The city of Ann Arbor in Michigan is the best place to live in the United States in 2023, according to a new study examining experts’ opinions.
Research company
StudyFinds looked at 10 expert lists to round up the top five best places to live in the United States this year, based on everything from climate and education to the economy.
It found that Ann Arbor, a city of just over 121,000 located west of Detroit, topped the list of the best places to live in America.
The study cited
Money.com, which rated the city as the eighth best place to live in America, stating that Ann Arbor is “a city with a lot to offer” and is “home to a vibrant culinary scene, growing technology industry, and the University of Michigan.”
Residents in the city have a median household income of $85,772 while the average unemployment rate is just 4 percent, according to Money.com.
The median salary in the United States in the second quarter of 2022 was $1,041 per week or $54,132 per year, according to a news release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (
pdf).
Meanwhile, the average home price is around $398,393, which may prove attractive to Americans at a time of unaffordable housing and soaring mortgage rates. In November, the National Association of Home Builders announced that US housing affordability fell to
a 10-year low.
“Ann Arbor also boasts the top hospital in the state and claims the second-highest educational score on our list,” Money.com. said.
Elsewhere, StudyFinds cited Livability, which publishes monthly and annual lists of the best cities to live in America, and
ranked Ann Arbor as the second-best place to live in the country, pointing to its “thriving” education, healthcare, automotive research and development, and manufacturing industries.
Overall Moving Rates Down
“The presence of the University of Michigan, a robust economy, and friendly, civically engaged residents all make Ann Arbor a best place to live in Michigan,” Livability notes.
Moving company MovingWaldo, which ranked Ann Arbor as the second best place to live in America, also
noted that the city boasts an “increasingly diverse job market, a culturally diverse community, a robust public park system, and low crime rates.”
According to StudyFinds, Raleigh, North Carolina, is the second-best place to live in America based on factors such as innovation, its friendly and diverse community, and lush green parkland, followed by Huntsville, Alabama, and Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Colorado Springs in Colorado comes in at fifth place, according to the research firm.
This isn’t the first time that Ann Arbor has topped the list of best places to live in the United States. In September last year, Fortune also
named it the top spot to settle down for households, pointing to its “wealth of opportunities for all different types of families,” including its thriving education and auto industry and top-rated schools.
The latest study comes after a separate
report, published on Jan. 30 by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), found that despite a surge in moves during the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall moving rate across the country has declined in the past six years.
Citing the United States Postal Service change-of-address data, the report found a persistent declining migration trend for 2022 as well, with nearly 70 percent of ZIP codes across the country seeing fewer inbound moves in 2022 compared to a year prior.
Despite overall moving trends declining, the report found that last year, the states of Florida, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee attracted the largest number of new residents, in part due to their robust job market recovery following the pandemic.
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