San Diego ranks 8th least stressful metro area out of 50 (Los Angeles: low crime, mortgage)

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/slideshow/39.html?page=8 (broken link)

Other California metros:

Riverside/San Bernardino: 4th most stressful
Los Angeles/Orange County: 5th most stressful
San Francisco/Oakland: #11
Sacramento: #27
San Diego: #43 (or 8th least stressful)

Metro areas ranked for air quality, sunny days, robberies, murders, unemployment rate, income growth, commuting time, poverty rate, housing costs, and deaths from circulatory-system diseases.

Full story:

bizjournals: Where America's most stressful places are -- bizjournals.com (http://www.bizjournals.com/edit_special/62.html - broken link)

[mini_cute]

Thanks for posting that. I mostly agree with the results. My experience of San Diego is that it is much less stressful than NYC and LA.

[Encinitan]

Surprising, given the high cost of living, relatively low salaries for the housing, and other factors.

[pll]

Who does these studies and how accurate are they?

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by Encinitan

Surprising, given the high cost of living, relatively low salaries for the housing, and other factors.

Yeah, the factors they use matter, of course, but aside from what you mentioned, there are many good points to San Diego:

- High number of sunny days
- Very low crime rate compared to the other large metros
- Income growth is high
- Poverty rate is relatively low
- Deaths from circulatory-system diseases are relatively low

A note about housing costs: While the falling home prices are causing stress for some, they're also making San Diego a less stressful place when it comes to making the mortgage payment every month.

I believe I read that the average payment on a new mortgage is now about $1300, down from over $2000 a couple of years ago. I think I also read that San Diego's affordability is now higher than it's been in decades ("affordable" in terms of the median household income versus the median price for a home).

[AnUnidentifiedMale]

Originally Posted by pll

Who does these studies and how accurate are they?

Bizjournals did this particular study. Here's their methodology:

bizjournals: Methodology (http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/pages/155.html - broken link)

They're just using hard numbers and putting the data together, so I would assume that the stats are very accurate; however, whether the final numbers truly portray a meaningful measure of "stress" in a metro area or not is probably very subjective.

[MantaRay]

The data categories as a measure of stress might be subjective, but the categories I see there have common sense connection to stress, especially the deaths due to circulatory system diseases. Doctors have long since said stress is an exacerbating factor in circulatory system problems, heart disease, etc. And I've seen studies as well as heard personal accounts of the effect of sunshine vs. gloom on individual mood, more sunshine usually equating to less moodiness, hence less stress. And of course everybody knows that high commuting time increases stress. Who has ever said that a lot of thick grueling traffic makes life LESS stressful? So sure people have subjective views on what stress is, but I don't think anybody can realistically argue that the categories chosen by the study have litte actual connection to stress levels.

I would argue that such categories have a lot to do with quality of life, and San Diego's great results in the study demonstrate what people have instinctively known: that San Diego has a great quality of life. That's why it (Chula Vista specifically) is my current #2 on my top 5 list of places to retire. The impression I got from having visited San Diego appears to be confirmed by actual data pertaining to things I wouldn't be able to tell just by a visit.

[worldlyman]

I don't know.

I do find San Diego less stressful than Houston (where I am now) but I feel a lot more incorporated and satisfied here in H-town. I don't miss San Diego too much on account of "least stressful."

But for those results to say San Diego is more relaxed than either San Antonio or Tampa/St. Pete? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!