U.S. News says we're number 1 (Boston, Harvard: low crime, unemployment rate, high school)

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by MassVt

Most things in MA are fairly good--education, healthcare, public transit, cultural/sporting activities, shopping, etc. The major obstacle is the cost of housing, although the "rudeness" factor could be improved a little..

Massachusetts isn't just the part within 40 miles of the Cheers Bar.

My summer house where I intend to retire in 8 years is 60 miles south of Boston in "West Portugal". I can walk to the dinghy dock and my boat is floating on a mooring out in the harbor. Zillow says the 1,500-ish square foot suburban houses on 1/4 to 1/2 acre around me are all $300-something and a few smaller ones are in the $200's. The mil rate is less than $10 per thousand so property taxes are low. Pretty good walking score. Good bicycling. The beaches aren't Cape Cod national seashore but they're fine. All the big box stores are 10 minutes away. You can spend $2+ million for a waterfront home on a couple acres but $65K to $70K household income with 20% down will buy a 1960's 1,500 square foot cape or ranch on 1/4 acre using the old school 28%/33% mortgage qualification numbers.

[bjimmy24]

Rankings are really dumb.

[Bruins_Fan]

You can have 25 different publications do rankings, and have 25 different results. They are meaningless unless YOU have the same criteria.

[Shrewsburried]

Originally Posted by Bruins_Fan

You can have 25 different publications do rankings, and have 25 different results. They are meaningless unless YOU have the same criteria.

Just move to NH already ...

[HumpDay]

Congratulations Massachusetts! Down here where I live in Connecticut, I heard were just a little lower down the list. MA is by far in better condition than CT. We're in such financial mess right now that our capital city might be filing for bankruptcy. We lost just over 8,000 people last year and we can't invest in new job creating industries like Bio-Tech because not only are we broke but most of our revenue has to go to pensions since they've been unfunded for the past 50 years. Keep taking our jobs away like GE and maybe Aetna so we can hit 3 billion in our ever growing budget deficit.

[Bruins_Fan]

Originally Posted by Shrewsburried

Just move to NH already ...

So I'm wrong on this? Be honest, my comment is spot-on.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by Bruins_Fan

So I'm wrong on this? Be honest, my comment is spot-on.

Yeah, the comment was totally out of line. You should move to Vermont where they have the most lax gun law in the country. You can buy whatever you want and carry it however you want. No guns in schools and no guns in state buildings is the only state gun law. There are local ordinances about firearms discharge near homes in some towns. That appears to be your primary metric for ranking states.

[bjimmy24]

Originally Posted by Bruins_Fan

So I'm wrong on this? Be honest, my comment is spot-on.

Of course you're absolutely correct. I don't really know why that's controversial.

[Bruins_Fan]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Yeah, the comment was totally out of line. You should move to Vermont where they have the most lax gun law in the country. You can buy whatever you want and carry it however you want. No guns in schools and no guns in state buildings is the only state gun law. There are local ordinances about firearms discharge near homes in some towns. That appears to be your primary metric for ranking states.

Sure, that is one important metric for me. But I also care about cost of living, taxes, and climate (though no where in New England meets my preferences in that department) to name a few. I know I get under the skin of some of the more left wing members here, but it is what it is. The feeling is mutual on that!

[Vanderbiltgrad]

US News and World Report the same rag that publishes the college rankings, it is all subjective and useless. This is the same rag that ranked Princeton better than Harvard for prestige, nobody looks at those rankings and does not laugh.