Surprise? The No. 1 Best City to Live in the US is in New England
There's no shortage of publications and websites that put together "best of" lists that talk about the great places to stay, eat, visit, or relax in New England. But what about places to live? A new list from Niche.com reveals the 192 best places to live in 2023 from coast to coast in America, and a city in New England has taken the top spot.
That top spot belongs to Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's officially been named the best city in America to live in for 2023. The city nabbed an A or A+ rating in seven of the twelve key metrics that Niche uses to determine which cities are the best to live in.
For Cambridge, the key to being the very best is a handful of those metrics. Cambridge was rating amongst the best cities in America in nightlife, commuter times, health/fitness, and outdoor activities, plus quality of life for families. The quality of life for families is a powerful metric that pushed Cambridge ahead of other cities that scored closely.
Cambridge's proximity to Boston helped with being named the best city to live in throughout the United States. Being the home of both Harvard University as well as MIT gave Cambridge powerful education scores as well as high grades in job opportunities and diversity.
Cambridge wasn't the only New England city to make Niche.com's expansive list, however. Here's a snapshot at the other cities in the region that were named as some of the best to live in.
#31: Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is right next door to Cambridge, but had a couple things working against it when it came to the twelve key metrics. Boston got dinged for cost of living, which is notoriously high in the city. Boston was also given poor marks for the availability of housing.
#68: Stamford, Connecticut
Similar to Boston, the two major negatives to Stamford, Connecticut, were its significant cost of living and the availability of housing. Stamford also rated lower than Boston in job opportunities as well.
#145: Providence, Rhode Island
Unlike Boston and Stamford, Providence scored terrific marks in cost of living. What knocked Providence down the list, however, was its public school system, job opportunities, and mediocre marks for crime/safety.
#154: Worcester, Massachusetts
The turnaround for Worcester continues, and it has a lot to do with diversity, commute times, nightlife, and the public school system. Worcester got excellent grades in all of those key metrics, which helped propel them into being named one of the best cities to live in America.
#173: New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven received some of the highest scores for its nightlife and diversity within the city. But it also received poor marks for housing availability as well as mediocre scores for its public school system and crime/safety.
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