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Why Retirees are Choosing Rockford By Chris Linden, executive editor
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t was fate that brought Helen and Ernie Redfern to Rockford, but it was Rockford’s amenities that caused them to stay. Ready to flee Chicago suburbia for a quieter retirement, the couple had a simple set of criteria: a community that was in walking distance of major amenities, had ample health care facilities, had proximity to grandkids, and offered many activities when family and friends visited. The couple’s search led them to communities up and down the Mississippi River, from places like Fort Madison and Keokuk in Iowa, to Quincy and Monmouth in Illinois. No matter where they searched, they just couldn’t find “the one.” Maybe it was the lack of cultural diversity. Maybe it was the lack of visitor attractions or the long response times when you call 911 – things you think about in retirement. In one case, it was
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Smart Living Weekly
the realtor saying her ho-hum community was three years away from a turnaround. “It got to a point where we were lowering our expectations,” says Helen. “We would go back to our spreadsheet and say, ‘This had three going-out-of-business signs, and this one only had two. Maybe we should look there.” Helen and Ernie felt defeated as they headed back from visiting their 20th community in the summer of 2018. Traveling the long, empty road home, Helen was scrolling through a real estate app on her phone when the car hit a bump and her finger slipped. Suddenly, the search area expanded. Rockford? That hadn’t even been on their radar. But sure, why not? They took a detour and never looked back. It’s a story that’s becoming more frequent as Rockford becomes a top community.
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“We came down East State Street and saw the planters and saw people walking about,” says Helen. “I was joking that we landed on the set of a Hallmark movie.” Ernie had never been to Rockford, and after living in Chicago for nearly 35 years, had no real expectation for the city. Right away, he was struck by the activity downtown, the liveliness at the Prairie Street Brewhouse, and the variety of activities in between. “The thing I liked best was, as we started looking at our criteria, we wanted someplace we could walk to fairly safely, we wanted good health care – and, my gosh, Rockford was just unbelievable,” he says. Helen realized the town looked very different than it did upon her last visit in early 2010. “Something’s happening here,” she kept telling her husband.
