Dreamtowns list

[pwd72s]

From Biz Journal...any of you dream of escaping the big city, living in a "dreamtown"?

My area ranked #86....

http://www.bizjournals.com/edit_special/68.html

[onewhippedpuppy]

Hey, my hometown of Manhattan, KS landed at #33!

I notice there's a lot of MN and other northern states. I wonder if they took into account the winter?

[pwd72s]

I kind of wondered the same...if they considered weather at all. Isn't Kansas part of "Tornado Alley"?

[BeyGon]

The top ten are safe from me, you won't have to worry about your neighborhood. The only place on the list where it DOESN'T snow is Oak Harbor Washington. It's on an island and has the Naval Air base. No snow, I like the place, friends live there and I visit every year but just to cold and damp. It's tough being a wuss and I only like warm weather.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Yup, we're second in the nation to OK. Funny though, I've lived here my entire life and never seen one on the ground. I enjoy storms too, so trust me, I look. On the other hand, you're pretty well guaranteed to experience MN winter. And unlike a tornado, it lasts for MONTHS, and comes back EVERY YEAR.

Odd that you mention it though, Manhattan was hit by a tornado this summer. 30 odd homes destroyed, along with a lumberyard, car dealership, and damage on the KSU campus. This was about one week after the baseball sized hail. The joy of midwestern weather......

[Gogar]

Factors: Bizjournals used a 20-part formula to rate each market's quality of life. Each component is followed in parentheses by the trait it measured and the type of reading -- highest or lowest -- that earned a maximum score:

1. Population growth since 2000 (growth, highest).

2. Percentage of residents who have lived in the same home for more than one year (stability, highest).

3. Share of all residents who are between the ages of 25 and 44 (young adults, highest).

4. Percentage of workers who work at home or walk to work (ease of movement, highest).

5. Average commuting time (ease of movement, lowest).

6. Median household income (earnings, highest).

7. Poverty rate for families (earnings, lowest).

8. Mortgage affordability, calculated as a ratio of median house value per $1,000 of median household income (cost of living, lowest).

9. Rent affordability, calculated as a ratio of annual median rent per $1,000 of median household income (cost of living, lowest).

10. Unemployment rate (employment, lowest).

11. Percentage of all jobs that are classified as management or professional positions (employment, highest).

12. Percentage of workers who are self-employed (entrepreneurship, highest).

13. Percentage of houses that have been built since 1990 (housing stock, highest).

14. Percentage of houses that have nine or more rooms (housing stock, highest).

15. Homeownership rate (homeownership, highest).

16. Median house value (homeownership, highest).

17. Percentage of adults (25 or older) who hold high school diplomas (education, highest).

18. Percentage of adults (25 or older) who hold bachelor's degrees (education, highest).

19. Percentage of adults (25 or older) who hold advanced (master's, doctoral and/or professional) degrees (education, highest).

20. Air mileage to the closest major metropolitan area, defined as a metro with more than 2.5 million residents (metropolitan proximity, lowest).

Availability: Some, but not all, of the statistics for each micro are provided in chart form with this report. Space limitations prevented the publication of all figures.

Formula: Each micro's statistics were compared against the micropolitan averages in all 20 categories. Above-average performances received positive scores, while below-average results received negative scores. Each area's 20 category scores were totaled to determine its overall rank. Final scores ranged from 18.19 points for Torrington, Conn., to minus-21.26 points for Opelousas-Eunice, La.

[Christien]

Interesting list, especially the popularity of New England and Montana.

I'm quite the opposite. We live about 45 min. outside "the big city" and I wish we lived closer, or in an even bigger city, except that we want a large property with lots of space, which doesn't exist in the city. Our plan is to retire to a condo right downtown in some big city (top of my list is Paris and New York), when we don't care about yard space or anything like that.

[IROC]

Some of the places on that list are hell holes. In the interest of objective journalism they should have mentioned that.

[MT930]

#2 Bozeman Montana it's why I am here.

Downtown car show Aug 17

[onewhippedpuppy]

Maybe they didn't have the budget to actually visit each one? Manhattan is actually a very nice little college town, but because I grew up there I will never go back.

[Seahawk]

I live right next to Lexington Park, Md...my town, Leonardtown, is ten times cooler.

If you are an engineer and want work, these places are it. No kidding.

But the summers, ick.

[scottmandue]

I would much rather live in a "super city" than a "dream town"... presuming I couldn't find a "beautiful berg" or "wonder community" I liked better.

[911boost]

What no places in CO?

I call bs to their methodology.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Given no constraints, a little place up in the CO mountains would be #1 for me. Summit County is about my favorite place on Earth.

[911boost]

I agree, but I think I might add Southern Wyoming to that. Way less people.

When the zombies show up, thats where I am taking my family.

Bill

[M.D. Holloway]

I was born and bred in Connecticut. I know Torrington well - albeit a nice town, I can think of 10 other towns in CT I would rather live before moving there. Then again, I can think of 100 other towns outside of Connecticut I would live in before even considering CT - just too darn expensive (and the winters suck).

[The Gaijin]

Originally Posted by BSiple

I call bs to their methodology.

A heavily weighted negative is more than 75% of the population having moved there in the past 30 years..

[Gogar]

You guys, the full list is not a

BEST OF

list. It's a sampling of towns of about the same size, and a rating (positive or negative) based on their criteria. It's not the 100 BEST. It's a list of 100 towns they ran the data for.

[BRPORSCHE]

No Northwestern Jersey towns?

[DanL911sc]

But can you get Sushi delivery.....?