EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a four-part series, “Beginning, Again” about people who moved to this area during their retirement years. What brought them here? And what’s it like to build a new life in a new place at an older age? Today’s piece is about John and Mary Warren, now of Northampton, who moved here from Jacksonville, Florida. Additional stories about others who relocated during retirement will run on successive Mondays, July 20, July 27 and Aug. 3. The series will also be available on gazettenet.com.

Mary Warren knew — minutes after she and her husband drove across the Coolidge Bridge into Northampton for the first time — that they’d found their next home.

On that summer day in 2024, she noticed outdoor cafes, storefronts, people out and about. It looked like an active, small city in a rural setting of farmlands, a river and gentle mountains.

“I think this is it,” she recalls saying.

The Warrens, a retirement-age couple from Jacksonville, Florida, were visiting this area at the suggestion of friends. Eager to escape Florida’s warming climate and its right-wing politics, they were looking for a new place to live.

By year’s end, Mary Warren, a retired psychiatric nurse practitioner, and John Warren, an adult educator, had sold their home in Jacksonville, traveled north, and unpacked their belongings in a townhouse they’d rented off Barrett Street in Northampton.

In their late 70s, they started over in a community where they had no relatives or adult children, no childhood connections or school ties. What they had was a conviction that they’d made the right choice.

In leaving Florida, the Warrens left a state that’s long enjoyed a reputation as a haven for retirees drawn to its sunny beaches and affordable lifestyle.

In choosing Massachusetts, they headed to a state long saddled with a derisive nickname — Taxachusetts — and known for its cold winters and high cost of living.

‘We needed to be in a place where all folks are welcome.’

Their story is a new twist on the old narrative of seniors trading shovels for sunshine and heading south.

It’s one piece of a retirement picture that’s “no longer just about snowbirds and waterfront communities,” according to a February 2026 report by HireAHelper, a moving-services platform that issues an annual analysis of migration patterns.

“Today’s retirees are more mobile, more selective, and more strategic about where and how they live than ever before,” the report said.

Retirees who have moved to Hampshire County bear that out. Finances and family are, as always, major factors that impact retirees’ choices. But other priorities are also in the mix. For the Warrens, climate change and politics were top of mind. Others were seeking closer community connections, an outdoor lifestyle, walkable neighborhoods, cultural offerings, a change from city life, a place to start over after loss.

Though retirees move for their own reasons, they share a common thread, succinctly expressed by Mary Warren. She and her husband just wanted to find the place that would feel right, as she put it, for the rest of their lives.

When they settled in Jacksonville a decade ago, the Warrens, already concerned about global warming, bought a home set back from the coast, carefully avoiding flood-prone areas.

But with every passing year, their concerns only deepened. Though they’d never taken a direct, catastrophic hit, they knew climate scientists believed that Florida’s tropical storms and hurricanes would become more frequent and severe.

In their daily lives a warming world “was not an abstraction,” Mary  said. During their years there, it felt hotter, earlier in the year, she said, with temperatures sometimes hitting 90 in early May. Once the summer humidity kicked in, daily routines often revolved around avoiding the outdoors. Her running group, she recalled, changed its start time to 6 a.m.

Meanwhile, the state government under Gov. Ron DeSantis, elected in 2018, was pushing Florida further right. Instead of confronting climate change, the administration, in the Warrens’ view,  steadily moved in the opposite direction, irresponsibly downgrading climate considerations in energy policy.

They were equally unnerved by the administration’s “war on woke” rhetoric and lack of support for the LGBTQ+ community. In 2023, at the start of his second term, DeSantis made his intentions clear: “We will never surrender to the woke mob.” As part of an extended family that includes Black and biracial members and same-sex couples, the Warrens wanted and needed, in Mary’s words, “to be in a place where all folks are welcome.”

They felt economic pressures too. In 2024, the Warrens saw the premium for their insurance and real estate tax jump $600 in a one- month billing cycle, a spike reflecting in part the cost of climate risks.

The Warrens were taken aback by the amount — and left wondering if the hike merely signaled more increases to come.

That bill, Mary said, was “the shock that propelled us into action.”

As they thought about options, they ruled out Trinidad, where their daughter and her family live. Though they love visiting, they didn’t feel living there full-time would be the right fit as they aged.

Their research included reading “On the Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America,” a book by Abrahm Lustgarten about the impact of a changing climate on where and how Americans live. Published in 2024, the book confirmed their belief that moving north and staying inland away from rising oceans made sense.

Mary, who grew up in Malden, liked the idea of returning to her Massachusetts roots. For his part, John had joined an online advocacy group, Elders for Climate Justice, several of whose members live in Hampshire County. When he shared his thoughts about wanting to leave Florida, a member suggested that the Warrens visit western Massachusetts. It was that invite that led them to Northampton.

Versions of the Warrens’ experience will likely become more common, according to Catherine Collinson, president and CEO of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, based in California.

Nationally, about 38% of Americans relocate at some point during retirement, Collinson said during a telephone interview. Though they typically move to downsize or to be near adult children, she said she expects that percentage to rise, in part owing to economic uncertainties “bubbling up” for homeowners in environmentally vulnerable areas. Older homeowners, she said, may seek safer places to live rather than risk dealing with a hurricane or fire at an advanced age.

The Warrens, it turns out, weren’t the only people having second thoughts about Florida.

Last February in its “2025-2026 Retirement Study: Where and Why Retirees Moved This Year,” HireAHelper reported findings showing  that close to 45,700 retirees moved to Florida in 2025 — and that 44,900 packed up and left.

The report said the departures appear to reflect “rising housing costs, tax burdens, infrastructure strain, and changing climate risks. … While Florida continues to attract large numbers of Americans age 65 and up, just as many are choosing to leave.”

“Florida is still a popular destination for retiree moves,” according to Miranda Marquit, a spokesperson for HireAHelper. “But it is less popular than it used to be — and after living there a few years, retirees appear to be inclined to move elsewhere if the lifestyle doesn’t suit.”

As they sat outside one afternoon at Familiars Coffee & Tea on Strong Avenue, the Warrens said they didn’t plan to move elsewhere, ever.

“Moving here was a great idea a year ago,” John Warren said, “and it continues to be a great idea now.”

On balance their living expenses are in the same ballpark as they were in Jacksonville, Mary Warren said — and their quality of life is better. “We’re in the right place.”

They get together for shared suppers with friends. They’ve explored Northampton and neighboring towns. Family members have come to visit.

Mary found fellow fitness enthusiasts to run with and is a volunteer at Northampton Neighbors, a nonprofit that offers activities, support  and services for older adults. John, in tandem with Steve Simmer of Northampton, co-facilitates a class on building resilient communities to deal with climate challenges. He also joined the Unitarian Society’s Climate Justice Group and the Pioneer Valley Citizens Climate Lobby.

When our interview turned to questions about regrets, the Warrens came up empty.

Winter? Layers help.

Missing old friends? Zoom works.

Unfriendly New Englanders? None that they’ve met.

Suzanne Wilson is a retired Gazette reporter who lives in Florence.