Posted on 05/17/2022 10:49:41 AM PDT by simpson96
To some, Huntsville, Alabama, may seem an unlikely metro area to beat out 149 others in the U.S. News Best Places to Live ranking. With a population of less than 500,000, it's smaller than a significant portion of places on the list and it’s off the beaten path when it comes to vacation destinations or typical spots people consider when moving to a new part of the country.
But this northern Alabama metro area offers the affordability and quality of life that people seem to be craving after years of a pandemic that forced them to stay home, opened up opportunities to work from home permanently and urged many people to consider their top priorities in a place to live.
Huntsville ranks as the No. 1 metro area in the Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2022-23 rankings, unseating Boulder, Colorado, after two years at the top. The Best Places to Live rankings are determined by factoring in housing affordability, the job market, net migration, desirability and quality of life, which includes crime rate, college readiness among high school students, overall well-being among residents, average commute time, access to quality health care and air quality. With particularly high scores in housing affordability and quality of life, Huntsville took the top spot.
Whether you’re a Huntsville resident, considering a move to the area or wondering if you should include Huntsville in your list of potential hometowns, we’re breaking down what makes Huntsville the Best Place to Live in 2022-23, why it beats out other places and what downsides you may need to compromise on.
Affording Huntsville Is Easy
In a national housing market where home prices are rising fast and buyers are frequently outbid as they compete to purchase a house, starting at a lower price threshold helps – and that’s what you’ll find in the Huntsville market.
Huntsville metro area residents spend 20.12% of the area’s median annual household income on housing costs, including mortgage payments, rent, property taxes and utilities. That makes it the third-most affordable place to live out of the 150 metro areas in the Best Places to Live ranking.
Tom Lehrer
“Sweet Home AL!”
Check out this rendition by the Leningrad Cowboys. It’s an absolute hoot!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=M5GRpA5H3CI
My friend lives in Prescott Valley.
I agree. My family lived there in the 60s and I hated to move back to Washington.
My friend lives there and I visited there in 2019 before the COVID insanity hit. I quite enjoyed it.
San Francisco was in the top 10 which tells uou all you need to know about the criteria used.
Been here off and on for the past 30 years and have seen lots of change. They’re trying really hard to turn it and the surrounding cities (Madison, Athens, etc..) into West Atlanta.
Safety usually directly follows demographics and Huntsville’s, while not the worst in the region, certainly has its share of crime prone groups. Crime is a much greater threat on a daily basis than hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes etc. Those are much, much less likely to affect you than crime so they don’t even factor into my thinking when I think “safety”.
I like Huntsville I live about 100 miles north but I may move close enough around Lynchburg we’re Huntsville will be my city but one warning it’s more liberal than the average Alabama county probably 40% Democrat and it’s a very white county so these are liberal white people with professional degrees the county voted for Trump 53% whereas the state of Alabama voted 64% so there you go buyer beware
Yeah. These “Top Whatever” lists are always dumb. But often fun. It takes real imagination to invent a “best cities” list that ignores crime rates. Yet I see them regularly.
I live in a city over 100,000 population with regularly the lowest crime rate in the nation for a city of that size. We don’t worry if we forget to lock out doors. Yet it never makes any “Top Ten Best Places to Live” list.
Lived here in the HSV area for 42 years.
Just yesterday was cursing the taffic/roads that have become horrid because the roads cannot keep up with all the new housing and apartment developments going up in every open square inch.
This is not good news.... :^(
I moved to NE HSV in 2020. Close to my hometown of Fayetteville, TN.
They may be Leni, ….:)
…..but in the 70’s our county was the ‘big kahuna’……the schools were filled with kids from dads who peopled the aerospace companies and Kennedy Space Center…..
We’re still the Space Coast but now we regularly watch Musk’s Starlink rockets take off and return…..instead of the old rockets and Shuttles.
And our community is taking off like a rocket with thousands of people moving in!…..( adter Joe Biden ruined New York and California)
I don’t understand how people can handle the humidity on the gulf coast.
Fascinating! 😎
The magazines did that a few years back with Scottsdale and Gilbert, AZ and now we are overrun with Californians. Many are conservatives - but too many are not.
I know a few people who have spent the better part of their lives in Huntsville TX.
I’m Downtown Prescitt right now near the old Court House.Trump Tuesday and it’s mild temps,breezy and
Beautiful!
Flag Waving Here we Come!
Humidity,,,
Argh,
I’ve endured that in Biloxi and it’s terrible!
Oh Well.
Absolutely!
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