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[ColonialHawk]

#19 not bad.
#1 for food though, for sure.

 

[LegendofJoe]

I hear that from my friends in CO all the time. Turns out they just don't know what high rents are for an in demand city. New studio apartments in DC start at around $2,500 for a little under 500 square feet.

If you can live in a city without a roommate and spend less than 50% of your gross on rent/mortgage you're still living the dream compared to high COL areas.

The presence of the military increases rent prices higher than they otherwise would be. Hampton Roads in Virginia has the same problem. But you're right, rent prices are still great compared to a lot of places like DC, San Fran, NY, etc.

 

[Eidan]

Man, I have to say I'm surprised New York didn't make it into the top 20, and that it barely made the top 100.

 

[entremet]

Man, I have to say I'm surprised New York didn't make it into the top 20, and that it barely made the top 100.

It's really expensive and not really family friendly.

The list is basically best places to raise a family the list.

I live in NYC and I love it, but I can see the concern if you buy to buy a home.

It's a great place if you're rich.

 

[gaiages]

Buffalo is #57? Did they like... Get better in the ten years since I moved away from there?

Tallahassee not on this list is right though

 

[muteki]

#4, cant complain.

 

[jmdajr]

woot 17

 

[br0ken_shad0w]

Shame some of my desirable places has some shitty state governments.

 

[therealist]

Fayetteville? Dafuq is that place doing at 3?

 

[karmaforgotme]

I'm from Winston-Salem, and have lived for a while in Charlotte and Boone. It's a great state.

My family is from Western North Carolina (Avery County), but we ended up moving to the other side of the mountain because my parents' job (Johnson City, TN). To be honest I love the state of North Carolina. Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Boone, Greenville, and Asheville are all areas I would live. I saw someone mentioned the LBGT issue. Honestly Asheville is pretty much the most liberal city in the south.

That said this list is not for me. I much prefer to live in cities that are in that range of under 500k to as low as 50k (I am currently in Knoxville, which I find the perfect size at 200k). I like how small they can feel while still having the culture and entertainment I need from the community. That said if I did move away from here (I doubt I ever will) it would be to the Pacific Northwest. I would love to spend my weekends just roaming the mountains in that area.

 

[Havok1313]

Nothing on the mid-east coast should even qualify; the weather sucks ass here.

 

[RockmanBN]

I'm surprised to see Omaha there. Kinda of weird seeing Nebraska.

 

[MechDX]

I always laugh when I see Austin so high on these lists.

Crappy roads, ridiculous traffic, no real public transit set up, drought ridden, taxes rising, etc...

Houston isnt much better but people just almost flat out ignore Austins deficiencies because its "cool"

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Cool, thanks for this.

 

[facetheslayer92]

Harrisburg? Have they even seen the closed Arcelor Mittal plants. Source: I've been there dozens of times

 

[tebunker]

Home town is #28 but seeing DC so high is bullshit unless they are counting all the area around DC in Md and Va. Even then. Barf

 

[Zee-Row]

Where is Tampa on the full list? My browser doesn't open up the full list.

 

[Skinny Pete]

Denver - Legal weed. Makes sense.

 

[richardhawk]

San Diego being that high is bullshit. Place is racist as fuck if you go to the outer edges of it.

 

[Forerunner]

Where is Tampa on the full list? My browser doesn't open up the full list.

42

 

[hom3land]

Good on Raleigh and Charlotte but I find it kind of strange that Raleigh is so high up. Maybe I've just been to the bad parts (in Durham especially) but it never really came across to me as being that great, despite a place so typically upper crust as Duke University being right there.

Durham rocks. It's amazing to see the growth. The beer scene is kicking, ponysaurus, fullsteam, and bull city beer put out some amazing beer. There's durty Durham brewery that just opened up that specializes in sours, there's bull city cider works, and even a hard liquor distillery. Hell even the Durham bulls stadium make their own beer. In the past 6 years downtown Durham went from a place I wouldn't want to be after work to a thriving little city.

Might be biased as I just bought a house in Durham last year.

 

[NihonTiger90]

Of the top 25, 7 are on my list of places I'm looking at moving to.

Colorado Springs being #5 makes me happy, but also makes me thinking going to be a nightmare to find a job in my field in.

 

[AstroNut325]

What's the non-American food situation in the top 20? I need wide variety of Asian, european, and South American food!

 

[Dr_Boris_Goltz]

San Diego being that high is bullshit. Place is racist as fuck if you go to the outer edges of it.

Honestly that's all of California. Any place that isn't a big city is full of right-wing bigots.

(I've lived in the 909 for 30 years.)

 

[LegendofJoe]

Fayetteville? Dafuq is that place doing at 3?

The cost of living, job market, natural scenery, and public schools are all top notch. That said I think the cities of Bentonville, Rogers, and Springdale (by far the worst) are included with Fayetteville since it's the largest of the 4. Bentonville in particular has some of the best schools in the entire country.

 

[BolognaOni]

Some of their cost of living data seems flat out wrong. Median home price in San Francisco, $646k? It's nearly twice that for the city proper, and you have to include areas waaay outside of SF to get the median down that low.

 

[Charles Alan Ratliff]

Moving to number 4 in March. Yay!

 

[Dali]

15℅ of the score is dependent on people actually wanting to live there. That right there makes places like Fayetteville jump several levels because who the fuck says "maaaaaan, I really wanna live in Fayetteville."

 

[FallingEdge]

Insane here in North Dallas at the moment. I envy the people in my neighborhood who are bailing out and getting PAID. Not as easy to do that when you have a couple kids in school. I've been in my house for two years and could easily sell for 20% more than what I paid.

no better in austin. Girlfriend just bought an 800 sqft condo for almsot $200k.

yesh, sounds about the same here in Denver.

I myself am trying to move to places about 20 mins away from downtown or so. Catch the lightrail and be good. 300-400k for a house.

Seattle breh

Seattle is definitely one of the places I want to visit/move to. Maybe one day.

 

[CosmicQueso]

Los Angeles #83... just slightly better than Detroit #86 and Cleveland #87.

Not one lie detected. Place is a shithole.

 

[Mengy]

Durham rocks. It's amazing to see the growth. The beer scene is kicking, ponysaurus, fullsteam, and bull city beer put out some amazing beer. There's durty Durham brewery that just opened up that specializes in sours, there's bull city cider works, and even a hard liquor distillery. .

There's a beer brewed an hour or so west of Raleigh called Red Oak that I absolutely LOVE. I wish you could get it over in the Smoky Mountains area but its only really available in the Greensboro and Raleigh areas. Awesome beer.

 

[Mollymauk]

The DC renaissance is pretty amazing. When I was a kid that place was the murder capital of the world.

 

[Violence Jack]

I love living in Denver. Thank you job for transferring me out here. But the fucking rent and housing prices are getting out of hand.

Seattle is my ultimate destination. Those home prices need to start coming down though.

 

[Forerunner]

15℅ of the score is dependent on people actually wanting to live there. That right there makes places like Fayetteville jump several levels because who the fuck says "maaaaaan, I really wanna live in Fayetteville."

Fayetteville actually scored fairly low when it came to desirability, the other categories made up for it though.

 

[JaseMath]

Denver at number 1? Cost of living is fucking ridiculous lately.

 

[Dali]

Fayetteville actually scored fairly low when it came to desirability, the other categories made up for it though.

That's the point I was making. 15℅ is 'pie in the sky, I've dreamed about living there my whole life.' I assume no one ever says that about anywhere in Arkansas, so they made it to third place off the other categories alone. If not for the 15℅ given to people just saying they want to live somewhere, I assume Fayetteville would have been #1 easily.

 

[Choomp]

It's cool. We'll just continue living in the best city in the world, and let the flyover states fight over these nonsensical lists.

I like this post. Lol, will keep the same mindset

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Durham rocks. It's amazing to see the growth. The beer scene is kicking, ponysaurus, fullsteam, and bull city beer put out some amazing beer. There's durty Durham brewery that just opened up that specializes in sours, there's bull city cider works, and even a hard liquor distillery. Hell even the Durham bulls stadium make their own beer. In the past 6 years downtown Durham went from a place I wouldn't want to be after work to a thriving little city.

Might be biased as I just bought a house in Durham last year.

I don't doubt it, and considering the last time I was there was about 8 years ago that makes sense. I was visiting a friend who was attending Duke and I remember seeing the local PD in the middle of busting a Meth lab as I drove by. Maybe it just affected my perception lol.

 

[phanphare]

4) Raleigh-Durham, NC
15) Charlotte, NC
19) Charleston, SC

nothing could be finer

 

[M52B28]

A lot of these places are some of the whitest places in the U.S.

 

[Bert409]

LMAO at Harrisburg as PA's top city. Philly is making strides more and more every year as John Street's reign of terror becomes a distant memory.

 

[haxan7]

Born in #25 (Harrisburg, PA) - moved out when I was 11. I liked it there a lot, but still surprises me when I see it on these lists. I know it was on Forbes' list of 10 best places to raise a family a couple years ago.

Anyone else familiar with Harrisburg? I don't really know what it's like as an adult.

 

[Plinko]

Grand Rapids, MI at #13 is a HUGE LOL.

No. NO.

 

[Krakatoa]

Nice, Just moved to Sarasota FL,

 

[Ahasverus]

That's nice and all but almost all those states politically :/

 

[TheLastCandle]

Born in #25 (Harrisburg, PA) - moved out when I was 11. I liked it there a lot, but still surprises me when I see it on these lists. I know it was on Forbes' list of 10 best places to raise a family a couple years ago.

Anyone else familiar with Harrisburg? I don't really know what it's like as an adult.

There are areas in the actual city that are bad. Allison Hill and Uptown in particular are pretty crime-tastic. Aside from that, it's totally fine. Central PA has a lot of stuff to do. Lots of breweries, nice restaurants, etc.

Edit: By Central PA I mean Harrisburg/Carlisle/Lancaster/Hershey. Not the hillbilly areas that surround it.

 

[thoseAREmySHOES]

Minneapolis (#12) checking in! Seems like a pretty good ranking considering the competition.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

1) Denver, CO

Unfortunately, road construction isn't keeping up with the influx of people moving into the Denver area, so traffic tends to be awful.

People should go somewhere else.

 

[PaulExcellent]

#27 cannot possibly be a bigger lie.
Get bent.

 

[Jazzkokehead]

DC ranked at #8? Must've been written by someone who's never actually lived there.