Friday, February 4, 2011

Cheapest Places to Live in the United States

As we started the year we looked at the Best Places to Live in the World according to International Living's Quality of Life Index. Over the past monthly we've briefly reviewed the Top Places to Live but I realized that I just glanced by our #1 country.

The United States is the Best Place to Live in 2011

Yes, when we go through he numbers the country with the highest average score over all nine categories was the United States with a total of 86.43 points. Considering the next four countries on the list, New Zealand (2nd), Malta, France and Monaco (5th) all scored very closely - between 75.14 and 75.92 - the U.S. really showed with quite an advantage - more than 10 pts ahead of 2nd place New Zealand. Now we did talk about the reasons for this in an earlier post - the fact the United States is so large and the diversity not just in terms of race, religion and the like but also the literally polar opposite ends of the scale when it comes to income and standard of living. No one can deny he U.S. has some of the wealthiest people and most expensive places to live on the planet while it also has some of the poorest and cheapest places to live too. As for the number well it's also true the U.S. is still the largest economy in the world and it has one huge and exemplary infrastructure system - yes, even with the pot holes in Detroit! It also scores high marks as a diverse and vibrant culture, a place of freedom, safety and a pretty reasonable cost of living. The United States has more miles of paved roads than anywhere else on the planet. It has more airports and airplanes. It's got tens of thousands of Doctors and hospital beds - provided you've got insurance to access them. Yes, looking at the numbers the U.S. has a while lot going for it!

Cheapest Places to Live in the United States

Now just one of the underlying themes for this blog is - Discovering the Cheapest Places to Live. Over the year we have talked about the best states in the U.S. and in other countries that could be considered 'cheap'. Today let's take a closer look - a snap shot if you will - of the most affordable places to live in the United States right now.

#1. Omaha, Nebraska
#2. Buffalo, New York
#3. Detroit, Michigan
#4. Indianapolis, Indiana
#5. Cincinnati, Ohio
#6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#7. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
#8. Cleveland, Ohio
#9. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
#10. Houston, Texas

Source: Forbes America's Most Affordable Cities

2 comments:

RobertJ1966 said...

I live in the Cleveland area. It is miserable. We have very little to do because people with money leave at first opportunity. Our area offers a lot of nepotism and very little social mobility. The collages here are struggling to stay open so the entrance exams consist of one question; can you pay us? The housing stock is pre WWII. Most of the government elected positions pays little or nothing, there for the best candidates never run for office. It seems the masses who live here are considered educated if they finish high school because their parents did not. Most of the jobs are unskilled labor. The economy receives a boost around the 3rd of the month. The banks over all do not lend money here. This is a violation of banking rules however nothing is done about it. I don't intend to be harsh however; this is a great place to exist but not a great place to live. I don't think it is a coincidence that Cleveland is very near Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.Which is all on your list.

RobertJ1966 said...

I live in the Cleveland area. It is miserable. We have very little to do because people with money leave at first opportunity. Our area offers a lot of nepotism and very little social mobility. The collages here are struggling to stay open so the entrance exams consist of one question; can you pay us? The housing stock is pre WWII. Most of the government elected positions pays little or nothing, there for the best candidates never run for office. It seems the masses who live here are considered educated if they finish high school because their parents did not. Most of the jobs are unskilled labor. The economy receives a boost around the 3rd of the month. The banks over all do not lend money here. This is a violation of banking rules however nothing is done about it. I don't intend to be harsh however; this is a great place to exist but not a great place to live. I don't think it is a coincidence that Cleveland is very near Detroit, Buffalo, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.