MONEY MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Money Magazine Article

By Marguerite T. Smith and Sheryl Nance-Nash

This year, in MONEY's eighth annual ranking of the livability in the 300 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, the economic action is resounding in the Southeast, roaring in the Rockies and rolling into semirural towns that were dismissed as the boondocks as recently as five years ago. There are, to be sure, a few pockets of gloom, particularly in areas hit by military cutbacks such a Norfork, Va. and Monterey, Calif.

But generally, America's economic expansion stretches from sea to shining sea. The resurgence allowed seven cities to pop onto our top 10 list this year, many of them unspoiled areas where urban woes such as crime, pollution and congestion seem relatively manageable.

In our seven previous Best Places to Live surveys, the top locals were usually concentrated in one or two parts of the country. This year, however, the hot spots are sprinkled like confetti all over the map. Our No. 1, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, N.C., and No. 7, Gainesville, Fla, signal the strengthening of the Southeast. Dudly Lacy, 44, a Durham architect whose family is featured on the opening pages of this article and in the box about about Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, sums it up: "Business is just great," he said, "A lot of advanced technology companies are moving here from Boston and California because costs are lower and the living is easier." When IBM officials recently announced plans to trim their work force by 2,000, they said Big Blue will also relocate employees from four different sites to the Raleigh area. The Midwest is represented by No. 2, Rochester, Minn. (last years No. 1), and No. 9, Sioux Falls, S.D. Emerging growth centers of No. 3 Provo/Orem, Utah and No. 4, Salt Lake City/Ogden demonstrate the vigor of the Rocky Mountain states, where personal income grew 7.6% last year. Even recession-whipped California and Connecticut turned up a winner apiece: No. 5, San Jose, and No. 6, Stamford/Norwalk. You would head to the Northwest for No. 8, Seattle, and to the Southwest for No. 10, Albuquerque.

As in our earlier surveys, smaller is better. The new No. 1 and six more of our top 10 are small to mid-size cities with populations below 1 million. "We're seeing a real move toward more traditional values found in smaller cities," say Richard Loughlin, president of Century 21 Real Estate. "Home buyers want safe neighborhoods with good schools."

With good tidings cutting across most regions and many businesses, this could be an excellent time to explore the path not taken. If you're a stressed-out urbanite or a corporate refugee, consider investigating the locals we illustrate here - where job opportunities and superior medical care abound, the quality of life is a pleasure, and you can go it alone, raise a family or retire with ease. You probably won't stay alone for long, though. After MONEY named relatively unkown places No. 1 in recent years - Rochester last year, Sioux Falls in '92 and Provo/Orem in '91 - hordes of people explored whether our winners were right for them and many even decided to move. In Provo, "inquiries from new businesses tripled, and we no longer solicit them," says Richard Bradford, director of the Utah Valley Economic Development Corp.

In a few ways, Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, an 882,500-person region in north-central North Carolina, mirrors Rochester, Minn. Both are middle-size metro areas with medical megacenters; Rochester has the Mayo Clinic, while Durham has Duke University Medical Center. (Once dubbed "Crossroads of Tobaccoland," Durham now bills itself as the "City of Medicine.") Both boast unemployment rates that are nearly half the U.S. average of 6%. In other ways, however, the area known locally as the Research Triangle Park is the product of a more intriguing recipe. Start with the youthful presence of its three top universities - Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State in Raleigh. Blend in the roughly 13,550 retires, mostly from the Northeast, clustering around Chapel Hill (pop. 42,000). Flavor with an ethnic mix that is 81% white, 12% black and has a sprinkling of Hispanics and Asians. Finally, add the 34,000 technicians, researchers, scientists and support staff working in Research Triangle Park. Situated between Durham (pop. 148,000) and the state capital of Raleigh (pop. 230,400), the 6,800-acre park houses, multinational corporations such as IBM, Glaxo and Mitsubishi. Result: an area that is culturally rich and ethnically diverse, rooted in a fertile economy.

Our basic survey methodology remains unchanged. We hire Beta Research, a Syosset, N.Y. polling firm, to ask a statistically valid sample of MONEY subscribers (median age: 48; mean household income $75,320) what qualities they value in a place to live. Specifically, this year, in rating the importance of 43 factors on a scale of 1 to 10, they said their top priorities were a low crime rate, clean water, clean air and plentiful doctors (For the complete list, see page 132.)

Next, with the assistance from Fast Forward, a Portland, Ore. demographic consulting firm, we collected the most timely data available on each of the 300 largest U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. The data comes from the government as well as from private firms (housing permits from the U.S. Housing Market report; cost-of-living figures from the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association, hospitals with low mortality rates from the Consumers' Guide to Hospitals; environmental rankings from The Green Index; top restaurants from the Mobil Guide; and the abundance of orchestras from Symphony magazine). Century 21 again provided an exclusive list of the current prices and property taxes for a typical three-bedroom home in each area, plus price trends from a year ago. Thirteen of this year's metro areas, all Boston and New York suburbs, weren't ranked last year because OMB no longer classified them as stand-alone metro areas but folded them into the major city nearby. This year they returned as separate entities to our list.

Finally, we awarded points to metro areas based on how well they delivered the attributes subscribers value the most. The results were then consolidated into nine broad categories: health, crime, economy, housing, education, transportation, weather, leisure, and arts and culture. With the completed rankings in hand, MONEY reporters visited the top 10 and the bottom five places to personally assess attractions and drawbacks our statistics might have missed.

In our ongoing effort to improve the accuracy of our rankings, we included new measures for two factors:

State fiscal strength.

Using an April survey of the states by the National Governors' Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers, we awarded the most points to cities in states like New Jersey, where sales or personal income taxes are likely to be cut. We gave no points to ones like Michigan, where the overall tax burden seems likely to rise.

Quality of the Schools.

Expansion Management, and Overland Park, Kans. trade magazine for executives considering relocating their businesses, provided data on three yardsticks of school distinction: high school graduation rates, dollars sent per pupil and student/teacher ratios. The winners in those categories were Rochester, Minn., where virtually 100% of students graduate from high school, compared with 71.2% for the U.S.; Charlottesville, Va., which spends the most per pupil ($5,802 vs. the $5,193 U.S. average) and two Connecticut metro areas, New London and Stamford/Norwalk, whose pupil/teacher ratio is only 11.9, compared with the 17.2 U.S. average.

Places can rise or fall fairly dramatically in our rankings from year to year for three reasons: First, the readers' priorities shift each year, boosting or lessening the weighting we give to specific factors. For instance, since sunny weather was more important this year, many places in California and Flordia scored better. Second, new data sources can alter a city's ranking. Finally, the area may have improved or declined in a quantitative way. This year, the place that rose the most was New London (up 181 places to 101). The reason for its escalator rid: broad-based improvement in its scores in the crime, arts, economy, education, health and housing categories.

The bottom five places - mostly clustered in the Midwest - suffer from poor economies: No. 330, Jackson Mich , No. 299 Rockford, Ill.; No. 298, Saginaw/Bay City/Midland, Mich.; No. 297, Flint, Mich, and No. 296, Glens Falls, N.Y. Tiny Glens Falls(Pop. 15,00) in upstate New York has been hit by regional layoffs. Flint and Saginaw, with unemployment rates over 9% in May, are still struggling with an economic hangover from the auto recession. Things may be turning up for them, though. GM has called back 900 laid-off workers in Flint. And the giant automaker is investing $80 million in Saginaw to update an iron plant, preserving 370 jobs. Rockford wrestles with crime and economic problems too, but there's been a definite uptick since last year's cellar ranking. Chrysler just reopened a 3,500-person assembly plant and hired an extra 150 workers to build the popular new Neon. The city is strong on civic pride. After our '93 survey came out, the fourth graders at Keigh School wrote a 13-page report on the positive aspects of their hometown and mailed it to MONEY, Asking for a more appropriate ranking. Meghan Ferguson, 9, told a local reporter: "At least 250. It's not really a perfect city but it's not all bad either." Meghan's right. No place is perfect.

[Money Magazine Article Part 2]