Where's the best place to live in the U.S.? It's a complex question that doesn't have one right answer. To get an idea of how cities compare to each other in terms of prosperity, RentCafé measured increases across six indicators—population, income, home value, higher education, poverty rate and unemployment rating—from 2000 to 2016. The final standings were based on the combined value of all ranks.
The most prosperous state by far? Texas. It beats out most of the competition, claiming six spots on the top 20 list; however, California has the highest concentration of prosperous cities.
As for cities with positive changes in all prosperity indicators, Odessa, Texas ranked at the top, followed by Washington, D.C, Charleston, S.C., and Brownsville, Texas. At the bottom of the list across all prosperity indicators? Rockford, Ill., landed the last spot with Toledo, Ohio, and Mesquite, Texas, not far behind.
Here are the top five most prosperous cities in the U.S.:
- Odessa, Texas
Population Change: 25 percent
Income Change: 38 percent
Home Value Change: 91 percent
Higher Education Change: 26 percent
Poverty Rate Change: -36 percent
Unemployment Rate Change: -24 percent
- Washington, D.C.
Population Change: 15 percent
Income Change: 30 percent
Home Value Change: 135 percent
Higher Education Change: 42 percent
Poverty Rate Change: -11 percent
Unemployment Rate Change: -19 percent
- Charleston, S.C.
Population Change: 35 percent
Income Change: 16 percent
Home Value Change: 39 percent
Higher Education Change: 34 percent
Poverty Rate Change: -15 percent
Unemployment Rate Change: -10 percent
- Fontana, Calif.
Population Change: 60 percent
Income Change: 3 percent
Home Value Change: 60 percent
Higher Education Change: 57 percent
Poverty Rate Change: 3 percent
Unemployment Rate Change: 18 percent
- North Charleston, S.C.
Population Change: 34 percent
Income Change: -3 percent
Home Value Change: 59 percent
Higher Education Change: 53 percent
Poverty Rate Change: -2 percent
Unemployment Rate Change: -1 percent
Not many cities (only 11 out of over 300) reported improvements across all indicators. This doesn't, however, point to a lack of prosperity across U.S. cities; this just means many cities focus on big improvements across one or two indicators instead of minor improvements in all categories.
For details on the remaining most prosperous U.S. cities and to read the entire report, click here.
