CNN Money's Top 100 places to live

[RealSNR]

Appearing in the August 2010 issue. Click the link to read more about each place.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/money...100/index.html

Rank City Population
1 Eden Prairie, MN 64,000
2 Columbia/Ellicott City, MD 155,000
3 Newton, MA 82,000
4 Bellevue, WA 124,000
5 McKinney, TX 125,000
6 Fort Collins, CO 141,000
7 Overland Park, KS 175,000
8 Fishers, IN 69,000
9 Ames, IA 60,000
10 Rogers, AR 57,000
11 Plymouth, MN 76,000
12 Highlands Ranch, CO 98,000
13 Woodbury, MN 58,000
14 Carmel, IN 67,000
15 Eagan, MN 64,000
16 Allen, TX 84,000
17 Shawnee, KS 61,000
18 South Jordan, UT 51,000
19 Broomfield, CO 55,000
20 Apple Valley, MN 50,000
21 Missouri City, TX 75,000
22 Irvine, CA 208,000
23 Cary, NC 130,000
24 Rowlett, TX 58,000
25 Gaithersburg, MD 59,000
26 O'Fallon, MO 77,000
27 Lee's Summit, MO 89,000
28 Waltham, MA 60,000
29 Abington, PA 54,000
30 Centreville, VA 54,000
31 Rockville, MD 61,000
32 West Chester, OH 60,000
33 Loveland, CO 66,000
34 Franklin, NJ 61,000
35 Edmond, OK 83,000
36 Gilbert, AZ 216,000
37 Mentor, OH 52,000
38 Yorba Linda, CA 66,000
39 Brookline, MA 58,000
40 Chapel Hill, NC 54,000
41 Clarkstown, NY 83,000
42 Amherst, NY 115,000
43 Bolingbrook, IL 71,000
44 Coral Springs, FL 126,000
45 Orem, UT 94,000
46 Ann Arbor, MI 116,000
47 Alexandria, VA 145,000
48 Coconut Creek, FL 50,000
49 Blue Springs, MO 56,000
50 Waukesha, WI 68,000
51 Rio Rancho, NM 82,000
52 Weymouth, MA 53,000
53 White Plains, NY 57,000
54 Naperville, IL 143,000
55 West Hartford, CT 63,000
56 Mount Prospect, IL 54,000
57 Piscataway, NJ 53,000
58 Arvada, CO 107,000
59 Arlington Heights, IL 73,000
60 St. Peters, MO 56,000
61 West Jordan, UT 95,000
62 Meridian, ID 67,000
63 Pleasanton, CA 67,000
64 Shoreline, WA 54,000
65 Rocklin, CA 53,000
66 Franklin, TN 58,000
67 Stillwater, OK 53,000
68 Iowa City, IA 73,000
69 Eau Claire, WI 66,000
70 Norman, OK 109,000
71 Scottsdale, AZ 235,000
72 Wellington, FL 55,000
73 Wayne, NJ 53,000
74 Bismarck, ND 60,000
75 West Des Moines, IA 55,000
76 Roswell, GA 96,000
77 Sioux Falls, SD 161,000
78 Stamford, CT 119,000
79 Millcreek, PA 54,000
80 St. George, UT 78,000
81 Broken Arrow, OK 93,000
82 New Rochelle, NY 75,000
83 Warwick, RI 84,000
84 Bristol, CT 61,000
85 Chesapeake, VA 220,000
86 Fargo, ND 97,000
87 Hamden, CT 58,000
88 Ramapo, NY 116,000
89 Middletown, NJ 69,000
90 Norwalk, CT 83,000
91 Suffolk, VA 82,000
92 Hillsboro, OR 94,000
93 Owensboro, KY 56,000
94 Nashua, NH 87,000
95 Madison, WI 233,000
96 Appleton, WI 71,000
97 Grand Forks, ND 53,000
98 Beaverton, OR 92,000
99 Idaho Falls, ID 54,000
100 Mount Pleasant, SC 68,000

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by RunKC

I've been in Seattle and Portland for vacation this week and it's absolutely amazing up here.
Weather, food, activities. Not crowded.

The great northwest is where it's at. Just ask Mr. flopnuts

Seattle is one of only 5 cities I would live in...it's beautiful.

[Kaepernick]

Seattle is one of America's most beautiful cities. The rain phobia is overrated. Yes, it rains a lot. It also doesn't rain long. It rains about like most east coast cities do. But because it lies on the desert west where we typically get 6 months of unbroken dry weather, it is considered this godawful depressing rain fest.

[Rain Man]

The biggest draw that most of the Colorado cities have is that they're suburbs of Denver, and they can easily drive into Denver to good food and culture and arts and sports and everything else. In and of themselves, they're pretty boring and bland suburbs that I wouldn't want to live in. Fort Collins and Loveland are the only Colorado cities on the list that's not a boring and bland suburb of Denver.

The challenge with a lot of these lists is that they'll include things like crime rates and school ratings and stuff, which on the surface is a fair thing to do. But in a big city (e.g., Denver), you're going to have differences by neighborhoods and you're going to have big daytime populations and you're going to have tourists, and all of those things will tend to drive the average crime rate up. There are simply more people in town on any given day than the population shows. The school thing will be important to some people but not others, and even though they make it a criterion in almost all of these lists, it really only matters to the 20 percent of the population that has kids. It's very overrated.

[suzzer99]

O'Fallon is a huge boring dump. Bleh.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by Kaepernick

Seattle is one of America's most beautiful cities. The rain phobia is overrated. Yes, it rains a lot. It also doesn't rain long. It rains about like most east coast cities do. But because it lies on the desert west where we typically get 6 months of unbroken dry weather, it is considered this godawful depressing rain fest.

No it doesn't rain like an East coast city. There are no thunderstorms. It does rain a lot but not a hard rain mostly a mist to a drizzle. Everything just stays wet in the fall, winter, and spring. The temperature stays pretty even though so it is rarely snowy or icy. Yes, compared to Southern California which is a desert it rains a lot. It does not rain a lot compared to say Hawaii.

I much rather have that then the lake effect snow around the Great Lakes region.

[MMXcalibur]

CTRL + F: "Ferguson, MO" not found

[BlackOp]

Johnson County is god awful...It's almost like they intentionally made a place that is totally void of culture. It's Stepford Wife shit...that place freaks me out.

[Kaepernick]

Originally Posted by GloucesterChief

No it doesn't rain like an East coast city. There are no thunderstorms. It does rain a lot but not a hard rain mostly a mist to a drizzle. Everything just stays wet in the fall, winter, and spring. The temperature stays pretty even though so it is rarely snowy or icy. Yes, compared to Southern California which is a desert it rains a lot. It does not rain a lot compared to say Hawaii.

I much rather have that then the lake effect snow around the Great Lakes region.

And in the summer, it clears up by 3 pm with beautiful blue skies pretty much every day.

[Kaepernick]

Good to see Chesapeake, VA on the list. One of my retirement possibilities. I just wish VA taxes were a bit lower.

My only problem with Virginia is that it seems to be one big speed trap. They issue huge numbers of reckless driving and it is a stiff penalty.

[splatbass]

I've been to a lot of those places, lived near several. I don't see any I would live in.

I've lived in the midwest, on the east coast, on the west coast, traveled extensively to most of the other parts of the country, and AFAIC I currently live in the best place to live - Hawaii. Expensive? Yes, but worth it.

[Why Not?]

Originally Posted by splatbass

I've been to a lot of those places, lived near several. I don't see any I would live in.

I've lived in the midwest, on the east coast, on the west coast, traveled extensively to most of the other parts of the country, and AFAIC I currently live in the best place to live - Hawaii. Expensive? Yes, but worth it.

Damn right it's the best place to live! I got Gilbert, where I live now, at number 2 but I will return to the homeland one day!

[Xanathol]

Any city north of the mason dixon line is a fail.

[GloucesterChief]

Originally Posted by Kaepernick

Good to see Chesapeake, VA on the list. One of my retirement possibilities. I just wish VA taxes were a bit lower.

My only problem with Virginia is that it seems to be one big speed trap. They issue huge numbers of reckless driving and it is a stiff penalty.

Depends where you are. Northern Virginia certainly is. Hampton Roads not so much though Chesapeake is on the Southside which is more built up than the Peninsula. If I were to live in Hampton Roads I would choose York County, Williamsburg, or Isle of Wight county. Just in Isle of Wight stay away from Smithfield unless you like the smell of pigs.

[58-4ever]

Originally Posted by BlackOp

Johnson County is god awful...It's almost like they intentionally made a place that is totally void of culture. It's Stepford Wife shit...that place freaks me out.

Feel free to stay the **** out too.

[BlackOp]

Originally Posted by 58-4ever

Feel free to stay the **** out too.

Its cool...enjoy your strip mall clone culture..