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They really need to work on their methodology.
Naples?Best cities to live in the U.S., according U.S. News & World Report
Cities that score well on U.S. News' annual ranking of best cities get high marks for economic criteria like value and job market.www.cbsnews.com
Sorry, but Gulf coast south Florida with an economy built on sh!tty tourism and sh!ttier geriatric home healthcare jobs does not seem appealing.
While I generally support median household income, the problem here is that Naples has a population that skews old (~2/3 of the population is over 60 vs ~1/3 nationally) and married (67% vs 46% nationally). So yeah, if you're old and living on dual retirement income, it might be alright.
Also, Americans must not agree seeing the population is declining (probably because old people + FL COVID).
Some of the others are more reasonable/balanced. I don't know about Boise (#2), but is there a lot of local employment? My understanding is COVID remote work drove the income and house prices way up. Then it is a lot southern cities that are reasonably educated and have decent, balanced economies. Then you get to really expensive cities like Boulder and Austin; however, if I look at US News cost of living rankings of cities, it doesn't match other sources I trust more (e.g. The Economist).
Another reason I think their rankings are bullshit (and especially #1 designed to draw clicks and views) is how much each city changes year to year. #1 the last 3 years were: Huntsville (now #7) and Green Bay (now #12).