Golden-agers are discovering The Lilac City's many attributes

Visit Spokane includes retirement-age models, like the man in the center of this whitewater rafting photo, in its marketing campaigns to draw in visitors and plant the seed that Spokane is an ideal place to live.

| Jason Hummel Photography

For the third consecutive year, Forbes business magazine has placed the spotlight on Spokane as one of the best places to retire in the U.S.

Such recognition is from just one of several publications, including Liviabilitycom, Niche.com, Unbiased.com, and HomeSnacks.com that have proclaimed The Lilac City is an ideal place to retire in recent years.

Although median home prices in Spokane have risen by two-thirds since 2019 to $394,000 in early 2024, it’s still less than half of the median price for homes in places like Seattle and California, two primary sources of in-migration, according to a May article in Forbes.

Other attributes that helped Spokane earn a spot on the Forbes list include good air quality, medical services, an abundance of hiking trails, seven public golf courses, and no state income tax. It also gave a nod to the region’s concerts and sporting events, noting how the city hosted both men’s and women’s NCAA tournament basketball games during March Madness. The article even highlighted Gonzaga University’s feat of making it to the tournament’s Sweet 16 round for nine years running.

When it comes to attracting retirees and potential future residents, it starts with a visit, says Kate Hudson, public relations marketing manager for Visit Spokane, The Lilac City’s official destination marketing organization.

“Our primary goal is to market the Spokane region to everyone, to the entire country and the entire world really, to get people to come here,” Hudson says. “Say we attract a visitor who comes and vacations in Spokane and they realize, this is a really cool city and 'I can see myself living here.' That’s where it starts.”

While Visit Spokane doesn’t conduct campaigns that specifically target retirees, the organization plays up the access to the medical community, the state’s lack of a state income tax, and comparative affordability. It also includes retirement-age models in advertising campaigns to draw in visitors, ultimately planting the seed for Spokane to be a place to live, she says.

At The Gallery at Spokane senior community, 17% of residents are from out of town, says Heather Bopp, family adviser and marketer. The retirement facility opened last year, and most residents who came from out of town say they wanted to be closer to family here, Bopp says.

Eowyn Sallis, vice president of sales and marketing for Spokane-based Rockwood Retirement Communities, says Rockwood mostly focuses on digital marketing. Rockwood's marketing relies on search engine optimization and having an accessible website, as searching on Google is the best way to be found these days, she says.

“I’ve been in this position for 13 years, and in the last four years, we have seen a real uptick in the number of inquiries from people outside the area,” Sallis says.

Twenty-three percent of the residents at Rockwood’s new 117-unit community, Rockwood at Whitworth for example are from outside the area, she says.

The majority of those residents came from California, followed by Oregon, Montana, and Western Washington. Rockwood at Whitworth even has one resident from Florida, she says.

Spokane often is listed as a top place to retire, Sallis says.

In addition to the features that publications say make Spokane attractive for retirees, Spokane International Airport is growing, another benefit for those who want to travel in their retirement, Sallis says.

“As Spokane is being discovered, we are busier than ever,” Sallis says. “It’s a trend that is going to continue to grow as affordability gets more expensive in places like California. It’s not just retirees, but people in general that are coming.”

Patrick Jones, executive director of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University, says retirement plays a major role in the county's population growth. While the population of Spokane is aging, every demographic in the county also grew in size, except for the youngest group, infants to 17-year-olds.

According to the Community Indicators Initiative of Spokane, the total population in Spokane County currently stands at 559,400, according to the most recently available figures, up from 539,300 in 2020. In 2023, the population of people 65 and older totaled 102,492, or 18.5%, up by over 9,000 from 93,458 in 2020, or 17.9% of the population.

"These days, birth rates are declining, and there is more movement of migration in the Western states," Jones says. "Net migration to Spokane County is a response to job attainment, its attractiveness as a retirement destination, or prospective students to our universities,"

The population of Spokane County grew by 4,800 people within the last year, and in-migration accounted for 4,450 of them, Jones says.

Part of marketing Spokane to tourists, including retirees, involves getting other people to talk and write about the city, says Hudson, who reaches out to national publications and hosts writers and journalists when they come to visit.

In 2022, she was a key organizer of The Public Relations Society of America Travel & Tourism conference, held at the Davenport Hotel and Spokane Convention Center and had close to 300 attendees. The conference held panels by media professionals from publications that cater to a mature demographic, such National Geographic, Travel, Wine Enthusiast, and Travel Noire, among others. The conference led some attendees to discover and write about Spokane, Hudson says.

“I’m always pitching,” Hudson says. “Whatever I can think of for Spokane, just to get it in the forefront of people’s minds. … The goal is to put Spokane on the map and make people think, that might be a cool place not just to visit but also live, and eventually, maybe retire.”

Fodor’s Travel, for example featured the Spokane River on its list of “13 Best Spots for a Classic American River Float.” Other publications that also have touted Spokane’s attributes include The Daily Beast, Sierra Magazine, TravelandLeisure.com, and even a French luxury magazine, in which a writer who stayed at one of the Davenport hotels last summer and wrote an entire piece, in French, Hudson says.

“We’ve been everywhere,” Hudson says. “That’s my goal and the strategy of Visit Spokane–to get Spokane out there. Because if people don’t know we exist, they’re not going to come. They’re not going to come and spend their money here and they’re not going to maybe consider retiring here.”