What?? Had to read twice!!

[Koolau]

Those "best places" articles are always a farce. They put out the list every year but every year the best places are totally different. How can they be the best one year and not even make the list the next year?

I've mentioned before that "Places Rated Almanac" is the only guide I've seen which rates everything more-or-less objectively in 6 or 8 categories and allows YOU to choose which ones are most important to you in coming up with the ideal location. So if COL and Low Crime are your "thing", you can do that. Or maybe low housing cost and j*b opportunity and good weather are your thing - that's in there as well. IIRC, there are around 300 city/geographical areas rated. Unfortunately, the last almanac I can find is from 2007 on Amazon. My personal copy is from 25 years ago IIRC. Of course, we made our decision and don't really need the book any more.

But I agree that most of those stories of "this year's best place to live" are simply click bait. YMMV

 

[SecondAttempt]

I see they rank St. Louis at #2. No reason to say any more.

I dated a girl from St. Louis in college. She said it is the ice storm capital of the world. So yes, I guess retirement heaven!