In the event you’re searching for a spot to reside with comparatively reasonably priced properties and a top quality of life, the Southeast could also be the most effective place to look.
The 2024 U.S. Information & World Report checklist of the Finest Locations to Stay within the US, which was launched Tuesday, ranks 150 main cities primarily based on their high quality of life, training, crime charges, employment alternatives, and housing. Many are concentrated within the Southeast and Midwest.
Enterprise Insider mapped the highest 50 finest locations to reside, with the prime 15 coloured darkish blue. These cities have comparatively reasonably priced housing, ample job alternatives, and excessive life satisfaction.
States corresponding to Florida, Colorado, and North Carolina had been notably well-represented, whereas the Northeast and Southwest had been sparse.
Florida and Colorado have most of the finest locations to reside
Florida had six cities within the prime 50: Naples and Sarasota within the prime 15, adopted by Pensacola, Tampa, Fort Myers, and Melbourne.
Naples, Florida, took the highest spot this yr, beating out Boise, Idaho.
Southeastern Florida cities like Miami and Fort Lauderdale usually get many of the love from movers exterior the state — and even the nation. However this yr, it is the western a part of the peninsula that is well-represented on the checklist of finest locations to reside.
Cities like Tampa, which landed within the thirty fifth spot, have invested of their downtowns with good workplace buildings and extra energetic communities to draw and preserve youthful movers.
The nice and cozy climate and lack of earnings tax have at all times been promoting factors for the Sunshine State, and the variety of residents continues to extend.
Colorado had 4 cities within the prime 50: Colorado Springs and Boulder within the prime 15, adopted by Fort Collins and Denver.
The Southeast is the area with probably the most top-ranked locations to reside
The Southeast dominated the checklist, with 5 in North Carolina, three in Tennessee, two in South Carolina, two in Kentucky, and one every in Georgia and Alabama.
In the meantime, the Northeast solely had three cities complete within the prime 50, all ranked within the 30s: Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Portland. There have been only a handful within the Nice Plains area, corresponding to Davenport, Iowa, and Nebraska’s two largest cities, Omaha and Lincoln.
Hundreds of People are speeding into Texas from states like California and Florida, although solely two cities, Austin and McAllen, are within the prime 50. Austin is a newcomer this yr to the highest 15, pushed by its rising tech scene.
Austin’s tech scene has divided some movers who anticipated a tradition just like the Bay Space with a less expensive price ticket. Although some residents are leaping ship as a consequence of rising costs, Austin nonetheless gives job alternatives that different cities do not.
In contrast to Austin, McAllen, Texas, possible made the highest 50 primarily based on its affordability.
Based on the Council for Neighborhood and Financial Analysis, the typical house worth in McAllen was $265,667 in 2023,
California, lots of whose cities have undergone a big exodus over the previous couple of years, has solely two cities within the prime 50: San Francisco and San Diego. Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and Utah all have one every.
Some say the Golden State has been dropping a few of its shimmer. Between 2021 and 2022, California had a web outflow of almost 350,000 residents, the census discovered. Many have been transferring to Arizona, Florida, Texas, and Washington, citing components corresponding to excessive house costs, the local weather disaster, and politics.
Have you ever not too long ago moved to one in every of these cities or moved to a different state for a greater high quality of life? Attain out to those reporters at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com and jpandy@businessinsider.com.
