Choosing a State for Residency

Getting ready to head back to home to Florida after living in Michigan and Ohio this summer.  Certainly enjoyed the cooler temps, fishing, biking, seeing family and friends.  Caught up on a lot of reading including the article that gave me the idea for this week’s return blog.  After reading a Florida Association of Realtors article on the best US states to live in, I went to the source of that article which was a WalletHub study.   Where I once lived (Michigan)  is the 25th ranked state.  I now live in the sixth ranked state: Florida.  But when I looked at the top 5 states to live…none are without snow and  ice…what I wanted to escape from.  

Here are the rankings: Top States to Live in based on 

Affordability 

Economy 

Education

Health

1 Massachusetts 

2 New Jersey 

3 NewHampshire

4 New York 

5 Wyoming 

6 Florida

7 Virginia 

8 Idaho 

9 Wisconsin 

10 Minnesota 

11 Iowa 

12 Maine 

13 Illinois 

14 Pennsylvania 

15 Utah 

16 North Dakota 

17 Vermont 

18 Colorado 

19 Montana 

20 Kansas 

21 South Dakota

22 Indiana 

23 Nebraska 

24 California 

25 Michigan 

26 Connecticut 

27 Maryland 

28 Washington 

29 Rhode Island

30 Georgia 

31 North Carolina

32 Delaware 

33 Ohio 

34 Missouri

35 Hawaii 

36 Tennessee 

37 Texas 

38 Oregon

39 Arizona 

40 Nevada 

41 West Virginia

42 Kentucky

43 Alabama 

44 South Carolina

45 Arkansas 

46 Oklahoma 

47 Mississippi 

48 Louisiana 

49 Alaska

50 New Mexico

So how did WalletHub decide on their choices?  I include at the end of the blog, the links to the two articles with the very detailed info…

In order to determine the best and worst states to live in,

WalletHub compared the 50 states across five key dimensions: 1)

Affordability, 2) Economy, 3) Education & Health, 4) Quality of

Life, and 5) Safety.

We evaluated those dimensions using 51 relevant metrics, which

are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric

was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing

the most favorable living conditions. For metrics marked with an

asterisk (*), the square root of the population was used to

calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating

for minor differences across states.

Finally, we determined each state’s weighted average across all

metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting

scores to rank-order the states.

link to WalletHub:2023’s Best States to Live in

link to FAR: Inclusive ‘Living Conditions’ Study Ranks Fla. No. 6 | Florida Realtors