[OREGONRAIN]

I just saw an article in USA TODAY that says some publication ,I think PLACES RATED, although I am not sure has rated this community the best place to live in the entire country. What do people whether in Florida or not think of this rating. I have my own suspicions as to why certain places or areas are rated the best, does anyone else?

[macguy]

Originally Posted by OREGONRAIN

I just saw an article in USA TODAY that says some publication ,I think PLACES RATED, although I am not sure has rated this community the best place to live in the entire country. What do people whether in Florida or not think of this rating. I have my own suspicions as to why certain places or areas are rated the best, does anyone else?

What are they?

[riveree]

Did they say why it was voted best city in the US?

[OREGONRAIN]

I think places that are rated the best, that are not in the majority of peoples mind as the best, are rated that high for this reason. Marketing Gainesville as the best place means alot of publicity for Gainesville, it also means alot of people will start investigating the community, and alot more will move there. That will translate into housing and businesses being built in large numbers, and that means housing cost will skyrocket. This has been going on for a number of years. All of florida except the gainesville and panhandle areas are the last areas of Florida to not be as overpriced as the rest of the state, that will change now. I would not trust these best places rated publications to save my life. I think they are phoney and really need to completely explain how they come up with the ratings. The communities they focus on do not even appeal to half the population. Most people could not live in a community with as large a student population as Gainesville, especially since everything in that region focuses on Gainesville, one would have to travel miles to the next metro area to get a break from Gainesville.

[OREGONRAIN]

Incidently where I live Portland, Oregon, was rated number 3 out of the 10 places chosen. Not that I think we deserve the ratings either. If anyone knows how these ratings are chosen speak up.

[121804]

Sterlings is actually a really good source & have a website that explains the criteria for ranking, etc. The rankings & book comes out once a year. The authors specifically state their criteria IS NOT for everyone but hope some of the factors they use help other. Sterling has always heavily weighed on college towns.

The rating is not that Gainesville is ultra-perfect, but it scored the highest in the criteria the authors were using.

Last year, Charlottesvill, VA was #1. Anyone ever try to live in Charlottesville on under $75k/yr ? It's a gorgoeus area if you have the $$ & the authors state that it is expensive to live there.

Criteria is usually based on education[ if UF saw better rankings in their academic programs, this was probably a big sway], affordability [compared to cities of the same size w/ same demograhics], healthcare, standard of living [things to do to stay active, culture, theatre, arts, etc], housing [compared to cities of the same size w/ same demographics], and job growth & opportunity. It also looks at how the city has grown in the past years.

If by some chance Gainesville saw a positive job growth last year & many of their graduates staying in the area who found jobs in the area, that is another factor.

[riveree]

Hmmm....well, it'll be interesting to see if it continues to gain high ranking from other rating systems.

[OREGONRAIN]

That was a good explanation, thank you, Gainesville is also being pushed in the best places to retire publications also, I read a housing area for retirees has been built at UF for retirees wanting to attend college. My sense of this is the retirees are the higher end of income, which one has to seriously watch when reading retirement publications. For anyone reading this that lives in Gainesville, or has knowledge of it. How do you feel the balance of such a large student base in a smaller city such as Gainesville would mix with a retiree population. I always thought Gainesville was at the top of the list of universities KNOWN for PARTY TIME.

[riveree]

We had toyed with the idea of moving there many years ago, but then I realized that as I continued to age, there would be fresh crops of twenty-somethings in town each year...they'd essentially stay the same age while I got older and older....not a plus in my book !

[macguy]

Originally Posted by OREGONRAIN

I think places that are rated the best, that are not in the majority of peoples mind as the best, are rated that high for this reason. Marketing Gainesville as the best place means alot of publicity for Gainesville, it also means alot of people will start investigating the community, and alot more will move there. That will translate into housing and businesses being built in large numbers, and that means housing cost will skyrocket. This has been going on for a number of years. All of florida except the gainesville and panhandle areas are the last areas of Florida to not be as overpriced as the rest of the state, that will change now. I would not trust these best places rated publications to save my life. I think they are phoney and really need to completely explain how they come up with the ratings. The communities they focus on do not even appeal to half the population. Most people could not live in a community with as large a student population as Gainesville, especially since everything in that region focuses on Gainesville, one would have to travel miles to the next metro area to get a break from Gainesville.

You can check out their website. I think they are pretty good and provide a lot of well researched information.

Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed
The problem with these ratings is they seem to use averages and that doesn't work. They have ratings for the best cities for seniors. Several of the cities while they have many things going for them only need one bad one to make it a deal breaker, such as cost of living. They have both New York city and San Francisco as in the top ten for seniors which someone on a average fixed income could not possibly afford.