Limit the locales to ones with
universities and community colleges---and significant
populations,i.e., 25,000 or more.  So in New Mexico, that leaves you
with Taos, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Albuquerque.  In Arizona, stick
with Tucson, Scottsdale and Tempe.  In Florida, concentrate on
Gainesville, Tallahassee, Sarasota, Boca Raton, Coral Gables, Naples,
Ft. Myers, Tampa, Vero Beach, Jupiter, and Jacksonville.

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Request for Question Clarification by aceresearcher-ga on 26 Mar 2003 13:43 PST

Greetings, huntva!

I (and I'm sure many other Researchers) would be delighted to be able
to assist you.

However, only 13½ of your 40 criteria are available on
http://www.bestplaces.net . For the rest of the information you are
seeking, a Researcher would have to do individual Google searches on
each item, then go through the search results to find a city-specific
site that contains the desired information. I estimate that such
searching could easily require 20 hours, but probably a great deal
longer.

A researcher will receive 75%, or $93.75, of your fee. If they spend
ONLY 20 hours on your project, they will receive $4.69 an hour for
their work -- less than what a beginning employee at McDonald's makes.

Many companies, such as Mercer Human Resources Consulting, will
provide such reports for a fee. Mercer, for instance, will provide a
comprehensive report such as you are seeking, for $250 -- PER CITY.
The reason such companies can ask -- and receive -- such a large fee
is because of the extensive amount of time, research, and effort
required to compile such a report.
http://www.imercer.com/globalcontent/employeemobility/Quality.asp#fee

As websearcher mentioned, if you would be willing to scale down your
requirements, you would be much more likely to get a response from a
Researcher. Perhaps this is something you could consider.

Best wishes,

aceresearcher

I can only speak for myself, but I won't attempt questions of this
nature. The only way I can know if I can answer all 40 parts, is to
research each of them, one at a time. I might spend a day or two
getting down to question 31, only to find I can't locate any data on
local wage rates for plumbers and carpenters, and therefore I cannot
answer your entire question.

There is also the time factor. It would take an incredible researcher
to answer all the questions in one day. The problem is that if I took
it on, when I go to sleep, I am bound to lose my lock on the question,
and someone else can grab it, with all my research wasted.

Most of the questions I would love to answer. If you were to post each
question individually, 40 unique questions saying "compare these 10
cities based on X", then you will get results. I won't suggest
specific pricing, but I suspect $3 per question would not be enough.

Well, maybe that's the ticket---to post the questions individually.  Thanks. RS

From your list, I presume you have preadolescents plus one or more
seniors in your household, so you want (4) school spending to be high.
You should probably mention some specific cultural institutions of
interst. Jachsonvile, Florida has an excelent zoo and art center,
several colleges, a symphoney orchestra, a ballet, and a fine
children's museum. Is one hour away too far? In 9 you need to be more
specific ie here in Jacksonville, Florida there are large bodies of
water and swamps inside the city limits, plus many 1000 acre parcels
within 10 miles of the Orange park mall, mostly private property but
low probability of any complaints if you want to hike. To the East is
4000 miles of Atlantic Ocean, and to the North, South and West most of
the counties are thinly populated for hundreds of miles, so there is
lots of (9) surrounding open space. If you commute (11) across town it
can take more than an hour in the rush hour but many people have nice
homes within 20 minutes of their employment. Housing costs are well
below average for populations of about one million that includes
Orange Park to the SW of the city center. Small towns and semi rural
to the South of Orange park also have low housing prices which rise
sharply when you get within 50 miles of Orlando, Florida and Disney
world, which is 25 miles West of downtown Orlado, Florida  I think
crime and most of the others are about average. Humidity is much
higher than New Mexico and Arizona but about average for Florida.
There is no State income tax and a homestead exemption can halve your
property tax.  $25,000 for each individual home with extra deductions
for the elderly and poor in some cities. The air quality is rated poor
due to pollution that comes from hundreds of miles further North, but
when Cecil Field closed the air quality improved substantially. There
are some old toxic waste dumps 20 miles West of the city center
apparently the fault of the now closed naval air station called Cecil
Field. The other Naval air station does mostly retrofit and is a good
neigbor.   Neil

90% of houses are occupied year around in Jacksonville, Florida but it
is as low as 50% in some small towns in Central and South Florida. The
temperature drops in the 20s f several times per winter in West
Jacksonville, and hits 100 degress f rarely (twice) in summer. Low 90s
is typical high for the day in June and July, with August often
slightly cooler, so we have cooler summers except the high elevations
in New Mexico and Arizona. Winters are warmer than early morning low
in high and mid elevations in New Mexico and Arizona. All of Florida
is low elevation. Jacksonville has good deep well water which is
probably viable for longer into the future than most locations. More
than a century. Long ago, I lived SW of Carrizozo, NM and in Pheonix,
Arizona. Pheonix was a good city. Sales tax in Jaxsonville is 7.5% We
have an excellent Airport twelve miles North of the city center and
the top rated Jaguars football team. Ocean water temperature at the
beaches is rarely below 55 in winter, nor below 70 degrees f in June
and July. The hurricanes usually miss Jacksonville. The last
significant damage was 1925. A public swimming pool is likely
available in most neighborhoods for a small charge. There are many
springs, but I don't think any hot springs within 100 miles. The
average age of the citizens of Jacksonville is slightly younger than
typical of Eastern and great lakes cities, likely younger than typical
rural and small towns. Jacksonville is not a retirement community.
Rainfall is about average for Florida. It only snows about twice per
century. There are several good 18 hole golf courses within 20 miles
of most Jacksonvile locations. Jacksonville is has a wider variety of
ethnic  and ratial groups than most cities. I have not observed an
above average number of any group compared to Eastern and great lakes
cities. I came to Jacksonville in 1975 and plan to stay.  Neil