A big institution and access to the great outdoors makes Boulder, CO a great place to live. (Photo: Boemski / Flickr)
How often do you visit a city for a business trip or vacation, and walk away thinking, “Gee, I’d really like to live here!”?
It happens to me a lot… especially when I get off the well-worn, major city business travel circuit and venture into small and medium-sized towns.
Every time I go back to Boulder, I start looking a real estate and imagine living there. When passing through Missoula on a transcontinental car trip a few years back, I wanted to park the car and just stay. When I venture out of cold and foggy San Francisco (my hometown) to the more Mediterranean climates of Palo Alto or Santa Barbara, I’m ready to call the movers.
That’s why I always like to take a spin through Livability.com’s excellent annual Top 100 Best Places to Live ranking, released today, which takes a seriously scientific stab at studying 2,000 small and medium sized cities by analyzing more than 40 data points in eight categories – economics, housing, amenities, infrastructure, demographics, social and civic capital, education and health care.
Madison is the capital of Wisconsin (John Maniani)
So what makes a small city great? Primarily, it’s institutions. “The cities at the top of the list were often home to a major institution like a university, hospital or state capital,” says Matt Carmichael, Livability’s editor. “Institutions like that help these smaller cities compete in terms of sports, culture, jobs and entertainment.”
Here are the top 10 best medium-sized cities to live in the US in 2015 according to Livability.com.
1) Madison, Wisconsin
2) Rochester, Minnesota
3) Arlington, Virginia
4) Boulder, Colorado
5) Palo Alto, California
6) Berkeley, California
7) Santa Clara, California
8) Missoula, Montana
9) Boise, Idaho
10) Iowa City, Iowa
Want to see the the full list of 100? Click here.
Are you lucky enough to travel frequently to any of these cities? If you had the means to move right now, which of the top 10 would you most likely choose? Why? I’d move to Boulder!
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Best to keep any good place to live a secret.
Who got paid how much to include Arlington, Virginia? The horror of northern Virginia traffic, nobody knows their neighbor, no sense of community, no amenities, walkability of zero. Really, I think some writer or editor got bribed by the Chamber of Commerce.
Why not Carmel Valley Village?
I grew up in Palo Alto. It ain’t all that. Same goes for Santa Clara. I live in Fremont Ca now, but I’m retiring to Nevada. I’m not saying where , but it’s green and really pretty and I’d like it to stay that way.
I don’t care what else they offer, I would never consider living in a place like Bozeman Montana or Bismarck North Dakota. The winters in the northern mid-west would overwhelm any of the benefits of living there. There is a reason California is so popular.
Back in the early 70s, can you believe that an average one bedroom apartment in Menlo Park, CA next to Palo Alto could go for 150 / mo. 20 times that amount today.
There are great places around the country where people can do much better. Portland, Oregon is one of them. Weather isn’t everything. Portland has gorgeous scenery, and beautiful summers, mild to cool Falls. The SF Bay Area has ideal climate, and ideal earthquakes, and ideal droughts, and ideal traffic congestion, and many distracted pedestrians and drivers. After 55 years, it’s been nice, but the clock is ticking for some of us. Many have left and are doing much better somewhere else.
No place in California should be on this list.
Ever hear of Walnut Creek CA?
Monterey, California should be Number 1.
This list needs serious pruning… there are real middle-sized cities like Madison or Rochester, MN and there are puzzle pieces of giant slurbs. None of the latter should appear in such a list unless it is aimed solely at millionaires, who are the only people who can afford to buy there.
It was interesting to see how many suburban LA and suburban SF cities were high on the list. A few suburban Boston cities sprinkled throughout too. I live in #21- Pasadena, CA and went to school in #40- Cambridge, MA.
I agree with other posters that some of these cities are known for very expensive real estate.
Number one and two must have only been visited on the 4th of July as the rest of the year it is 20 below Zero
I’m one of them right here! I’ve lived near or in Rochester, Arlington, and Madison. Western NY’s [Rochester’s] gray winters are terrible, but I take Madison’s sunny winters over Arlington’s armpit-humidity summers any day!
Sorry but the title is a little misleading, it should be “The 10 best Small to midsize places to live in America”
Thanks, Steve! You’re right… and that’s probably why Madison & Rochester ranked highly…. but “good” weather might be too subjective… I bet folks who live in those cities like really cold winters! 🙂 — chris
Palo Alto, if I, as you said, had the means to.
After looking at the criteria, there are two items that seem to be missing, or under emphasized. Weather and Cost of Living (not really in economy).