#17 (Providence: 2009, house prices, neighborhoods)

[Rnrboy]

25 Best Places to Retire - Providence, R.I. (17) - Money Magazine

Somebody should have really told them about the high taxes, bad weather, rude people, illegal immigrants, corruption, and crime.

Did I leave anything out, conservatives?

[Hollytree]

I really do wish they would make these "best places" lists more useful. I'm not quarreling with Providence as a place to retire- in fact, many people live in their homes here forever and I hear a lot of "I would never go to Florida, etc."

But I wish they would compare apples to apples. The list, IMHO, should be small cities in warm places ranked with other small cities in warm places, medium populations in 4 season climates ranked with similar and so on. To have Fredericksburg, Tx on the same list with Philadelphia- that's apples and oranges bordering on the ridiculous!!

Also, a median house price applied to a whole city- especially of large population- means nothing. Every large city has its good and not so great areas. Neighborhoods should be ranked according to affluence and income levels and house prices accordingly, i.e. a nice house in Elmhurst- overall a pretty good area- is a third the price of a comparable house in an affluent part of the East Side....

[Rnrboy]

As for these particular types of studies I actually totally agree with you. It has no more relevance than the study in Forbes that some cling to as the ultimate proof that Providence is one of the most "depressing" places to live.

I did find, however, that the text summary was pretty much dead on.