Houston #7 Most Affordable City

[editor]

Houston named 7th most affordable city by Forbes

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39957282/ns/business-forbescom/

San Antonio is #6, Austin #10, OKC #1.

[TheNiche]

Forbes really knows how to tweak its click count with these best and worst lists, but the methodology supporting the content is consistently disappointing.

[lockmat]

Is there a list that shows the most desired places to live? One that is a survey of real people, not just what an editor ranks them as?

That would interesting to combine that list with some of these others.

[TheNiche]

Is there a list that shows the most desired places to live? One that is a survey of real people, not just what an editor ranks them as?

That would interesting to combine that list with some of these others.

I'm vaguely aware of some such studies that have been done over the years, however none seem to word the question in such a way as that respondents can easily weigh perceived desirability against real or perceived pecuniary or non-pecuniary costs. Consequently, many cities with net negative domestic migration actually rise to the top of the list.

I'm thinking that a better study would establish a broadly-defined 'happiness index' cross-tabulated by hundreds of different combinations of demographic and occupational factors, and that it could rate cities according to the relative happiness of these different population segments that already live there. This approach would acknowledge the importance of individual and situational differences in deciding where to live and would get around the bias created by ambition, daydreaming, false impressions, being pressured to rush to judgment, etc.

[lockmat]

I'm thinking that a better study would establish a broadly-defined 'happiness index' cross-tabulated by hundreds of different combinations of demographic and occupational factors, and that it could rate cities according to the relative happiness of these different population segments that already live there. This approach would acknowledge the importance of individual and situational differences in deciding where to live and would get around the bias created by ambition, daydreaming, false impressions, being pressured to rush to judgment, etc.

Sounds like a plan to me.

I think we need to help out the forbes' and msnbc's of the world though and come up with a simple one liner. What would it be?

Maybe like, "What is the most recent city you've actually thought of moving to?" I'm sure there's many things wrong with this question, but it's a start. What d'ya got?

[TheNiche]

I think we need to help out the forbes' and msnbc's of the world though and come up with a simple one liner. What would it be?

Such an attempt is a farcical.

[lockmat]

Such an attempt is a farcical.

Let's play pretend and humor ourselves.

[LTAWACS]

Forbes really knows how to tweak its click count with these best and worst lists, but the methodology supporting the content is consistently disappointing.

I agree.