Every other move was decided for you. This one is not — and the state you pick changes what your retirement pay is actually worth for the rest of your life. Pick up to three states and see how each one treats military retirement.
Choose two or three. These are the fifteen that matter most to military retirees — the big installation states plus the places people actually land.
Select at least two states to compare.
You have the tax comparison. What it does not tell you is whether the house works, whether the VA facility you need is a reasonable drive, or what the property tax and insurance actually run in the county you are looking at. That part I put together for you personally.
Both Tennessee and Kentucky reimburse or exempt property tax for veterans with qualifying permanent and total ratings — Tennessee on the first $175,000 of market value through your County Trustee, Kentucky through a homestead exemption at your County PVA. Most states you are comparing have some version of this, and all of them are applications with deadlines rather than something applied automatically.
At a service-connected rating of 10% or higher the VA funding fee is waived entirely. On a $350,000 purchase with nothing down at subsequent-use rates that is roughly $11,550 you simply do not pay. Retirees miss this constantly.
If you are going to use VA healthcare, this is a weekly reality for decades. Routine care may be close while the specialist you actually need is two hours away. Check the specific facility that handles your care, not the nearest VA sign.
Every house until now was a three-year house. Stairs, doorway widths, step-free entry, and land you will still want to maintain in twenty years matter far more than they did at your last duty station.
Read this part. This tool shows how much of your military retirement each state exempts — that figure comes straight from published state rules and is the part I can stand behind. It deliberately does not calculate a dollar tax bill for states outside Tennessee and Kentucky. Rates move every legislative session, reputable sources currently disagree on some of them, and a confident wrong number would be worse than none. State income tax is also only one line: property tax, insurance, sales tax, and cost of living routinely outweigh it. I am a Realtor licensed in Tennessee and Kentucky, not a CPA or tax advisor. Confirm anything that matters with a tax professional before you decide where to live on it.
I will help you think the comparison through honestly, including the case against here — and if you land somewhere else, I will connect you with an agent and a VA-savvy lender I trust in that market and stay in the loop through closing.
