U.S News & World Report has released their list of the 150 Best Places to Live in the United States, and for 2023 – 2024. Four Michigan cities; Lansing (81), Kalamazoo (90), Detroit (114) and Flint (130).
In order to come up with the list, data is collected from the United States Census Bureau, the FBI, the United States Department of Labor and U.S. News’ internal resources. The data they collected was then weighted based on response to a public survey, where people voted on the most important factors when choosing a place to live. Those factors and their weight were:
Quality of Life (36%), ranks how happy residents are with their day to day lives in each metro area, and includes the following factors:
- Crime Rates (25%)
- Quality of Education (19%)
- Well-being (19%)
- Commuter Index (16%)
- Quality and Availability of Health Care (9%)
- Air Quality Index (AQI) (7%)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Risk Index (5%).
Value Index (23%), this measures how comfortably residents can afford to live within their means in a metro area and includes the following factors; the Housing Affordability Index and the Price Parity Index.
Desirability Index (22%), whether people want to live in a certain metro area.
- Desirability Survey (65%)
- Net Migration (15%)
- Weather Temperateness (10%)
- Establishment-to-Population Ratio (10%)
Job Index Market (19%) is the final factor and takes into consideration the Unemployment Rate and Average Salary.
To calculate the final overall score, and balance the results, they gave all factors a Z-Score for standard deviation. (You can read more on that at the link below).
Based on this list, the worst place to live in the state of Michigan is Flint followed by Detroit, Kalamazoo and Lansing. Two Michigan cities (Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids) ranked in the top 20, see where here.
If you want to see the full list and methodology you can, at RealEstate.USNews.com
Flint, Michigan (130)
The “worst place” to live in Michigan, Flint had an overall score of 5.7 here how Flint scored: Desirability (4.7), Value (7.6), Job Market (4.4), Quality of Life (5.9), and Net Migration (5.3). See more on their overall score here.
(Photo by Elaine Cromie/Getty Images)
Detroit, Michigan (114)
Detroit had an overall score of 6.0, here is the breakdown: Desirability (4.9), Value (6.9), Job Market (5.8), Quality of Life (6.1) and Net Migration (5). See how that score came to be here.
(Photo by Matthew Hatcher/Getty Images)
Kalamazoo, Michigan (90)
Kalamazoo also scored an overall score of 6.2, here is how that was broken down: Desirability (5.1), Value (7.3), Job Market (7.3), Quality of Life (6.5) and Net Migration (5.1). You can read more on their score here.
Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for Nickelodeon)
Lansing, Michigan
Lansing scored an overall score of 6.2, here is how they scored in each individual category: Desirability (5), Value (7.2), Job Market (5.6), Quality of Life (6.6) and Net Migration (5.4). You can read more on their score here.
(Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
