--- title: The 10 Best Places to Live in the South description: Looking to go south permanently? Check out Money's guide to the best places in the region. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: 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 more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 501 covers: - Housing - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Samantha Sharf role: Editor url: https://money.com/author/samantha-sharf/ bio: Samantha Sharf is Money's real estate editor. She previously wrote about amazing homes and billion-dollar real estate entrepreneurs for Forbes. at_money_since: 2020 articles: 34 covers: - Housing - Economy and Politics - Lifestyle - Mortgages - Personal Finance social: - https://twitter.com/samsharf - https://linkedin.com/in/samanthasharf/ former_staff: true published: '2023-01-09T18:40:57.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T13:02:34.000Z' section: Housing word_count: 621 canonical: https://money.com/best-places-to-live-in-the-south/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Three people mountain biking in Raleigh, North Carolina](https://img.money.com/2023/01/BPL22-South-Raleigh-North-Carolina.jpg) *Raleigh, North Carolina* Presented by ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/16756/5163d535-82a0-4087-80f2-8627251387ea.png) Becoming a homeowner is closer than you think with AmeriSave Mortgage. Don't wait any longer, start your journey today! [Go to AmeriSave.com](https://money.com/pr/s0033bdcef33?ap_referrer=%2Fbest-places-to-live-in-the-south%2F) Raleigh, North Carolina, is no small town. Home to about 470,000 residents, it doesn’t register as a [major U.S. city](https://money.com/best-big-cities/) either. Still, this Southern gem spoils locals as if it were — with a booming foodie scene, an abundance of craft-breweries and top-notch arts and cultural offerings ([most of which are free](https://www.visitraleigh.com/things-to-do/40-free-things-to-do/)!), plus more than 9,000 acres of parkland. The City of Oaks is also notably more diverse than North Carolina as a whole and celebrates this fact. The [Out! Raleigh](https://www.outraleigh.com/) pride celebration and the [African American Cultural Festival](https://www.aacfestival.org/) are just two examples. Both events roared back to life this past summer after having been on pause due to the pandemic. Plenty of other events dominate the streets of downtown Raleigh, too — including [Hopscotch](https://hopscotchmusicfest.com/), an annual multi-day music festival that draws the hipsters from around the East Coast. The event is a crown jewel of the area’s thriving music beat, which has produced the indie darlings Bowerbirds and Sylvan Esso (technically from neighboring Durham). These factors are major contributors to Raleigh’s placement as the [No. 4 Best Place to Live](https://money.com/best-places-to-live/raleigh-north-carolina/) nationwide and helped it clinch the top spot on this [regional list](https://money.com/best-places-to-live-in-every-region/). To determine the best places to live in the South, we focused on places with populations of at least 50,000 that were located in 16 Southern states as defined by the [U.S. Census](https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf). Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. ## Your dream home is within reach with Lendingtree ### Get a low Mortgage Rate on a home you’ll love. Lendingtree Mortgage can guide you in your home-buying journey. All it takes is one click on your state to get the ball rolling. [VIEW RATES](https://money.com/pr/ye5863ca5374?ap_referrer=%2Fbest-places-to-live-in-the-south%2F) Not all products are eligible. All loans are subject to credit approval. [Additional](https://www.amerisave.com/lock-shop/) terms & conditions apply. We also limited the rankings to one place per county and two places per state. As with our core [Best Places to Live](https://money.com/best-places-to-live/?ref=/best-big-cities/) ranking, we collected approximately 350 pieces of data on each Southern place and grouped that information into nine primary ranking categories such as amenities, cost of living, diversity, economic opportunity and more. (See our [full Best Places methodology](https://money.com/best-places-to-live/methodology/?ref=/best-big-cities/) for more details.) While Raleigh provides a great quality of life with tons of options for entertainment, perhaps the strongest factor of all is its economy. Between 2016 and 2021, the city saw an 11% boom in job growth — doubling the national average — and over the next five years, Moody’s Analytics predicts additional growth of more than 10% (an especially impressive feat for an already large and diverse economy). As a third of North Carolina’s prestigious [Research Triangle](https://www.rtp.org/), Raleigh has courted many big-name employers, including IBM, Cisco Systems and Pfizer. [North Carolina State University](https://money.com/best-colleges/profile/north-carolina-state-university-at-raleigh/) is a major local employer, as are local branches of [Duke University’s](https://money.com/best-colleges/profile/duke-university/) hospital system. Plus, as the home to NC State and the HBCUs Shaw University and Saint Augustine’s University, Raleigh is also a higher-education powerhouse. Duke University and UNC- Chapel Hill are just a short distance away in Durham and Chapel Hill respectively — and are the other two points that complete the Research Triangle. To top it all off: Raleigh’s public school system is highly regarded, with students scoring well above average in math and reading. Of course, the South boasts plenty of amazing places to live as well. Here’s a look at some other stand-out cities. ## The 10 best places to live in the South 1. Raleigh, North Carolina 2. Columbia, Maryland 3. Tampa, Florida 4. Chapel Hill, North Carolina 5. Arlington, Virginia 6. Rockville, Maryland 7. Franklin, Tennessee 8. Alexandria, Virginia 9. Marietta, Georgia 10. Bentonville, Arkansas ***Editor’s note:*** *We excluded Atlanta for this regional list of best places to live. Atlanta ranked* [*No. 1*](https://money.com/best-places-to-live/atlanta-georgia/) *on our overall Best Places to Live list, and we dedicated* [*an entire cover story*](https://money.com/atlanta-georgia-best-places-to-live-2022/) *to sing its praises. Here, we highlight other exceptional Southern cities.* ## Stop dreaming — a new home is possible with Lendingtree Mortgage ### Don’t waste another minute and start the process of locking a Mortgage Rate that’s right for you by clicking below. [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/xa8cb1b05868?ap_referrer=%2Fbest-places-to-live-in-the-south%2F) Not all products are eligible. All loans are subject to credit approval. 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