A town renamed its festival 'AI Love Irondale Day' this week, so what does all the AI hype have to do with the plan to leave Denver for a cheaper market in retirement?

A small city in Alabama this week renamed its local festival 'AI Love Irondale Day,' leaning hard into the idea that artificial intelligence is the answer to pretty much everything right now. The enthusiasm is real. So is the pile of bad decisions being made by people running numbers through AI tools and treating the output like a finished plan. Geographic downsizing is a perfect example. The idea is straightforward enough: sell the Denver home, take the equity, and move somewhere the cost of living gives you more breathing room in retirement. Run it through a calculator and the math can look convincing fast. But the math is almost never the whole story. Here's what a tool can't weigh for you: Colorado's tax treatment of retirement income is genuinely favorable compared to a lot of the states people move to for lower home prices. Property taxes in Denver aren't low, but they're not the full picture either when you factor in what you'd be giving up. And the timing of when you sell relative to your income situation in that year matters more than most families realize before they're already in the middle of it. The practical reality is that moving to a lower-cost market can absolutely improve their financial position in retirement. It can also leave real money on the table if the decision gets made before the full picture is clear. A steady, well-sequenced plan that looks at equity, tax exposure, and timing together is worth a lot more than a fast answer from any tool, AI-powered or otherwise. What's the one number in your retirement housing math that you haven't actually verified yet?