What's the Best City for You?

Filed in archive Happiness on May 15, 2007

The personal finance magazine Kiplinger's has one of those interesting lists out in its June issue, this one being a list of the best places to live depending on your stage of life. The list was created in conjunction with Richard Florida, who wrote the much-celebrated The Rise of the Creative Class, and it's broken down both by size of city and by five classificatons---young singles, mid-level professionals, married with kids, empty nesters and retirees. I would think there could be significant overlap between mid-level professionals and married with kids as well as between empty nesters and retirees, but that's up to Kiplinger's I guess.

Here are their choices:

For Young Singles: Washington D.C., Denver, Austin, Raleigh & Lexington, Kentucky

For Mid-Level Professionals: Kansas City, Boise, Portland Maine, Huntsville Alabama & Fayetteville North Carolina

For Married with Kids: Atlanta, Minneapolis-St.Paul, Des Moines, Provo Utah & Green Bay Wisconsin

For Empty-Nesters: San Francisco, Seattle, Madison Wisconsin, Charleston West Virginia & Boulder Colorado

For Retirees: Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, Port St. Lucie Florida & Roanoke Virginia

Kiplinger's also has a tool to help you decide which city is right for you based on these Creative Class criteria. Answer the 14 questons and it spits back your best cities. My cities were Trenton, New Jersey and Portland, Maine. I found that interesting but not accurate, as this tool does not factor in weather, and I have no plans on exchanging one cold climate for another.

Check it out and see if you are living in the best place for you.