Retirement Relocation Second Home Get Started
The Overall Winners
Top Places - Climate
Top Places - Recreation
Top Places - Careers
Top Places - Other Notables
Ten small retirement spots, nearly all outside the Sun Belt, that experience crime rates less than half the national average.
Berkeley Springs, WV Brown County, IN Charles Town-Shepherdstown, WV Fairplay, CO Leelanau Peninsula, MI Monadnock Region, NH Northern Neck, VA Oxford, MS San Juan Islands, WA Whidbey Island, WA
The nearest primary passenger airport for Silver City, New Mexico, is El Paso, Texas, a three-hour drive east. Here are ten retirement spots at least two hours from an airport where you can board planes to multiple destinations.
Alpine-Big Bend, TX Bisbee, AZ Cedar Creek Lake, TX Ketchum-Sun Valley, ID McCall, ID Norfork Lake, AR Rabun County, GA Ruidoso, NM Sandpoint-Lake Pend Oreille, ID Silver City, NM
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Ten locations ranked low in costs of living and high in prospects for job growth over the next five years.
Bay St. Louis-Pass Christian, MS Charleston, SC Conway, AR Fairhope-Gulf Shores, AL Fayetteville, AR Georgetown, TX Madison, MS Maryville, TN McAllen-Alamo, TX Rio Rancho, NM Wimberley, TX
For all the slump in home values nationwide, there are still pockets of stability and high prices. In these twelve locations, residential sales prices in the top quarter top more than $1 million.
Carmel-Pebble Beach, CA East End Long Island, NY Jackson Hole, WY Key West, FL Laguna Beach-Dana Point, CA Martha's Vineyard, MA Maui, HI Morro Bay-Cambria, CA Placer County, CA San Juan Islands, WA Santa Barbara, CA Sedona, AZ
Ten spots with thousands of registered historic buildings in their residential neighborhoods. Savannah and Charleston are the two the best-known places in the country for historic preservation.
Charleston, SC East End Long Island, NY Key West, FL Litchfield Hills, CT Madison, WI Middle Cape Cod, MA Northampton-Amherst, MA Savannah, GA Southern Berkshire County, MA Tucson, AZ
Half of America's metro areas have fewer than 250,000 people. These fourteen rank the best overall in livability by Places Rated's standards.
Bangor, ME Bellingham, WA Bloomington, IN Charlottesville, VA Eau Claire, WI Fargo, ND-MN Grand Forks, ND-MN Iowa City, IA Ithaca, NY Johnson City, TN La Crosse, WI-MN Missoula, MT Oshkosh-Neenah, WI St. Cloud, MN
Officially identified in 1984, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a mood disorder related to seasonal variations of light. Based on northerly latitudes and a high number of wet and cloudy days, below are the worst metro areas for SAD.
Bellingham, WA Binghamton, NY Bremerton-Silverdale, WA Charleston, WV Eugene-Springfield, OR Johnstown, PA Morgantown, WV Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA Olympia, WA Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna, WV-OH Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA Tacoma, WA Weirton-Steubenville, WV-OH Williamsport, PA Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
Where might SONY test market a new eBook machine or Kraft sound out opinions on powdered hash brown potatoes for lunch? Why Albany or Jacksonville, of course. Below are the fifteen best metros to test new products, according to market researcher Acxiom, based on how closely residents resemble consumers nationwide.
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Birmingham-Hoover, Al Charleston-North Charleston, SC Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL Eugene-Springfield, OR Greensboro-High Point, NC Jacksonville, FL Lexington-Fayette, KY Macon, GA Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, TN Richmond-Petersburg, VA Rochester, NY Syracuse, NY Wichita, KS
Who says quality health care is an expensive big-city amenity? These spots rank near the top in affordable housing and also near the top in Health Care. Most have the least expensive "geographic practice cost indexes" which insurers use to determine physician fees.
Alexandria, LA Augusta, GA Elmira, NY Fort Wayne, IN Greenville, NC Hattiesburg, MS Jonesboro, AR Lima, OH Little Rock, AR Lubbock, TX Morgantown, WV Shreveport, LA Springfield, IL Syracuse, NY