Trying to figure out where to settle down? If you’re looking for a strong job market, affordable housing and top-notch quality of life, Colorado and Texas might be worth considering.
That's according to U.S. News & World Report's latest "Best Places to Live" analysis, for which analysts compared the 125 most populated metros based on five key indexes, including job market, value, quality of life, desirability and net migration.
Researchers with U.S. News also asked about 2,000 users across the country to determine what actually matters to them. Is it the strength of a job market? Affordable housing? How many people are moving to or away from the metro?
To balance out all the metrics, researchers then created a standard deviation (or Z-score) for each metro based on the survey answers and data collected from the Census Bureau, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Labor and other reputable sources.
According to the ranking, if you're looking for high desirability and net migration, Austin, Texas, is the place to be. It's Austin's third consecutive year at No. 1. The city, which earned a 7.6 Z-score, also ranked fourth in U.S. News' "Best Places to Retire" analysis.
Colorado cities Denver and Colorado Springs rounded out the top three, followed by Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Des Moines, Iowa.
Explore more at realestate.usnews.com.
Top 10 “Best Places to Live” according to the report:
- Austin
- Denver
- Colorado Springs
- Fayetteville
- Des Moines
- Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
- San Francisco
- Portland, Oregon
- Seattle
- Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina