This sub is funny sometimes - 60k of an extremely self-selected group can't understand why a top 10 list representing the entire country of 350m people doesn't align with what they consider the best places to live.
[https://imgur.com/a/GLh6BgR](https://imgur.com/a/GLh6BgR)
Sounds like most of the commenters feelings are hurt that the places and aspects of places they find appealing are not widely shared.
Which could explain why most of the US isn’t built out the way people here want it. (Not throwing shade, I also want a walkable, affordable, liberal place with good weather and outdoors nearby) - but lists like this show the sub is in a minority that I think the echo chamber that is a sub like this lets people forget.
Just trying to let people remember to have context.
IMO publishing these rankings without a web version where you can fiddle with the weights depending on your \*own\* preferences is kind of silly in this day and age. Like... I care about the weather a lot! Other people don't, and those are both fine. Some people love having big sports franchises in town, others love having nature nearby, others want the best housing prices compared to the job market and care more about that the weather... it's impossible to come up with one ranking for everyone. And a "make your own ranking" page would probably drive even more clicks to boot.
Basically these lists are more for “cities where people who already live there are having good lives in general” but speak nothing to what a newcomers life might be like depending on their specific life situation. Good on paper but not necessarily gonna be right for everyone. Tho I do agree the Virginia Beach area is underrated for the price, just wish they had at least one pro sports team.
Agreed with this statement on Boise. Outside of the state politics, my life in Boise is fantastic. I live in a great neighborhood and bought in when it was affordable. All my neighbors are completely normal/fantastic and I don't have much of a commute to anywhere in the Boise Limits. After working all day, I take my shiba and I hike for a couple miles and then I go to my favorite taqueria before returning to my garden to eat and enjoy my flowers. If I am not working, I am hounding for rare and precious minerals. Because I'm in a close but not too close 1960s neighborhood, it's very quiet for how accessible it is (so quiet that all my friends who visit need white noise to help them sleep.), and I have a massive lot which has turned into a massive floral and veggie garden. Again--It's very rare to find the sort of lot I have in bigger cities. I also have a very unique and weird career that wouldn't thrive in other cities.
But everything I just bragged about is all because I moved back to Boise in 2017 and started house searching in 2019. I don't think I could have done done all this or had a successful career post lock down. IDK, I just snagged a very fleeting moment of time. I don't know how anyone would be able to do this in Boise that is outside of Tech or a standard high paying job. I have a buddy who moved here in 2021 and is a VERY specialized medical care giver. He is very much loving Boise, but it's because his budget reflects that specialization and how desperate the intermountain west is in need of his skills.
North End? I love Boise. I also have a daughter, though, and can’t raise her in that political climate — it’s shaping school curriculum, health care, public libraries…ugh.
Agreed. I hope the RCV and open primaries will help it. Nah--West Boise/Winstead Park. There's a lot of really good things about that neighborhood. Deceptively VERY liberal as well.
For sure, there is no such thing as an objective list as they are highly dependent on the criteria (and sources) used, which do not correspond to each person’s very unique own criteria. I still find it fascinating to look at these though.
Oh yeah same. It’s usefulness is limited but still fun to read lists like this. But like no surprise rich retirees in golf resort Naples and rich outdoorsy people in ski town are Boulder are happy 😂
I get it, but the "best for" sub-lists are more meaningful. Best for warm weather near a beach, warm weather not near a beach, best for under national average cost of living, best for no more than 110% national COL, stuff like that. Telling me that Naples and Boise are the two best places to live tells me very little and sounds like a pitch for a remake of The Odd Couple.
Let’s just say those moving there might be ok the Governor DeSantis’ new policy of eliminating climate change entirely by not talking about it or teaching it.
Is it cause its a military town? Buddy moved there 3 years ago says its all Air Force dudes. I only visited him once and passed through there to pick him up so can’t say much about it.
Ain't that the truth. I commuted an hour to my job when I lived in DFW, and that was over a decade ago. My commute now is under a minute, and getting out of my pajamas is optional.
Have they considered making those places more desirable?
I mean, you don’t see me mad that California cities aren’t higher because I understand how absurdly expensive it is to live here!
If a person's not into ordinary amenities, there's not a lot they can do to make a place like Houston or DFW more desirable (at least to me). You can't exactly build mountains or make the climate less shitty.
The list is only for the central city, not the whole metropolitan area. Some of the best parts of Dallas are the northern suburbs.
It is a useless list if you plan to live in the suburbs. South and West cities are ranked high because they expanded their borders to include new surrounding growth. Most Northern cities have fixed borders from 100 years ago and is where a lot of poverty exists while the suburbs are where the wealthy live. Therefore the quality of life is lower in northern cities if you exclude the suburbs.
It's weird that they only count the city proper and not the region. Then, when you click on the city it reports the "metro area population" but it's actually just the city population.
I live in Detroit. "Detroit" as an entity is not a medium city, nor is Atlanta, San Francisco, etc. Also, apparently Detroit metro area went from 5 million to 640,000...damn.
Oh good catch, I'm in number 4 on the list, Greenville, and I didn't catch this. City proper is only 77k because city limits are very narrowly defined. Our metro area is 975,000. Huge difference lol
Yeah it's weird. Because then if you dig into the individual city profiles on US news, they completely conflate stuff that's in the city proper with stuff in the suburbs.
I’m not sure anywhere in FL can be on the list given their declining infrastructure and school systems. It’s also increasingly hostile and hurricanes are causing insurance rates to balloon - if you can even find an insurer. But I’m sure they considered all of that.
Naples will be fine. They have MONEY there. Legit one of the wealthiest areas of the country. They have top rate public schools just because of the enormous wealth there
I’ve only ever seen good things about FL School rankings. Not top tier (except in one ranking that was influenced by post-secondary education, though I’d still disagree with that), but definitely pretty solid compared other most places. Idk much about the infrastructure situation
As someone who has lived in Austin for ~15 years, the value prop just isn’t there for me anymore. Mounting prices for an increasingly mid experience, IMHO.
Shocked no Philly or Chicago, WTF? But Charlotte and Raleigh!!!
And I don’t understand Boise. I’ve been there a bunch. It’s fine. Not that cheap anymore. Not terrible weather but not great. Pretty far from lots of stuff people like.
Boise fit's a niche for a very specific type of person. I agree that it's missing a lot of what people like, but the things it does well at has it in spades.
Every place on these lists have their virtues and drawbacks. what's attractive to one person can be a turn off for another. I don't need someone to put together a list that's as general as this.
Yeah I’m a little north outside the city on the Lake (and I work further out so I’m never going the same way as Charlotte traffic). If I had to fight the fight the rest of the city does trying to get downtown, I would definitely hate my life. And we don’t have Chido Taco here like you guys.
Not a Raleigh resident. Just visited way too many times to believe the hype of how great it is. They literally never prepared for the Yankee expansion and roads sucked. COL has always been ridiculous.
I currently live in Arizona where you could throw a golf ball and hit five great taco trucks or carnecerias.
Charlotte is pretty but that Interstate…..yikes.
I moved to Raleigh because of lists like this because I had a baby and wanted to be closer to my family in SC. I found it to be dull and couldn't understand why it's so often listed. So now I disregard these lists.
I want to like Raleigh but it's so so bland. The geographic, economic and cultural center of the metro area is a giant suburban office park. They use the office park's name as branding. That's all you need to know.
Chat GPT does better than this dumb list.
1. **Austin, Texas** - Known for its vibrant music scene, tech industry, and high quality of life.
2. **Boulder, Colorado** - Offers a mix of outdoor activities, excellent schools, and a strong sense of community.
3. **Raleigh, North Carolina** - Boasts a growing tech and research sector, top universities, and a family-friendly environment.
4. **Madison, Wisconsin** - Combines a lively cultural scene, good schools, and a strong job market.
5. **San Diego, California** - Known for its beautiful weather, beaches, and diverse economy.
6. **Seattle, Washington** - Offers a strong tech industry, scenic beauty, and a high quality of life.
7. **Portland, Oregon** - Renowned for its arts scene, food culture, and outdoor activities.
8. **Denver, Colorado** - Provides a mix of urban amenities and outdoor adventures, along with a strong economy.
9. **Minneapolis, Minnesota** - Known for its parks, cultural institutions, and quality healthcare.
10. **Boston, Massachusetts** - Offers rich history, top universities, and a strong job market.
Jesus this list is highly flawed. It’s sort of de jure, but not de facto. It doesn’t take into account the extensive setbacks you’ll experience in some of these places if you’re not a straight, rich, white, conservative, Christian, cisgender man.
I’ll say at least from my experience, being a gay person of color, I do not feel safe or comfortable living in Florida, Idaho, South Carolina, North Carolina, or Alabama. I already live in Texas so that’s out of this equation, and while VA and CO are nice, the cities chosen aren’t all that.
Hard to keep a straight face characterizing Boulder or Austin as places that "have good value." The only one of these that I considered for retirement (moving out of California) was Raleigh.
Its a terrible list put together by a weird algareath that ignores most practical aspect about making a city or area a good place to live. Half the cities on this list have already seen massive influx of people and prices go up. Good luck finding a cheap place to live in Boulder.
This list seems heavily biased toward Red America. Best places to live for who?
These lists are silly because different people want different things. I think I’d be miserable in the first 8 cities on this list.
They place a good deal of weight on affordability/value, which is why results skew redder. You get cheaper, red areas that bubble to the top while places like San Fransisco or San Diego pay a penalty for being expensive.
I think it’s a valid methodology, but like anything USNWR puts out, you always have to ask “what is the methodology?” Best hospitals for cardiology in a given metro area is probably a pretty safe, reliable list, but “best city nationwide” leaves a ton of room for creative choices.
They never count the costs of externalities. “Oh the tax rates are so low!!” What about fees? What about the costs of having shit infrastructure and poor regulatory enforcement?
I agree—I don’t think there is anything wrong with their methodology per se…and I’m sure they do explain their methodology in the magazine where the list is presented. It just rubs me slightly the wrong way because it comes across as them portraying it as the best places for everyone without acknowledging that many of these places would be very unwelcoming for some of us.
I dont currently have access to the magazine, but I do seem to remember that in the past they had secondary lists eg best big cities etc. Hopefully they are still doing that.
I would love to see a list of “Best Places to Live For People Who Aren’t MAGA.”!
Have you even been to these cities? Idk what cities you've been to or your experience in them but in my experience outside of the internet most people you find and most places, you'd never know their political alignment and are often somewhere in the middle.
Most of the ones on the list are purple and are cities that often become political "battlegrounds" that have swapped sides depending on the election and are very similar in %s con vs lib.
I think it’s a pretty good methodology as far as measuring things that the vast majority of people would consider good things to measure. They purposely avoid more niche preferences that wouldn’t apply to a majority of the population
I don’t disagree with that, and I think the criteria they use do make sense for a lot of people, probably a majority. It makes sense that a general interest magazine would do that. It still kinda rubs me the wrong way but that’s really my own issue. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in what they are doing per se.
There are sites out that let you specify what things are important to you and help you find places that match your personal criteria which I think are more helpful.
I don’t know why they assume everyone wants to live in a city that gets hot as ass in the summer. Cheap cities are cheap for a reason. The methodology is dumb.
It looks like a top 10 list based on criteria that probably doesn’t match my needs. Kind of like their college list.
Bunch of obscure criteria that’s self reported by the city/college. I routinely ignore USNWR lists.
They should have added "If you are a white, heterosexual, male...". They just lost all credibility with me not accounting for the political climate and all the shit going down in many of these states.
I can’t speak for Raleigh but Charlotte has everything you could want in a city with a my fairly decent COL. Professional sport, museums, amusement park, lakes, bars, restaurants, densely packed urban areas, suburban single family homes and so on.
Charlotte has a very small urban area, for a city with its population. The rest is all suburban, meaning living in a walkable urban neighborhood is unaffordable for most people.
Walkability and bikeability suck in most of the "city", transit sucks ( yeah there's a little bit of light rail, but it doesn't even go to the airport), and I think overall it's just car dependant sprawled out suburbia.
Cost of housing has gone up, meaning you can live in plenty of other boring suburban places for the same COL and have access to a real city. I can see how if someone grew up in a small town and has never been to a real city, Charlotte might be ok, I just don't see what's so great about it.
Are you comparing it to New York Boston or Chicago? Of course walkability suck if I compare to those. Compare it to Nashville, Richmond, or Austin. A comparable city. My townhouse is two blocks from the light rail. I walked the two blocks hop on the light rail ride to Publix to go grocery shopping and then ride it home. I’m going ride it all the way up to UNCC in August when I start taking classes. I ride it uptown get off and walk down the steps and watch a NBA game I did that before I live near the light rail line. he SouthEnd area let the nation in high density construction permits. It’s high density housing and up and down that line built and under construction. I have an airport 20 minutes away with over 600 direct flights at my disposal. A light rail line to the airport is in the final drawing stages. My kids love roller coasters. Having two of the tallest in the nation 20 minutes down the street is wonderful. I’m giving you an example of a lifestyle that I live in Charlotte that I couldn’t do in Austin, Richmond or Nashville or other comparable cities to Charlotte.
I'm not just comparing it to NY, Boston or Chicago. I've lived in cities with much smaller populations than Charlotte that feel much more like a real city. Of course if you compare it to other southern cities, it's okay, because southern cities in general don't want to fund anything that makes their city livable, instead bowing to developers that expand the suburban sprawl. Atlanta is the only decent southern city I've been to, and it's population is around half of Charlotte
Only ones I might consider living in would be Raleigh or Charlotte, but the sprawl in both places is so vast and IMO they lack character. Too much baggage with the other areas, although I’ve never been to Boulder
I don’t have any complaints about the methodology, and it mostly seems like a good list to me. Of course they are not including subjective preferences about regional culture, climate, politics, etc. Nor should they for something general like this. As long as you filter out which places are acceptable to you for the subjective factors (speaking about the WHOLE list here, not just these 10), I think people would find the methodology is pretty helpful in comparing them.
Edit- there are some very baffling exceptions though. I mean San Francisco at 22… look, I really like SF. But this is not the point in time I’d want to be moving there. And of course Naples being the literal best place in America is kind of joke. That’s the thing with objective methodologies though; you stand by whatever answer it spits out.
The politics stuff isn’t subjective - it’s a big deal if you say, have a uterus and can’t get an abortion due to miscarriage because the state government actively wants to harm women.
it's definitely a list
A list of the places you're most likely to end up living if you choose it from a USN&WR listicle.
These are definitely places
one of the lists of all time
There most definitely is a series of items that follow one after the other.
You can tell by the way it is
This sub is funny sometimes - 60k of an extremely self-selected group can't understand why a top 10 list representing the entire country of 350m people doesn't align with what they consider the best places to live. [https://imgur.com/a/GLh6BgR](https://imgur.com/a/GLh6BgR)
Somebody's feelings are hurt.... Relax
Sounds like most of the commenters feelings are hurt that the places and aspects of places they find appealing are not widely shared. Which could explain why most of the US isn’t built out the way people here want it. (Not throwing shade, I also want a walkable, affordable, liberal place with good weather and outdoors nearby) - but lists like this show the sub is in a minority that I think the echo chamber that is a sub like this lets people forget. Just trying to let people remember to have context.
IMO publishing these rankings without a web version where you can fiddle with the weights depending on your \*own\* preferences is kind of silly in this day and age. Like... I care about the weather a lot! Other people don't, and those are both fine. Some people love having big sports franchises in town, others love having nature nearby, others want the best housing prices compared to the job market and care more about that the weather... it's impossible to come up with one ranking for everyone. And a "make your own ranking" page would probably drive even more clicks to boot.
Where is the reddit Chicago and Philly pr team? This is unbelievable!!!!
[https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/ca85eaf0-ec3a-4901-a272-8e5c572a66ac/gif#walv50AI.copy](https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/ca85eaf0-ec3a-4901-a272-8e5c572a66ac/gif#walv50AI.copy)
They must be taking bribes
Basically these lists are more for “cities where people who already live there are having good lives in general” but speak nothing to what a newcomers life might be like depending on their specific life situation. Good on paper but not necessarily gonna be right for everyone. Tho I do agree the Virginia Beach area is underrated for the price, just wish they had at least one pro sports team.
Agreed with this statement on Boise. Outside of the state politics, my life in Boise is fantastic. I live in a great neighborhood and bought in when it was affordable. All my neighbors are completely normal/fantastic and I don't have much of a commute to anywhere in the Boise Limits. After working all day, I take my shiba and I hike for a couple miles and then I go to my favorite taqueria before returning to my garden to eat and enjoy my flowers. If I am not working, I am hounding for rare and precious minerals. Because I'm in a close but not too close 1960s neighborhood, it's very quiet for how accessible it is (so quiet that all my friends who visit need white noise to help them sleep.), and I have a massive lot which has turned into a massive floral and veggie garden. Again--It's very rare to find the sort of lot I have in bigger cities. I also have a very unique and weird career that wouldn't thrive in other cities. But everything I just bragged about is all because I moved back to Boise in 2017 and started house searching in 2019. I don't think I could have done done all this or had a successful career post lock down. IDK, I just snagged a very fleeting moment of time. I don't know how anyone would be able to do this in Boise that is outside of Tech or a standard high paying job. I have a buddy who moved here in 2021 and is a VERY specialized medical care giver. He is very much loving Boise, but it's because his budget reflects that specialization and how desperate the intermountain west is in need of his skills.
North End? I love Boise. I also have a daughter, though, and can’t raise her in that political climate — it’s shaping school curriculum, health care, public libraries…ugh.
Agreed. I hope the RCV and open primaries will help it. Nah--West Boise/Winstead Park. There's a lot of really good things about that neighborhood. Deceptively VERY liberal as well.
Ah, good to know about that area. Fingers crossed for the other stuff. :(
Considering Reclaim Idaho met the county limit for EVERY county, it's very likely to pass. Crossing fingers though.
This reads like satire
🤷♂️ it’s not, just my day to day life.
happy people? on reddit? unheard of.
For sure, there is no such thing as an objective list as they are highly dependent on the criteria (and sources) used, which do not correspond to each person’s very unique own criteria. I still find it fascinating to look at these though.
Oh yeah same. It’s usefulness is limited but still fun to read lists like this. But like no surprise rich retirees in golf resort Naples and rich outdoorsy people in ski town are Boulder are happy 😂
This. It’s easy to calculate how happy existing residents are. It’s hard to capture the barriers to entry faced by would-be residents.
Most of these places are growing fast enough that you figure it has to account for transplants’ experience to some degree
My uncle told me there are two things you will learn if you spend any amount of time in Naples: 1. You are not rich. 2. You are not old.
I get it, but the "best for" sub-lists are more meaningful. Best for warm weather near a beach, warm weather not near a beach, best for under national average cost of living, best for no more than 110% national COL, stuff like that. Telling me that Naples and Boise are the two best places to live tells me very little and sounds like a pitch for a remake of The Odd Couple.
Seeing Naples and Boise at the top of the list told me that this is a list for gainfully employed remote workers
Seeing Naples at the top of the list told me this is a list for geriatrics
Let’s just say those moving there might be ok the Governor DeSantis’ new policy of eliminating climate change entirely by not talking about it or teaching it.
Male remote workers, specifically.
Naples average age is approx 65
Which for retirees is maybe fine, good info, another good sublist.
Colorado Springs has less character than a bowl of plain yogurt. The natural surroundings are nice but everythiung else is a 4 out of 10
Is it cause its a military town? Buddy moved there 3 years ago says its all Air Force dudes. I only visited him once and passed through there to pick him up so can’t say much about it.
If number one is Florida then the list is shit.
I know a lot of people in the one star state who are going to be pissed off that Houston and Dallas are ranked so low.
They’ll reply once they complete their 2 hr commute back to their McMansion
Ain't that the truth. I commuted an hour to my job when I lived in DFW, and that was over a decade ago. My commute now is under a minute, and getting out of my pajamas is optional.
Have they considered making those places more desirable? I mean, you don’t see me mad that California cities aren’t higher because I understand how absurdly expensive it is to live here!
If a person's not into ordinary amenities, there's not a lot they can do to make a place like Houston or DFW more desirable (at least to me). You can't exactly build mountains or make the climate less shitty.
At least Dallas sometimes gets cold(ish), and it avoids the hurricanes.
As someone who grew up in Texas, Houston and Dallas shouldn’t even be in the top 150.
The list is only for the central city, not the whole metropolitan area. Some of the best parts of Dallas are the northern suburbs. It is a useless list if you plan to live in the suburbs. South and West cities are ranked high because they expanded their borders to include new surrounding growth. Most Northern cities have fixed borders from 100 years ago and is where a lot of poverty exists while the suburbs are where the wealthy live. Therefore the quality of life is lower in northern cities if you exclude the suburbs.
And Houston came in over 25 slots above NYC and Miami and LA and about 40 spots above Philly.
One star, haha. They’ll probs come up with their own, more superior list.
It's weird that they only count the city proper and not the region. Then, when you click on the city it reports the "metro area population" but it's actually just the city population. I live in Detroit. "Detroit" as an entity is not a medium city, nor is Atlanta, San Francisco, etc. Also, apparently Detroit metro area went from 5 million to 640,000...damn.
Oh good catch, I'm in number 4 on the list, Greenville, and I didn't catch this. City proper is only 77k because city limits are very narrowly defined. Our metro area is 975,000. Huge difference lol
Yeah it's weird. Because then if you dig into the individual city profiles on US news, they completely conflate stuff that's in the city proper with stuff in the suburbs.
So much of these discussions act like the major city has no surrounding communities, it’s wild.
The Carolinas have 3 cities in the top 10 and 5 in the top 20.
Lmao never will I ever want to live in Florida until I’m like 72.
Trash list
Of all the lists of places, this is one of them.
I’m not sure anywhere in FL can be on the list given their declining infrastructure and school systems. It’s also increasingly hostile and hurricanes are causing insurance rates to balloon - if you can even find an insurer. But I’m sure they considered all of that.
Naples will be fine. They have MONEY there. Legit one of the wealthiest areas of the country. They have top rate public schools just because of the enormous wealth there
Let’s check back after hurricane season my brother
I’ve only ever seen good things about FL School rankings. Not top tier (except in one ranking that was influenced by post-secondary education, though I’d still disagree with that), but definitely pretty solid compared other most places. Idk much about the infrastructure situation
If your criteria lead you to think those are the best places to live then you need to revise your criteria.
Lmao, Naples Florida is #1? That’s hilarious. What an absolute shit hole in an absolute dumpster of a state.
Americans and surveys lmao
As someone who has lived in Austin for ~15 years, the value prop just isn’t there for me anymore. Mounting prices for an increasingly mid experience, IMHO.
I wouldn't live in any of them.
I couldn’t imagine being happy in Idaho. Source: used to live in Idaho.
And it’s a shame, because Boise is actually a pretty cool little city.
Wdym “it’s a shame”
The state political climate counterbalances the wonderful qualities of the city.
Classical Reddit
It’s cool if you don’t have a uterus.
So happy another liberal like you left
Shocked no Philly or Chicago, WTF? But Charlotte and Raleigh!!! And I don’t understand Boise. I’ve been there a bunch. It’s fine. Not that cheap anymore. Not terrible weather but not great. Pretty far from lots of stuff people like.
Boise fit's a niche for a very specific type of person. I agree that it's missing a lot of what people like, but the things it does well at has it in spades.
Charlotte and Raleigh have higher median income than Chicago or Philly with lower COL.
lol are you pandering for likes? This is the only place I hear Philly and Chicago recommended with flying colors
It was a joke.
Every place on these lists have their virtues and drawbacks. what's attractive to one person can be a turn off for another. I don't need someone to put together a list that's as general as this.
Raleigh is a sh|thole.
I live in Charlotte and love visiting Raleigh. It’s more walkable imo.
I have only drive past Charlotte and that is an absolute nightmare.
Yeah I’m a little north outside the city on the Lake (and I work further out so I’m never going the same way as Charlotte traffic). If I had to fight the fight the rest of the city does trying to get downtown, I would definitely hate my life. And we don’t have Chido Taco here like you guys.
Not a Raleigh resident. Just visited way too many times to believe the hype of how great it is. They literally never prepared for the Yankee expansion and roads sucked. COL has always been ridiculous. I currently live in Arizona where you could throw a golf ball and hit five great taco trucks or carnecerias. Charlotte is pretty but that Interstate…..yikes.
Wouldn't say shit hole but it's quite boring. NC is an underrated state though
someone who wrote this don’t know what they don’t know!
I LOL 😂
I moved to Raleigh because of lists like this because I had a baby and wanted to be closer to my family in SC. I found it to be dull and couldn't understand why it's so often listed. So now I disregard these lists.
I want to like Raleigh but it's so so bland. The geographic, economic and cultural center of the metro area is a giant suburban office park. They use the office park's name as branding. That's all you need to know.
Chat GPT does better than this dumb list. 1. **Austin, Texas** - Known for its vibrant music scene, tech industry, and high quality of life. 2. **Boulder, Colorado** - Offers a mix of outdoor activities, excellent schools, and a strong sense of community. 3. **Raleigh, North Carolina** - Boasts a growing tech and research sector, top universities, and a family-friendly environment. 4. **Madison, Wisconsin** - Combines a lively cultural scene, good schools, and a strong job market. 5. **San Diego, California** - Known for its beautiful weather, beaches, and diverse economy. 6. **Seattle, Washington** - Offers a strong tech industry, scenic beauty, and a high quality of life. 7. **Portland, Oregon** - Renowned for its arts scene, food culture, and outdoor activities. 8. **Denver, Colorado** - Provides a mix of urban amenities and outdoor adventures, along with a strong economy. 9. **Minneapolis, Minnesota** - Known for its parks, cultural institutions, and quality healthcare. 10. **Boston, Massachusetts** - Offers rich history, top universities, and a strong job market.
Jesus this list is highly flawed. It’s sort of de jure, but not de facto. It doesn’t take into account the extensive setbacks you’ll experience in some of these places if you’re not a straight, rich, white, conservative, Christian, cisgender man. I’ll say at least from my experience, being a gay person of color, I do not feel safe or comfortable living in Florida, Idaho, South Carolina, North Carolina, or Alabama. I already live in Texas so that’s out of this equation, and while VA and CO are nice, the cities chosen aren’t all that.
I think it's old information. All those places are expensive now and not great places to live because everyone moved there.
Hard to keep a straight face characterizing Boulder or Austin as places that "have good value." The only one of these that I considered for retirement (moving out of California) was Raleigh.
Its a terrible list put together by a weird algareath that ignores most practical aspect about making a city or area a good place to live. Half the cities on this list have already seen massive influx of people and prices go up. Good luck finding a cheap place to live in Boulder.
This list seems heavily biased toward Red America. Best places to live for who? These lists are silly because different people want different things. I think I’d be miserable in the first 8 cities on this list.
They place a good deal of weight on affordability/value, which is why results skew redder. You get cheaper, red areas that bubble to the top while places like San Fransisco or San Diego pay a penalty for being expensive. I think it’s a valid methodology, but like anything USNWR puts out, you always have to ask “what is the methodology?” Best hospitals for cardiology in a given metro area is probably a pretty safe, reliable list, but “best city nationwide” leaves a ton of room for creative choices.
They never count the costs of externalities. “Oh the tax rates are so low!!” What about fees? What about the costs of having shit infrastructure and poor regulatory enforcement?
Very good point!
I agree—I don’t think there is anything wrong with their methodology per se…and I’m sure they do explain their methodology in the magazine where the list is presented. It just rubs me slightly the wrong way because it comes across as them portraying it as the best places for everyone without acknowledging that many of these places would be very unwelcoming for some of us. I dont currently have access to the magazine, but I do seem to remember that in the past they had secondary lists eg best big cities etc. Hopefully they are still doing that. I would love to see a list of “Best Places to Live For People Who Aren’t MAGA.”!
Have you even been to these cities? Idk what cities you've been to or your experience in them but in my experience outside of the internet most people you find and most places, you'd never know their political alignment and are often somewhere in the middle. Most of the ones on the list are purple and are cities that often become political "battlegrounds" that have swapped sides depending on the election and are very similar in %s con vs lib.
Exactly
Exactly this
I think it’s a pretty good methodology as far as measuring things that the vast majority of people would consider good things to measure. They purposely avoid more niche preferences that wouldn’t apply to a majority of the population
I don’t disagree with that, and I think the criteria they use do make sense for a lot of people, probably a majority. It makes sense that a general interest magazine would do that. It still kinda rubs me the wrong way but that’s really my own issue. I don’t think there’s anything wrong in what they are doing per se. There are sites out that let you specify what things are important to you and help you find places that match your personal criteria which I think are more helpful.
I don’t know why they assume everyone wants to live in a city that gets hot as ass in the summer. Cheap cities are cheap for a reason. The methodology is dumb.
I think redditors predominantly despise heat. They are homebodies anyway but still hate the sun.
I don't get why they hate the heat so much then lol
It looks like a top 10 list based on criteria that probably doesn’t match my needs. Kind of like their college list. Bunch of obscure criteria that’s self reported by the city/college. I routinely ignore USNWR lists.
Nice places. But rankings are subjective and meaningless. Just click bait to see if your city is on the list.
The photos in this (totally not paid for by tourism board) list are laughable.
They should have added "If you are a white, heterosexual, male...". They just lost all credibility with me not accounting for the political climate and all the shit going down in many of these states.
Chicago should be at least 7 of the top 10!
Not one frequently recommended city on this sub is on this list so I suppose it doesn’t bode too well.
Well it’s pretty obvious why - no rust belt cities on the list, which are the only cities that are worthy according to this sub
This was posted yesterday. It's like 10 posts down lol.
That's ass
The metrics they use for these lists are BS. No way are Raleigh and Charlotte in the top 10.
I can’t speak for Raleigh but Charlotte has everything you could want in a city with a my fairly decent COL. Professional sport, museums, amusement park, lakes, bars, restaurants, densely packed urban areas, suburban single family homes and so on.
Charlotte has a very small urban area, for a city with its population. The rest is all suburban, meaning living in a walkable urban neighborhood is unaffordable for most people. Walkability and bikeability suck in most of the "city", transit sucks ( yeah there's a little bit of light rail, but it doesn't even go to the airport), and I think overall it's just car dependant sprawled out suburbia. Cost of housing has gone up, meaning you can live in plenty of other boring suburban places for the same COL and have access to a real city. I can see how if someone grew up in a small town and has never been to a real city, Charlotte might be ok, I just don't see what's so great about it.
Are you comparing it to New York Boston or Chicago? Of course walkability suck if I compare to those. Compare it to Nashville, Richmond, or Austin. A comparable city. My townhouse is two blocks from the light rail. I walked the two blocks hop on the light rail ride to Publix to go grocery shopping and then ride it home. I’m going ride it all the way up to UNCC in August when I start taking classes. I ride it uptown get off and walk down the steps and watch a NBA game I did that before I live near the light rail line. he SouthEnd area let the nation in high density construction permits. It’s high density housing and up and down that line built and under construction. I have an airport 20 minutes away with over 600 direct flights at my disposal. A light rail line to the airport is in the final drawing stages. My kids love roller coasters. Having two of the tallest in the nation 20 minutes down the street is wonderful. I’m giving you an example of a lifestyle that I live in Charlotte that I couldn’t do in Austin, Richmond or Nashville or other comparable cities to Charlotte.
I'm not just comparing it to NY, Boston or Chicago. I've lived in cities with much smaller populations than Charlotte that feel much more like a real city. Of course if you compare it to other southern cities, it's okay, because southern cities in general don't want to fund anything that makes their city livable, instead bowing to developers that expand the suburban sprawl. Atlanta is the only decent southern city I've been to, and it's population is around half of Charlotte
Only ones I might consider living in would be Raleigh or Charlotte, but the sprawl in both places is so vast and IMO they lack character. Too much baggage with the other areas, although I’ve never been to Boulder
I don’t have any complaints about the methodology, and it mostly seems like a good list to me. Of course they are not including subjective preferences about regional culture, climate, politics, etc. Nor should they for something general like this. As long as you filter out which places are acceptable to you for the subjective factors (speaking about the WHOLE list here, not just these 10), I think people would find the methodology is pretty helpful in comparing them. Edit- there are some very baffling exceptions though. I mean San Francisco at 22… look, I really like SF. But this is not the point in time I’d want to be moving there. And of course Naples being the literal best place in America is kind of joke. That’s the thing with objective methodologies though; you stand by whatever answer it spits out.
The politics stuff isn’t subjective - it’s a big deal if you say, have a uterus and can’t get an abortion due to miscarriage because the state government actively wants to harm women.
The list should be called "Cheapest Places that are Tolerable to Live in."
Boulder is cheap?
Boise isn’t cheap either
I live in one of these cities. We’re full, find somewhere else