The Best Places

After 10 years in California, without being able to afford to buy a house, my wife and I are very sensitive to this issue. So home values represent a key criterion for us. The table below uses median home value data from Yahoo! Real Estate. Their numbers appear fairly stable; I had checked many of these cities last month and the numbers haven’t changed much in most cases.

A few numbers surprised me — an out of the way town like Salida, Colorado coming in at over $400,000. Reno, Nevada topped 400K as well. On the other end, look at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico — $75,000! Now that could be off, but the most recent issue of Men’s Journal lists Truth or Consequences as one of the best places to live (jn the best hideaway category), and quotes a median home price of $101,000. So it’s not that far off.

So with that introduction, here’s the list… (Read more…)

Climate is a major factor in determining our choice for the best place to live. So today, we’re going to take a look at summer and winter temperatures, as well as precipitation. I’ll close with how climate might impact our choice of the best place to live. The city names in the tables below are live links to additional climate information. Oh yeah, I threw in Grand Rapids, MI to give my wife a point of reference (she grew up there). (Read more…)