Haymarket, Va. ? Frank Falsetti doesn’t want to retire to Florida like his parents did, so the former New York stock broker is trading his Long Island home for a gated community in northern Virginia, 35 minutes from his kids.

He’s not alone. Census Bureau figures show Florida is slipping as the destination of choice for retirees, while states such as Georgia, Virginia, Arizona and Nevada are growing more popular.

“We do not like Florida. It’s just too hot,” said Falsetti, 62. “I prefer mountains.”

Florida still is the top destination for people 60 and older. It attracted 19 percent, or about 394,000, of the nearly 2.1 million U.S. residents in that age group who made interstate moves between 1995 and 2000, according to an analysis of 2000 census data by Wake Forest University sociology professor Charles Longino.

But it was the first time in at least four decades that Florida attracted less than one-fifth, Longino found. The 2000 figure was down 13 percent from a decade earlier.

Arizona, which attracted 6.5 percent, or about 134,000 people 60 and older, was second to Florida in 2000, followed by California, Texas and North Carolina.

The number of older residents moving into California from other states declined slightly, by about 3 percent over the decade.

Arizona’s figure was 36 percent larger than a decade ago, while Nevada grew by 42 percent. Texas, Virginia and Georgia also had increases of at least 28 percent.

There are myriad reasons for the changes. Among them: cheaper housing, lower property taxes, more open spaces and closer proximity to family, said Mark Fagan, a sociologist at Jacksonville (Ala.) State University, an expert on retiree migration.

The number of retirees who move is expected to climb as millions of baby boomers leave the work force in the next 10 years.

Today’s retirees generally are more prosperous than previous generations, making older Americans an attractive source of economic development for states.

A report earlier this year by the Destination Florida Commission said that while older residents cost the state more in health care, their taxes help pay for schools.

The report also noted that older residents paid $2.8 billion more in taxes to state and local governments than the governments spent on them in services.