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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
The thing is, we all don't like the same climate. Education in cities can be rough. Access to culture is usually available. Jobs depend upon what YOU do.
For a low cost of living city, with access to arts, pro sports, and an economy that is excellent for many professions, Cleveland Ohio checks so many of these boxes. I am also referencing the Inner Ring Suburbs. Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, South Euclid-Lyndhurst (good schools) and several others. Just google inner ring Cleveland suburbs.
Cost of living? - Shockingly low. A beautiful Tudor style home, built in the 1920s - early 40s, with three to four bedrooms, 2 baths, one or two fireplaces, a finished basement, updated kitchen, good closet space can be had for under $325,000. Some in the high $100s.
Where I am originally from, the Tri-state area (NY, NJ and southern Connecticut) would sell for anything from $500,000 to $750,000.
Climate? Four seasons. Spring and Fall are my favorites. Most homes have central AC.
You do have to be able to like or endure, winter.
Today, the temperature was over 70F.
It's a cultured area, that boasts the second best Art Museum in the country. AND it's FREE.
Access to nature? Cleveland is called "The Forest City" - as cities go, it is more green and leafy than most. There are beautiful parks with hiking, and biking, trails, sandy, lake front beaches and some that permit fishing.
We live in Ohio, but we are looking for a home in the Cleveland inner ring suburbs.
Schools really vary. They are not a necessity for us. Niche gives Shaker Heights a very good ranking. We also love the history of the area, theatre, The Rock Hall of Fame, the music scene - from alternative rock to chamber music.
BEST restaurants that could easily compete with NYC, Chicago, or Boston.
More expensive suburbs include Gates Mills, Beachwod, Solon, and Pepper Pike.
I'm an east coast person, Delaware, Florida and North Carolina.
Florida is a definite "no" and we spent too long there.
Delaware is home state for both of us, also a "no," not the same as what we knew but attractive for others.
We are both happy in North Carolina, being close to family brought us here. It's a "yes" for sure.
We are in a nice neighborhood, many ethnicities, friendly people.
If I had to make another choice I'd live farther north because of dislike of heat and humidity.
Blue Ridge in NC or Virginia maybe.
I'm a northern person, in body and mind. My spouse likes heat more than I do.
OK, I think Utah does. Here on the ski slopes of Deer Valley where I live, we've had over 600 inches of snow (that's 50 feet) and the skiing has been great. No air pollution. We do have some traffic, but only by small town standards. Price of housing went up during Covid & remote-work, but is still acceptable (You can get a good house for $5 Million).
You can ski 100+ days/year (a friend is at about 140 days). Health care is fine. Arts & culture is in-town in Park City or you can go down to Salt Lake City in 20 minutes. The airport is about 45 minutes away. Summertime offers great outdoor activities with a nearly a dozen National Parks within driving distance.
My personal choice is New Mexico for my own reasons. It is definitely not for everyone, but it is gorgeous in so many ways and creative people have been coming here for generations. I live out in a sparsely developed high desert area. A large state with only 2 million residents means you can enjoy the backcountry and wilderness areas on your own.
Considerations:
Cost of living -- Lower than most places
Economy / job market -- I'm retired so less important job-wise. The economy is diversifying after the shock of the Great Recession.
Climate -- could not be better in my estimation -- a goldilocks 4-season climate.
Quality of education -- not the best but not an issue with me. My town has good public schools. NM residents get free tuition to state colleges.
Infrastructure -- Mostly the way I like it. NM is still a little bit frontier and wild west in some ways. In others it is well ahead. Locals are not keen on faster development.
Access to nature -- could not be better. Desert and mountains. Uncrowded.
Access to cities / cultural events -- NM is somewhat isolated, so it has its own show going on. Cultural diversity is a hallmark of NM.
There are other important considerations like history, diversity, progressive, neighborly, privacy. These are all positive. The reputation for high crime is overblown but if it keeps people away, that's okay.
The bit about cost of living is highly situational. Comparatively affluent but parsimonious people, who save the majority of their income, will be most affected by state/local income tax. Middle-class family-type of people will be most affected by bigger-ticket costs, such as housing or child-care. Poorer people will be most affected by running costs, such as food or gas, sales tax and so on... and by the presence of absence of benefits, such as rental assistance or ACA-type of healthcare.
Based on passel of quality of life issues, I really like Los Angeles. No, seriously, I do. Being a fan of both big-cities and cars, of warmer but dry weather, of beaches and mountains, Los Angeles is hard to beat, by personal reckoning. The crime, traffic or pollution don't seriously bother me. Neither am I much complaining about housing costs. They're high, but I relish the thought of treating one's house as an investment, rather than a box in which to sleep. What so grievously irks me is the California state income taxes. I just can't justify paying those taxes in retirement.
So for me personally, the rational solution will be one of those no-income-tax states... even if the prevailing culture or the climate don't agree with me.
It all depends on one's tastes, and the stage of life one is in.
For some of us, a good climate is a mild one,
while others want four seasons. Some prize
culture & entertainment; others rank nature first.
If you've got kids, the quality of schools is critical;
if you don't, it's not much of a factor.
And if you're retired, the job market no longer matters.
Plenty of different answers among the 40-odd posts so far,
and thank goodness that's so... if we all agreed
on which state was best, that state would be
horrifically overcrowded, and people in the
other 49 states would be discontented.
For me anyway, I see some states as a no-go such as CA, NY, etc. with high state income and sales taxes, and burdensome regulations. Individual locations within these states, otherwise attractive, are rejected due to statewide problems, mostly costs and regulations.
Then I can go through the states that didn't get round-filed, and look at individual areas within the state. I'm in Eastern WA and for now that's working for me, but the *******s of King County continue to get on my nerves with state regulations that don't fit the eastern half of the state.
I don't have any problem rejecting whole regions en-bloc, namely the Northeast and Midwest. The costs, bad weather, particularly in winter mean I won't even consider anything north and east of St. Louis.
When I think quality of life, for someone who doesn't make 6 figures, I think of low crime, where criminals actually get punished, where homelessness/squatters are little to non existent, where I don't HAVE to own a car to get anywhere, where your taxpayer money is put to good use and you know where it's going, where potholes aren't embarrassingly large, where the streets and sidewalks are clean, and if you want a job you can get one where you can afford to live, even if it's not the cheapest area.
If anyone can name a city or area let alone a state where all of the above exists, let me know. I'll wait. I've lived in NJ, Philly, Pittsburgh, Central PA, NE Indiana, Fargo and Minnesota(upstate and the Twin Cities). So far I can't find any.
When I think quality of life, for someone who doesn't make 6 figures, I think of low crime, where criminals actually get punished, where homelessness/squatters are little to non existent, where I don't HAVE to own a car to get anywhere, where your taxpayer money is put to good use and you know where it's going, where potholes aren't embarrassingly large, where the streets and sidewalks are clean, and if you want a job you can get one where you can afford to live, even if it's not the cheapest area.
Just to illustrate the variability and subjectivity of personal taste, the above issues overall not only don't resonate with me, but in some cases I would prefer their antithesis.
Homeless people are found in any concentration of population. "No homeless" basically implies no city over a certain size. Likewise with the state of repair of the pavement. Or the situation with street-crime. Pick a smaller city or town, with something like a median or above level of affluence. Then pick an above-average neighborhood.
Regarding jobs. What sort of job? Service/retail? Manufacturing? Medical? Professional? Presumably, one can find a neighborhood of above-average sort, where one might live in a bedroom-sense, commuting to such jobs. Which brings is to the one thorny caveat: "having to own a car". Why is this so important? Suburban America, where most of the above are readily plentiful, is car-oriented. The inner-city, where one could successfully be without a car, will be blighted by one or more of the above-recited deal breakers. Why are cars such an issue?
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Which state offers the best quality of life?
