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  1. Housing
  2. Places to Live

The Best Places to Live in Every Region

By: Adam Hardy
Adam Hardy, expert in Personal finance, student loans, credit, job market, low-income finances, and Lead data journalist at Money
Adam Hardy
Lead data journalist | Joined October 2024
Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and many other outlets.
See full bio
Editor: Samantha Sharf
Samantha Sharf, Editor at Money
Samantha Sharf
Editor | Joined May 2020
Samantha Sharf is Money's real estate editor. She previously wrote about amazing homes and billion-dollar real estate entrepreneurs for Forbes.
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Published: Jan 09, 2023 3 min read
Couple taking a selfie on a small boat in a park in Tempe, Arizona
Tempe, Arizona
Tempe Tourism

For Money's 36th annual Best Places to Live rankings, we're striving to offer up an option or two for every type of person.

That's a tall order. Oftentimes, nationwide rankings of places to live overlook certain geographic areas. Our main list of the top 50 Best Places to Live did factor in location. But as a national list, it nonetheless pairs up small Georgia towns, for example, against big California cities. The result is that some amazing cities and towns in certain areas of the country didn't make the cut.

So we are revisiting our rankings with a hard focus on representing the four different regions, as defined by the U.S. Census. Those regions are: Midwest, Northeast, South and West. To unearth cities that truly stand out, we ranked places with at least 50,000 residents in each of the four regions on factors such as cost of living, quality of life, diversity, economic opportunity and more. (See our full Best Places methodology for more details.)

If you're looking to find the perfect place in a certain area of the country — for weather, proximity to family, or whatever the reason — you'll have plenty of options to choose from.

The best places to live in the Midwest

10. St. Peters, Missouri
9. Troy, Michigan
8. Eagan, Minnesota
7. Woodbury, Minnesota
6. Madison, Wisconsin
5. Overland Park, Kansas
4. Carmel, Indiana
3. Naperville, Illinois
2. Ann Arbor, Michigan

Read our Best Places to live in the Midwest list to learn which city is No. 1.

The best places to live in the Northeast

10. Portland, Maine
9. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
8. Greenburgh, New York
7. Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey
6. North Hampstead, New York
5. Brookline, Massachusetts
4. Nashua, New Hampshire
3. Abington, Pennsylvania
2. Jersey City, New Jersey

Read our Best Places to Live in the Northeast list to learn which city is No. 1.

The best places to live in the South

10. Bentonville, Arkansas
9. Marietta, Georgia
8. Alexandria, Virginia
7. Franklin, Tennessee
6. Rockville, Maryland
5. Arlington, Virginia
4. Chapel Hill, North Carolina
3. Tampa, Florida
2. Columbia, Maryland

Read our Best Places to Live in the South list to learn which city is No. 1.

The best places to live in the West

10. Orem, Utah
9. Westminster, Colorado
8. Salt Lake City, Utah
7. Denver, Colorado
6. Hillsboro, Oregon
5. Fremont, California
4. Irvine, California
3. Boise City, Idaho
2. Kirkland, Washington

Read our Best Places to Live in the West list to learn which city is No. 1.