Last week’s mail included the August issue of Money magazine. This issue contained one of my favorite features…Money’s Best Places to Live rankings. According to the article, their goal this year was to find small, but not too small cities (between 50,000 and 300,000 in population) that “combine the vibrancy of the city with the comforts of the suburbs.”
As a born and raised suburbs girl who enjoys visiting big cities, I couldn’t wait to see what they had come up with. Here is their top ten:
1. Fort Collins, Colorado
2. Naperville, Illinois
3. Sugar Land, Texas
4. Columbia/Ellicott City, Maryland
5. Cary, N.C.
6. Overland Park, Kansas
7. Scottsdale, Arizona
8. Boise, Idaho
9. Fairfield,Connecticut
10. Eden Prairie, Minnesota
So what’s this list doing on a money blog? Well, part of what the editors were looking for in these cities was good jobs and reasonable home prices. And in a poll reported in the same article they asked participants, “If you were moving, what would be the most important characteristic your new town should have?” The number one answer was job opportunities. It’s clear that economic factors have a lot to do, maybe the most to do, with what makes a place livable.
If you’re considering a move, here are some economic factors you might want to consider in evaluating your potential new hometown:
Housing Prices – When you think of the affordability of a location, you no doubt think of housing prices. So how can you evaluate home prices in a new location? Kiplinger’s Personal Finance offers a database of housing prices for 100 metropolitan areas across the U.S. The data can be sorted by city, state, median price, and affordability index. The most recent data is from June, 2005 and you can pull up that year or combined numbers from the last three or five years.
Tax Rates – When it comes to taxes, no two locations are created equal. Did you know that there are seven states in the U.S. that have no state income tax? You can find out which states those are, what the rates are in other states, and information about state and local sales taxes at the Federation of Tax Administrators web site.
Job Growth – Want to go where the jobs are? The Milken Institute ranks the 200 largest metropolitan areas by job growth or wages and salary growth.
And if you’re looking for the least expensive cities in the U.S., you’d better head south. According to the Cost of Living Index of the American Chamber of Commerces Research Association, the 5 least expensive cities to live in are:
1. McAlester, OK
2. Laredo, TX
3. McAllen, TX
4. Clarksville, TN
5. Hot Springs, AR