Interested In Retiring To Malta

Hi,

I am American and am interested in retiring to Malta in the next 9 years and want to first explore if this is even viable. Since I haven't visited yet, I'm not sure where I would live, so maybe just stick with Valletta for now. My questions:

- What is a good, median cost of living - What can I expect to spend there, per month, roughly? I would look to maybe rent a townhouse. I realize that that is a loaded question that depends on many variables. But I'm just trying to get a ballpark idea to see if this is even viable.

- Do I need a car?

- Where do most ex-pats live? Is there a tight knit community of ex-pats where people get together and become friends? What is mostly the demographic of ex-pats?

- What is the healthcare situation for ex-pats?

- Americans only: What is the tax situation? I realize that, without renouncing your citizenship, the Federal govt. will continue to tax you. I have heard that they don't tax the first 100K and that they only tax the difference between what they tax and what the local country taxes. But that sounds too good to be true. And what does the Maltese government tax Americans to live there?

Thanks in advance!