Moving states is the single biggest lever most retirees never pull.
Not because it's complicated. Because "cheapest state" is one of those phrases that sounds like a fact and is actually four different arguments in a trench coat.
A state can have $150,000 houses and a 9.5% sales tax. Another can have no income tax and property taxes that eat your Social Security raise every year. A third can be gloriously cheap and 90 minutes from the nearest cardiologist.
So we pulled the real numbers, MERIC's Q2 2026 cost-of-living index, BEA's federal price-level data, 2026 Tax Foundation tax data, and CMS Medicare spending, and built the version that doesn't pretend there's one winner.
Short answer: Oklahoma is cheapest. Longer answer: that might not be your answer. 👇