Minneapolis, MNDepending on where you live in the country, a one bedroom apartment might cost you $300 a month to live in, or $1,100 a month to live in. Movie tickets might cost you $4.50 in rural America, or easily twice that in some of the larger theaters on the west coast. A $100,000 home out in the country might easily be worth ten times that if it were located in Manhattan. Where we decide to live often affects our economic status whether we realize it or not. Forbes recently published a list of their top ten cities that will let you live affordably and live well at the same time.

Forbes used three different metrics to determine what they believe are the best cities in the nation to live in. They used the National Association of Home Builder’s “Housing Opportunity Index” which determines how affordable homes are to a typical income earner. They also factored in a cost of living index which was developed by the Council on Community and Economic Resaerch and finally factored in “Sperling’s Best Places” that identifies arts and entertainment options. Sperling’s list looked at music venues, museums, sports teams and the like.

The city that came out on top was Minneapolis, MN. Forbes stated that one of the main reasons was that 61% of the homes sold were affordable to a median incom earner. They also highlighted the cities cultural institutions such as the Guthrie theater. After Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, St. Lious, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Columbus, House, Dallas, and Atlanta made the list. Interestingly enough, 7 out of the 10 cities on the list wre located in the Midwest. The one thing common amongst all these cities was that housing was relatively affordable to a typical income earner.

In the end, this data probably won’t do much for us in an individual level unless we are considering moving in the near future, but it’s still interesting to look at. If you’re considering moving to new area of the country, it’s always a good idea to ensure that the location will be affordable to live in and has a relatively decent entertainment scene to make use of.

You can view the full results of the study at Forbes.com



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