Bloomington, IN

Bloomington’s city median household income is $48,918 and the county’s is $63,372, while the city’s 2024 population estimate is 79,986 and the county’s is 140,702 (Census QuickFacts city^[1], Census QuickFacts county^[2]). Indiana’s state sales tax is 7% and its state income tax is a flat 3.05% for 2025, while Monroe County’s property tax rate is set locally and should be checked with the county assessor rather than inferred from city data. For retiree budgeting, Bloomington’s overall cost profile is usually friendlier than major coastal metros, but the city’s poverty rate of 30.5% and the county’s 17.7% suggest meaningful income dispersion and neighborhood-by-neighborhood variation (Census QuickFacts city^[1], Census QuickFacts county^[2]).

IU Health Bloomington Hospital is the main full-service local hospital, with 185 licensed beds and a Bloomington address at 2651 E Discovery Pkwy (Indiana licensure report^[3], IU Health location page^[4]). Monroe Hospital is the other major local hospital option in Bloomington, and it has emergency services plus a 32-bed facility footprint (Monroe Hospital^[5]). IU Health also provides senior-health and Medicare counseling resources locally, and Medicare’s Care Compare tool is the federal directory retirees should use to compare providers and specialist availability by plan and location (IU Health senior health^[6], Medicare Care Compare^[7]).

At the Bloomington, Indiana University NCEI station, the 1991 to 2020 climate normals show a January mean daily maximum of 37.0°F and mean daily minimum of 20.6°F, while July is much warmer with a mean daily maximum around the mid 80s°F and a mean daily minimum in the mid 60s°F (NCEI normals PDF^[8], NOAA normals overview^[9]). Monroe County’s recent planning documents place annual precipitation around 49.38 inches and note a typical warmest month in July, with coldest-month mean temperatures near 20.6°F in January (Monroe County mitigation plan^[10]). For retirees, the comfortable outdoor season is generally late April through October, with the most pleasant shoulder months usually spring and fall rather than midsummer humidity or winter cold.

The FBI Crime Data Explorer is the correct federal source for violent and property crime, but a Bloomington-specific agency submission for the post-2021 period is not confirmed here, so a score-site estimate is not substituted. In the city data available from Census QuickFacts, Bloomington has a sizeable university-town population and a poverty rate of 30.5%, which is one reason crime patterns should be checked by neighborhood rather than city averages alone (Census QuickFacts city^[1]). If you want a relocation decision, the next step is to verify the Bloomington Police Department’s latest FBI CDE entries and compare them with Monroe County trends before deciding on a specific neighborhood.

Bloomington’s median list price is $380K and median days on market are 60, with list prices down 2.9% year over year in the latest city-level market snapshot (Realtor.com^[11]). Another current Bloomington measure shows a median list price of $354,617 and median days to pending of 71, with the year-over-year value trend up 1.2% (Zillow^[12]). A local Indiana Realtors report for the Bloomington association shows median days from listing to pending at 40 in August 2026 and a median sale price of $293,500, while also noting 263 new listings and 5.3 months of inventory in September 2026, which points to a market with some resale liquidity but not rapid turnover (Indiana Realtors^[13]). Bloomington also has active older-adult housing options, including Meadowood Senior Living, which describes itself as independent living for active adults in Bloomington, and Longview Mobile Home Park, which is an age-restricted 55+ community in Bloomington (Where You Live Matters^[14]; MHVillage^[15]).

Bloomington is about an hour south of Indianapolis within Monroe County, which makes Indianapolis International Airport the practical commercial airport for most long-haul trips (City planning document^[16]). For a retiree, that usually means easy access to Midwest and East Coast connections through Indianapolis rather than a local airport with broad nonstop service. Specific nonstop destinations from Bloomington’s nearest airport are not given here.

The source material here confirms Bloomington has an active outdoor and recreation culture, including city air-quality and climate planning that references outdoor livability and the broader Indiana Uplands setting (Bloomington air-quality report^[17], Monroe County climate plan^[10]). A defensible within-30-minute public-course count or greens-fee range for Bloomington is not given here. For an active retiree, Bloomington’s appeal is the combination of golf-adjacent living, hiking and lake access in south-central Indiana, and a generally four-season outdoor calendar.

Bloomington’s 2024 population estimate is 79,986, and Monroe County’s is 140,702; the city’s 65-and-older share is 10.8%, while the county’s is 15.3% (Census QuickFacts city^[1], Census QuickFacts county^[2]). The city’s median household income is $48,918, and the county’s is $63,372, which reflects a mix of university influence and established residential areas (Census QuickFacts city^[1], Census QuickFacts county^[2]). Bloomington’s downtown and campus-driven amenity base, plus high broadband subscription rates in the county, make it a fit for retirees who want restaurants, lectures, and easy access to arts and university life more than a quiet exurban setting (Census QuickFacts county^[2]).

FEMA’s National Risk Index is county-based, so the relevant geography is Monroe County rather than Bloomington city; the county is inland and not hurricane-exposed in any meaningful direct sense, while flood and severe-storm risk are the main weather hazards to monitor. Monroe County’s planning documents emphasize increasing heavy rainfall events and flood potential, and the county’s air-quality materials note that Bloomington has local PM2.5 monitoring and that annual PM2.5 averaged just over 30 AQI in 2022, with poor particulate days becoming a concern in recent years (Monroe County mitigation plan^[10], Bloomington air quality report^[17]). A FEMA NRI page or EPA annual good-air-days table for Monroe County is not given here.