Find your best city

[Orchidflower]

WHICH CITY IS BEST FOR YOU? - Real Estate - Kiplinger.com

This is from Kiplinger's, and, since many on this board are looking for cities to relocate to, thought that someone could use this...or, at the very least, have fun with it.
I keep coming up with Des Moines, Omaha and Indianapolis as my ideal cities no matter how many times I jiggle the answers. Very interesting and some food for thought, since who thinks of these cities to retire to?

 

[Trek]

1. Huntsville, AL Metro Area

 

[W2R]

I came up with Joplin, MO, until I went back and changed it from population under 250K to a population of 250K-500K. Then, I got:

1. Springfield, MO

(which just happens to be my planned ER location!). I didn't think that Springfield was that large but I know it is just the right size of city for us. Either this is a great coincidence, or this is a really good location finder. Lots of fun, Orchidflower, thanks!

 

[Orchidflower]

The only thing missing in this test is weather and tax considerations. Iowa and Nebraska have really high tax bases, but low costs of living with lots to offer in the way of education, medical and culture.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

Best city

Great fun! Thank you Orchidflower. I tried several of the areas of the country and found "Northeast", where I reside, yielded places not far from where I live now(within a couple of hours). They gave me Johnstown, PA and State College, PA. You are correct that they do not take weather into consideration. Both of these are nice places if you take away winter weather and also need to make a living(which I did not enter as a consideration). I also own a house in FL, but it appears I should consider College Station, TX or Tyler, TX if I want to live in the South. And for the Pacific area I should be in Washinton State or OR, not the Monterey Peninsula where I spent many happy years. I guess I should have said cost of living didn't matter if I was dreaming of the latter.

 

[W2R]

The only thing missing in this test is weather and tax considerations. Iowa and Nebraska have really high tax bases, but low costs of living with lots to offer in the way of education, medical and culture.

I wonder if the cost of living includes taxes. Either way, if the cost of living is low enough, you'd have enough left over to pay the taxes. Plus, if the taxes are already really high, maybe they will level off for a few years.

Now weather can be an issue for me, since I want to move out of "hurricane country" so to speak. If I include all parts of the country, my #1 city is Mobile, Alabama - - and actually, I do love a lot of things about Mobile but it is just too close to the Gulf of Mexico for my comfort. I had thought of possibly retiring in Fairhope, Alabama (on the outskirts of Mobile) until Hurricane Katrina persuaded me that I wanted to live farther north.

 

[aaronc879]

I also came up with Joplin, MO. May be a little too cold in the winter to be an ideal retirement location, but not bad. 2nd-4th were all AL cities.

 

[W2R]

I checked at the US Census website and the estimated 2005-2007 population of Springfield is 153,727 . So the "Find your best city" website must be considering the city and all the surrounding areas, since Springfield only shows up when I search on cities from 250,000 - 500,000.

So, I would suggest that others might want to try one category larger population to see what they come up with there, as well.

 

[dixonge]

What if you don't want to live in a city?

 

[W2R]

What if you don't want to live in a city?

Guess you're out of luck! Maybe there are other websites for that.

 

[aaronc879]

According to city-data.com Joplin, Mo has a population of ~45,000. I wouldn't want to retire in a city any larger than that although having a larger city like Springfield near by would be nice so maybe Joplin is a city to add to my list of possibilities. I can't believe they call any city under 250,000 a small city. I consider anything over 100,000 to be large.

 

[ziggy29]

What if you don't want to live in a city?

Small towns a few minutes outside of the small cities they list?

I came up with Pueblo, CO followed by Johnstown, PA.

You can somewhat influence weather by choice of region. For example, if you can't stand shoveling snow, don't select the Northeast as an option. If you can't stand heat and humidity, don't pick the South, and so on. Not precise, but as a broad screen it's decent.

 

[W2R]

census.gov says that Joplin's 2005-2007 estimated population is 47,599, so that agrees pretty well with city-data. I haven't checked out Joplin - - too small for me, I suspect. I have gotten the idea from various reports of many who lived there, such as Oldbabe, that Joplin is the armpit of the universe.

 

[Orchidflower]

Thank goodness you all are getting different responses. I started to think the test was "fixed," but see it isn't now. Good.

 

[CuppaJoe]

That is really funny Orchid, I just punched in the qualities that apply to my city and it came in second behind Silicon Valley.

 

[Sarah in SC]

All of mine were in Texas--REW what happened to the anti-move here PR campaign?

My selections were: Tyler, Midland, Dothan, Amarillo (love the song by this name by Robert Earl Keen) and San Angelo.

They didn't ask in the questionnaire if I minded fire ants and rattlesnakes, I guess.

 

[ziggy29]

Sounds like Sarah likes it hot.

 

[dixonge]

Guess you're out of luck! Maybe there are other websites for that.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pining away for a house in the country either. More like 3-4 years of RV travel. So if I like a city and its weather I hang around awhile. But I have *so* had it with 100+ temps with 80%+ humidities in the summer. I like the idea of just driving to where-ever the weather is better. Summers in the north, winters in the south.

 

[FIREd]

I came up with:

1) Durham, NC
2) Huntsville, AL
3) Charlottesville, VA
4) Gainsville, FL
5) Lexington, KY

I used to live near 1) and now live near 2). I love both locations. I prefer Huntsville for its lower cost of living, lower taxes and lighter traffic but Raleigh/Durham had some advantages too, i.e. good airport, diversity, large universities, etc...

 

[REWahoo]

All of mine were in Texas--REW what happened to the anti-move here PR campaign?

I looked in the mirror and gave up my obviously failed attempt at idiot-proofing.

 

[Orchidflower]

Not to hijack my own post, but, dixonge, I swim with a guy who's wife is dying of cancer who did the RV thing all over the country for 6 years. He said it was the best 6 years of their happy marriage of 48 years. Do it!

 

[ziggy29]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not pining away for a house in the country either. More like 3-4 years of RV travel. So if I like a city and its weather I hang around awhile. But I have *so* had it with 100+ temps with 80%+ humidities in the summer. I like the idea of just driving to where-ever the weather is better. Summers in the north, winters in the south.

You often hear about people "wintering" in Florida. Out here the dream is to "summer" in the northern Rockies or along the Pacific Coast or something like that...

 

[DangerMouse]

Ok I did the test that it came up with San Jose, CA which is where we live now. To me, the biggest problem with this quiz is it doesn't ask the important questions about climate or geography, focuses too much on economics. When I changed my response to small towns only one of the suggestions was El Centro and who in their right mind would want to live there?

 

[ziggy29]

Ok I did the test that it came up with San Jose, CA which is where we live now.

I lived in and around San Jose for most of my life (until 2003). Take away 75% of the people and the $500,000 starter homes and it would be perfect.

 

[CuppaJoe]

I lived in and around San Jose for most of my life (until 2003). Take away 75% of the people and the $500,000 starter homes and it would be perfect.

Guess we'll have to get the word out about the proximity to Tule fog, the horrible traffic, sharks in the nearby water, uh oh, I'm running out of ideas.