AARP’s Great Places to Live: Richfield, Minnesota

This friendly and affordable community is an ‘urban hometown’

Pamela Schmid,

AARP

Published November 19, 2025

AARP’s Great Places to Live is a list of 10 communities that have many of the qualities older people value: good health care, social opportunities, a nice climate, ease in getting around, a thriving job market and rank highly on AARP's Livability Index (learn more about the Livability Index here, including how your community ranks). One city that made the list: Richfield, Minnesota. To see more Great Places to Live, click here.

Population: 36,809
AARP Livability Index score: 64
Average monthly housing costs: $1,450
Perfect-weather days*: 114 per year

Bigger isn’t always better. That’s apparent in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield, Minnesota, which has turned its compact footprint into its calling card.

At only 6.7 square miles, Richfield is a fraction of the size of many neighboring communities in the Twin Cities metroplex. The established, inner-ring suburb has managed to avoid sprawl while preserving its small-town feel. “We’re our own little community between all the big ones,” says longtime resident Eileein Mueller, 76. “We don’t have any place to grow out, but I love it that way.”

Ringed by highways and hemmed in by Minneapolis to the north and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to the east, Richfield has made the most of its centralized location. The famously gigantic Mall of America is just a short highway hop away. Professional sports, theaters and other urban amenities are within a half-hour’s drive and also reachable by a rapid transit bus line that links Richfield to downtown Minneapolis along Interstate 35W.

“We call ourselves the urban hometown,” says Richfield Mayor Mary Supple, a retired schoolteacher. “You have the advantage of city life because everything’s close, but there’s also neighborliness, where people care about each other and help each other.”

Affordability

The average rent in Richfield as of October was $1,231 for a studio, $1,189 for a one-bedroom, $1,610 for two bedrooms and $2,149 for three bedrooms, according to Apartments.com. The median home-sale price was $352,100, according to Zillow.

Health care

Along with housing several clinics and specialty care providers, Richfield benefits from its proximity to nationally renowned medical centers, including Abbott Northwestern Hospital and M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center in Minneapolis.

Culture

Within walking distance are Richfield Lake and Wood Lake Nature Center, a 150-acre cattail marsh, woodland and restored prairie. A sanctuary for migrating birds and waterfowl, it features 3 miles of wheelchair-accessible trails.

Wood Lake is considered the crown jewel of Richfield’s parks system, but the city has 22 parks in all. “Everyone in Richfield is within a 10-minute walk to a park,” says Ann Jindra, a recreation supervisor who oversees the city’s senior adult, adaptive recreation and fitness programs.

Richfield has added miles of trails, striped bike lanes and protected bikeways, earning a silver ranking in 2022 as a bicycle-friendly community by the League of American Bicyclists.

Last year, Richfield voters overwhelmingly approved a half-percent local sales tax hike to help finance $80 million worth of upgrades to Wood Lake Nature Center, the Richfield Community Center and Veterans Park. The investment plan speaks to the residents’ willingness to “plan for the people who are coming after them,” Supple says.

Jindra notes that the city prides itself on offering affordable programming. The community center offers free and low-cost activities, including mah-jongg, Scrabble, educational presentations and movies.

The Saturday morning farmers market at Veterans Park Complex is another point of pride. Open from May through October, it draws young families and older residents from neighboring Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs. “It’s a real gathering spot,” says Mueller, who volunteers there.

Adults 55 and older are eligible to receive weekly tokens worth $2 to spend on fresh fruits and vegetables at the farmers market through the Power of Produce program. “You can save those tokens up,” Jindra says. “It’s a nice initiative to get people to keep coming back.”

Getting around

More than a decade ago, the city launched Sweet Streets, a project aimed at prioritizing pedestrians’ needs over those of drivers. Newly installed center medians improved safety at street crossings. Trees planted along major roadways shielded sidewalks from traffic. Poems by local writers were stamped into sidewalks, and lighting at crosswalks made pedestrians easier to spot. A 2020 study found that the program enhanced community life and driving times citywide.

In collaboration with Hennepin County, Richfield has also undertaken an ambitious rebuild of its main thoroughfare, 66th Street. Among other things, it replaced two stoplight intersections with roundabouts, adding a protected bikeway and green space. Those intersections have become a magnet for retail, health care and housing that includes high-rise and mid-rise condos, apartment buildings and cooperatives. Health clinics, restaurants, banks, a food co-op, a post office and hair salons are all a short walk away.

Climate

Richfield summers tend to be warm but rainy, while the winters are snowy and cold. In January, the average daily high is 24 degrees. But summers are mild. Rarely do temperatures climb above 92 degrees.

Job market

Richfield’s job market is stable, with an unemployment rate of 3.7 percent as of August 2025. Its largest employer is Best Buy Company, which consolidated its headquarters there in 2003; other top industries include health care, technology and retail. Thanks to the city’s central location, residents have easy access to employers throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area, too.

Going-out Guide

Sunny-day spot: Wood Lake Nature Center. Known as the “marsh in the middle of the city,” this spot features more than 2 miles of crushed limestone walking trails that wind around a cattail marsh, restored prairie and mixed lowland forest. Along with a wide array of birds, you might see muskrats, coyotes, deer, raccoons and turtles. In the winter, trails are groomed for cross-country skiing, if conditions allow.

Weekday evening hangout: Sandy’s Tavern. Sure, it’s a dive bar, but this place, established in 1933, is also a storied Richfield institution with 1980s vibes. Sandy’s menu features burgers, including its signature Olive Burger, and an impressive selection of canned and tap beers. Nightly offerings include trivia and a meat raffle on Mondays and bingo on Wednesdays.

Where to take visitors first: Veterans Memorial Park. It encompasses cattail-studded Legion Lake and hosts a popular Saturday morning farmers market from May through October. It also has an outdoor pool, an ice arena, an 18-hole mini-golf course and a large memorial that pays tribute to veterans.

AARP initiatives

From making communities more livable to supporting retirement paid-leave benefits, learn more about AARP initiatives, volunteer opportunities and news from the AARP Minnesota office.

*High temperature between 60 and 85 degrees, with less than 1 millimeter of rain. Source: Yahoo News analysis of federal data

Pamela Schmid spent more than a decade as a staff writer for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and has been a regular contributor to AARP Bulletin and AARP The Magazine.

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