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Georgia. As much as some things frustrate me about Atlanta, this state has everything a working, middle, or upper class person could need or want with a significant cost savings. The natural beauty and geography of the state is lush and green and there's plenty of mountains, rivers, and trails. In Atlanta, the jobs pay decent, the opportunities to get into any industry is endless, and the cost of living is high but if you live out in the burbs, the quality of life is fantastic. I've had my fair share of struggles but this city and state is the quintessential state for the middle class American family, bar none.
I'm from the Atlanta suburbs, grew up there and lived there most of my adult life, so it's hard for me to have perspective on it. I would never call it a bad place, but there's a bunch of things that constantly frustrated and disappointed me about the area. But there was always, "hey, at least we're not Alabama". Etc. I feel like Georgia is the best state of the worst quadrant of the country, with a strong metropolis.
After 3.5 years in Seattle, I know that I could definitely make a list of things that I like better about Seattle and Washington, as well as a list of gripes and things that I definitely don't like better about Seattle. (I really don't have much bad to say about the truly beautiful and majestic state of Washington. Maybe others do, but I don't.)
I miss things like... I bought a 3 bedroom house in Lawrenceville GA in early 2009, for around like $80,000, on foreclosure. I was still 25 years old at the time. Now I make, 3x as much salary out here, and am renting small apartments in this very expensive city. So, I miss that level of affordability back in the day in some of the ATL burbs. But those days are kind of gone around there, too. Yeah, housing is way more affordable there than out here, but you make less money there (plus there's a state income tax).
Transportation there is so backwards... they don't build roads or highways, they don't expand transit... they don't really do anything. You just have to get up at 4am or whatever, if you want to commute on GA-400 or I-285.
Atlanta's like... a 7/10, in every category. Which, is a good thing to be, for sure. It has a pretty okay, warm climate, with high humidity (but less than the lower elevation and gulf area and southern GA) and mostly mild winters. It has maybe a B+ tier city of metropolitan type amenities and culture. It has the world's busiest airport, but there's only one airport. It is still somewhat affordable, relative to the west coast and NE. Etc.
State politics = still pretty bible belt, though. My friends who would like for cannabis to be legalized there, will probably have to wait until it's federally legalized. Sort of like with the gay marriage thing, most of the southern states will be dragged into the future, kicking and screaming. Granted, sometimes progress can go too fast too, but it seems like there should be a happy, common sense medium with it.
I found Gov. Kemp's thick accent embarrassing, with people nationally thinking that most Georgians or southerners talk like that. I found his TV ads so embarrassing.
I could go on and on with all my various thoughts on that place. But yeah I think it's at least a valid opinion, that GA could be a contender for highest overall quality of life. Maybe, at least for some people and some situations and some preferences. But I can't think of a category where it's 10/10. Definitely not climate or nature. The mountains there are basically hills (compared to the snow capped rocky ranges out here), and the rivers are basically muddy creeks.
Except for that small coastal area (where my parents reside these days, in the very nice little St Simons community), Georgia has to be one of the least blessed states as far as water features. Atlanta only even has 2 nearby lakes, and even those are man made.
That peach state will always be home, though, to me. Most all of my best memories are there.
Georgia has hands down the best state song of them all- Ray Charles' version of Georgia on my mind. I have a lot of nice things to say about GA. Just was my time to have a new adventure and new life experiences, in a place that I actually chose, rather than was just born and raised in.
Being a native Californian, but having had the opportunity to have traveled to roughly 32 of the 50 states, I’ve always had an affinity for Georgia. I’ve visited many times and enjoyed it. I have never lived there though, so that may be different….
Virginia (around DC) seems quite desirable also, but again, have never had a chance to live there.
I'm from the Atlanta suburbs, grew up there and lived there most of my adult life, so it's hard for me to have perspective on it. I would never call it a bad place, but there's a bunch of things that constantly frustrated and disappointed me about the area. But there was always, "hey, at least we're not Alabama". Etc. I feel like Georgia is the best state of the worst quadrant of the country, with a strong metropolis.
After 3.5 years in Seattle, I know that I could definitely make a list of things that I like better about Seattle and Washington, as well as a list of gripes and things that I definitely don't like better about Seattle. (I really don't have much bad to say about the truly beautiful and majestic state of Washington. Maybe others do, but I don't.)
I miss things like... I bought a 3 bedroom house in Lawrenceville GA in early 2009, for around like $80,000, on foreclosure. I was still 25 years old at the time. Now I make, 3x as much salary out here, and am renting small apartments in this very expensive city. So, I miss that level of affordability back in the day in some of the ATL burbs. But those days are kind of gone around there, too. Yeah, housing is way more affordable there than out here, but you make less money there (plus there's a state income tax).
Transportation there is so backwards... they don't build roads or highways, they don't expand transit... they don't really do anything. You just have to get up at 4am or whatever, if you want to commute on GA-400 or I-285.
Atlanta's like... a 7/10, in every category. Which, is a good thing to be, for sure. It has a pretty okay, warm climate, with high humidity (but less than the lower elevation and gulf area and southern GA) and mostly mild winters. It has maybe a B+ tier city of metropolitan type amenities and culture. It has the world's busiest airport, but there's only one airport. It is still somewhat affordable, relative to the west coast and NE. Etc.
State politics = still pretty bible belt, though. My friends who would like for cannabis to be legalized there, will probably have to wait until it's federally legalized. Sort of like with the gay marriage thing, most of the southern states will be dragged into the future, kicking and screaming. Granted, sometimes progress can go too fast too, but it seems like there should be a happy, common sense medium with it.
I found Gov. Kemp's thick accent embarrassing, with people nationally thinking that most Georgians or southerners talk like that. I found his TV ads so embarrassing.
I could go on and on with all my various thoughts on that place. But yeah I think it's at least a valid opinion, that GA could be a contender for highest overall quality of life. Maybe, at least for some people and some situations and some preferences. But I can't think of a category where it's 10/10. Definitely not climate or nature. The mountains there are basically hills (compared to the snow capped rocky ranges out here), and the rivers are basically muddy creeks.
Except for that small coastal area (where my parents reside these days, in the very nice little St Simons community), Georgia has to be one of the least blessed states as far as water features. Atlanta only even has 2 nearby lakes, and even those are man made.
That peach state will always be home, though, to me. Most all of my best memories are there.
Georgia has hands down the best state song of them all- Ray Charles' version of Georgia on my mind. I have a lot of nice things to say about GA. Just was my time to have a new adventure and new life experiences, in a place that I actually chose, rather than was just born and raised in.
We can agree to disagree on alot of things said here but I feel that for middle class families (who in my opinion are the backbone of this country and need most protection) it is the quintessential place. Alot of those pros that you mention also fall into that.
Cost of living - Oof. It’s rough out here.
Economy / job market - check Climate - We have 4 definite seasons, which is kind of a mixed blessing.
Quality of education - Our k-12 public schools are among some of the top-ranked schools in the nation, but there’s a lot of mediocre schools as well. The public university systems are well-regarded. 2 Ivies are in NY.
Infrastructure - Our roads are a mess and traffic just sucks.
Access to nature - Sort of? Yes, we have clean-ish beaches. We need to leave the area for serious hiking trails or camping.
Access to cities / cultural events - Giant check.
Based on my own rubric, NYC ‘burbs wouldn’t make the cut.
NY doesn't cut it on climate. Seriously? Those horrible summers! And digging out from winter snowstorms? (while hoping the power doesn't go out)
I think Humboldt County, CA might actually tick quite a few boxes.
There's a Polytechnic university there, as well as a community college.
Redwood forests! Ocean! Forests! Lakes! Mountains! Rivers/fishing!
Cool climate year 'round. Great for outdoor activities all summer. Gloomy winters, but that's why it's so green, like the PNW.
Good water supply.
Plenty of cultural events of all kinds: There's a symphony in Eureka, and lots of art events, music festivals, drama groups, etc.
Beautiful nature.
Reasonable COL compared to the rest of coastal CA.
Economy/jobs: a work in progress.
NY doesn't cut it on climate. Seriously? Those horrible summers! And digging out from winter snowstorms? (while hoping the power doesn't go out)
I think Humboldt County, CA might actually tick quite a few boxes.
There's a Polytechnic university there, as well as a community college.
Redwood forests! Ocean! Forests! Lakes! Mountains! Rivers/fishing!
Cool climate year 'round. Great for outdoor activities all summer. Gloomy winters, but that's why it's so green, like the PNW.
Good water supply.
Plenty of cultural events of all kinds: There's a symphony in Eureka, and lots of art events, music festivals, drama groups, etc.
Beautiful nature.
Reasonable COL compared to the rest of coastal CA.
Economy/jobs: a work in progress.
I'm going to do something a little different. I'm going to give a non-recommendation.
I've spent most of my life living along the Wasatch Front in Utah. There are many fine qualities living here. We have four well defined seasons. Abundant recreational opportunities including skiing, camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, and boating. There are several ski resorts within a one hour drive or less from Salt Lake City. The state has a low violent crime rate. Our state has five national parks.
Yet, after all that I cannot really recommend it as a place to live for most people. Housing costs have exploded and are out of sight. A one bedroom apartment costs an average of about $1,500 a month. Utah often has terrible inversions in the winter which occur all along the Wasatch Front making air quality a problem. This year we had a great deal of snow. However, the long term prognosis for the Great Salt Lake is that it is drying up. As it dries up, the wind will blow toxic minerals which were left behind when the lake dried up and will likely cause us to have dangerous air. Growth has been a real problem and has contributed to high housing prices and a housing shortage. Our freeway system was expanded for the 2002 Olympics, but we are finding that even freeways that are four or five lanes wide are insufficient to cope with the traffic in the mornings or the evenings.
I will soon depart the Wasatch Front and move to St. George in southern Utah where all of these problems are a little better, except there is real concern about the availability of water for an expanding population. I feel sad criticizing the area where I spent so much of life and developed a thriving law practice. However, the facts are what they are. Northern Utah is on a collision course with some real problems and little is being done to alter the trajectory. I wish those I am leaving behind well. However, I am very concerned about their future. That being said no place in the country is perfect and problems exist everywhere.
I've never been west of Nebraska, so no idea beyond that.
I'm from east TN. The weather is pretty decent, especially March-November or so. Summers get plenty hot enough for swimming and boating, but it's nothing like the Deep South or even Piedmont. Great outdoor recreation - hiking, various kinds of fishing, boating, basically anything you want. There are even some small ski resorts within two hours. Severe weather/disasters are not an issue at all.
Extreme politics, lack of quality jobs, low pay, rampant drug abuse, and crime related to the drug abuse have basically ruined the area. A small county of under 20,000 nearby has had three murders in a week. Police are extremely aggressive and heavy-handed. The state is going backwards rapidly.
I've lived in affluent suburbs in Indiana and Iowa. Both areas were much nicer than here for day-to-day living. More affluent, better educated populace, more moderate politically, more amenities. The weather and outdoor opportunities sucked.
I've been in metro Boston about a year combined on business travel. Love the area, still better weather than the Midwest, amazing in the summer, but traffic and COL are killers. With enough pay and a mostly remote job, I'd love living there.
I work for a county government in western NC. Other than the cost of housing and jobs/pay compared to the COL, the area doesn't have many drawbacks. NC politics are much more moderate than TN - the red areas are much more "live and let live," and not in your face with it. Better airport, better shopping and other amenities.
I've also spent a good amount of time in upstate SC (Greenville). Much better than TN overall, but hotter in the summer. More to do other than outdoor activities than western NC, but decent options locally.
Overall, I'd probably put parts of central VA, central NC, or upstate SC as best overall.
Which state offers the best overall quality of life?
Considerations:
Cost of living
Economy / job market
Climate
Quality of education
Infrastructure
Access to nature
Access to cities / cultural events
Not a question that’s answerable. Some States (like LA/MS) would get high marks for COL, access to nature and maybe access to cities/cultural events depending on one’s definition of such, but fail on economy, and quality of education. Other States (like MA) get high marks for economy, quality of education, access to nature, access to cities/cultural events regardless of what you like in that vein, but fail for some due to COL.
Infrastructure is hard to rate since some just want decent roads while others want mass transit options. Climate is completely personal preference so I’d omit that as a criteria all together. I would add proximity to family. That’s one of the driving forces behind why people move.
Basically there’s no right answer. Only the right answer for you.
Not a question that’s answerable. Some States (like LA/MS) would get high marks for COL, access to nature and maybe access to cities/cultural events depending on one’s definition of such, but fail on economy, and quality of education. Other States (like MA) get high marks for economy, quality of education, access to nature, access to cities/cultural events regardless of what you like in that vein, but fail for some due to COL.
Infrastructure is hard to rate since some just want decent roads while others want mass transit options. Climate is completely personal preference so I’d omit that as a criteria all together. I would add proximity to family. That’s one of the driving forces behind why people move.
Basically there’s no right answer. Only the right answer for you.
So true. My answers are opposite many others. I want to be able to drive on country roads with little traffic. I want hot and sunny so I can swim. I want to create my own oasis at home so I want a big private yard and home large enough for lots of family and friends. When I'm not working I want to enjoy nature in the mountains or at the beach. So for me, South Carolina for the win.
I have recently found myself with the ability to go anywhere. I have a remote job that pays me well, and my husband just inherited a significant amount of wealth...not bonkers billionaire money but enough to be life changing for us.
And I really thought about it...and I personally came up with the ONE factor that made a place feel happy or unhappy long term for me, because I've moved around quite a bit and had experiences in different locations, and that is the PEOPLE. So we are going back to Colorado Springs.
I lived on the East Coast in Virginia near the DC sprawl, and I found the people to be not casually friendly, though they pride themselves on being "real." However there were a lot of flakes, people who would agree to get together and not show up or call, stuff like that. But the relatively recent times I've been back, the traffic is awful. The bugs are not great. I liked the humidity but my husband would hate it. I miss the beach (OBX!), but that's what vacations are for.
I lived in Cincinnati for a while. Struggled to survive in my young adulthood there. Ohio is too grey, too much of the time, and while I did meet some interesting individuals they weren't anyone I'd want to associate with now. And things have changed there, between the conservative political climate that I would perhaps not be happy in, and how parts of the city have gentrified and I don't know that the thriving punk scene would still be there even if I'd want anything to do with it in this phase of my life. The Labor Day fireworks are the one and only thing I'd travel there for...on vacation maybe.
Lived in Des Moines (or Norwalk), IA for 8 years. Now that place... I would recommend it to young families trying to get their footing. It's a decent place to raise kids, at least in the suburbs, at least when I was there. I managed to break out of McJobs and into better paying office work and opportunities there. Cost of living was not bad. You absolutely do have to drive, though, public transit can't be relied on. The weather is kinda brutal, the winters are locked in freezing cold and snow and ice for months solid with little or no reprieve and the summers are hot and humid. Springtime, you get tornadoes and big storms with wind and hail. When the sky turns green, take cover! I would not visit there ever again, but it wasn't a bad place to live a while when my life situation had me there.
Midwest people are very casually friendly and very "common sense" and down to earth types, but they won't want to engage in deep conversations with you unless they know you very, very well. Small talk reigns supreme.
Then we lived in Washington State near Olympia. The weather and fauna are really cool and interesting! The gloom and rain takes some getting used to, but when the sun does come out it's like a miracle is happening. Big trees, big ferns, big Mount Rainier, big birds, big everything. Moss. Very green. Not too hot or cold, some winter weather but not too much and when it does happen things shut down. I enjoyed the local music and arts scenes of Seattle and Portland very much! But the place seemed kind of strangely surreal. Cost of living is the highest I've experienced but not as high as parts of CA I think. The people were a problem for me. I found lots of super friendly, like over the top act like they are your best friend friendly people...yet I had more individuals try to take advantage of me there than anywhere. Hidden agendas always, people rarely were honest about their real feelings or their intent. And some of the leftish laws got on my nerves even as liberal as I am...like your kids can't legally hang out at a neighbor's house after school for a couple of hours with their friends, or even with a family member, if that adult does not have a license to be a childcare provider and pay to keep it current. Which is pretty costly. Yet we had a hard time because the only licensed daycare provider that would get my kids to their school had a waiting list. And my son wanted to sell pre packaged frozen popsicles at the park, and I was willing to try and get whatever permit (within reason and sanity) might be required for my budding entrepreneur to do that, but the city told me that they had a noncompetitive agreement with a certain ice cream truck to be the only seller of edible things in the city's parks and we could wait 2 years until the contract was up and submit a "bid." I mean. For real? I would not live in WA again, but I'd visit.
And then there is Colorado, specifically Colorado Springs... I have hundreds of dear friends there, despite its reputation for being super conservative and churchy and my decidedly polar opposite ideological position. The people there are friendly but genuine, fun and creative but still common sense and down to earth. On a trip there last week, I met a man who was visiting from Austria and he visits various places and likes to go rock climbing, he said he found climbing partners so easily in Colorado compared to other places. Sure, it's dry, the air quality isn't always great, it's expensive in terms of real estate and rental markets and it likes to catch on fire. The roads are full of potholes and flash flooding is sometimes a bit of an issue, they get wind and hail, snow and ice (though that tends to melt fast, as swings from freezing to sunny and warm often happen in a day or two.) But the people, though! They are just so good. Every time I go I'm reminded of why I want to go back there to live. Oh, and also, the fewest pest bugs of any place I've ever lived, so less work required to keep any sort of infestations from cropping up in your home. (As a kid in VA with cats in the house, we had fleas once, I will never forget that!)
And finally (for me) there's Phoenix, AZ where I presently reside. The weather has already been described and I can even deal with the summer heat OK, though I'm not a fan of the dust storms. I agree with how cool it is to have these different environments around, (I really like Payson.) The roads in Phoenix are gorgeous for the most part, though the drivers can be more kooky than most places (everywhere, people think they have the worst drivers...in my experience, Virginia and Phoenix are worse than other places I've been.) Housing costs have gone up since an earlier poster lived here I suspect, they're pretty high now. It's actually more humid than I expected it to be, despite being in the desert it's less arid than Colorado. But I have not had good experiences with the people. I've run into more "west coast" friendly but fake, and despite trying to get out and make connections for a while, just did not meet people I wanted to have in my life for the most part. I've pretty much given up and decided that we are here because we have a job to do (elder care and estate stuff regarding a relative) and it's OK if I don't ever love Phoenix. I don't hate it, though.
I know a lot of people who don't really feel much need to have an engaging social life, which is perfectly valid. I could never live happily out in the country mostly for that reason.
So I think that rather than trying to find one place that is best for all the things, people need to consider what is most important to them and try to find a place that optimizes on that but where other factors are things they can live with even if they aren't perfect.
Then we lived in Washington State near Olympia. The weather and fauna are really cool and interesting! The gloom and rain takes some getting used to, but when the sun does come out it's like a miracle is happening. Big trees, big ferns, big Mount Rainier, big birds, big everything. Moss. Very green. Not too hot or cold, some winter weather but not too much and when it does happen things shut down. I enjoyed the local music and arts scenes of Seattle and Portland very much! But the place seemed kind of strangely surreal. Cost of living is the highest I've experienced but not as high as parts of CA I think. The people were a problem for me. IQUOTE]
???
It is surreal (especially when the sun shines) because it is drop dead gorgeous and when the lighting is right it is like being in heaven... You know there is a God here. So, lean into That.
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