Places Rated Almanac: The Classic Guide for Finding Your Best Places to Live in America [Paperback]

David Savageau (Author)

Book Description

Series: Places Rated | Publication Date: March 1, 2007

In this unique reference, every one of America’s 379 metropolitan areas is rated by factors that are important to anyone considering a move. Divided into nine thoroughly researched main topics, this guide derives its information as much from private sources as government sources, providing a well-rounded description of all that each metro area has to offer: ambience, housing, jobs, crime, transportation, education, health care, recreation, and climate. With a personalized quiz to help determine the most important factors of an area, this ratings sourcebook provides a wealth of information for those looking to move and the armchair traveler alike.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Looking to live somewhere where houses are cheap? Head to Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa, where the average home costs $75,700, and annual property taxes for that home are about $960. Perhaps a good job market is a higher priority. In that case, pick Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; or Riverside, California, as they top the list of places projected to have the highest-percentage increase in new jobs by 2005. Most of those jobs, by the way, are expected to have above-average pay. This and other detailed information can be found in the sixth edition of Places Rated Almanac, a helpful resource for people thinking of relocating as well as those with a desire to learn about cities and towns. Metropolitan areas are rated in nine categories: costs of living, job outlook, transportation, education, health care, crime, the arts, recreation, and climate. But don't go looking for statistics on Podunk--the focus remains on 354 metro areas, metro defined as a city or urbanized population of at least 50,000, located in a county with a total population of at least 100,000.

Places Rated is laced with intelligent and, unexpectedly, witty writing. The whole concept of judging places, the author notes, may seem the utmost of brass. "Yet everyone does it, privately. Some suspect that culture in Omaha or Des Moines or Saskatoon is a contradiction. Others surmise that daily life in Miami consists of surviving drug-trade shoot-outs..." Organized intelligently, Places Rated acknowledges that "livability" and "quality of life" are moving targets. Livable for whom? The artist who wants mountain vistas? The entrepreneur who wants low taxes and no red tape? With these limitations in mind, the book ends with a chapter titled "Putting It All Together," where the reader is invited to rate cities with a customized list of priorities. Arriving at your customized list, however, requires answering 72 questions that force you to decide once and for all what you value most--a low cost of living or good school districts or mild winters or some other criterion. And should you find that climate matters most, head for Santa Barbara, California, where winters and summers are mild and natural hazards are few, and stay away from Rochester, Minnesota, unless you're willing to endure 35 days when it's 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and 165 days of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, annually. --John Russell --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Part fodder for trivia contests, part handbook for people and businesses seeking new homes, this perennial best seller offers everything."   —The New York Times

"A ratings bible for companies and people looking to move to America's nicest cities."  —Denver Post

"[Rating places] goes back to the venerable Places Rated Almanac, which has surveyed metropolitan areas since 1981."  —Los Angeles Times

"The most famous of the 'quality of life' guidebooks."  —Orange County Register

"One of the most well-established and popular sources for measuring quality of life."  —Newsday

"Every two years the publication of Places Rated Almanac sets off a round of preening from mayors of winning cities and huffing and puffing from the losers.”  —The Times

"A splendid compendium of facts about nearly every urban area in the United States. The armchair geographer can spend hours, perhaps days, browsing through this statistical smorgasbord and uncovering nuggets such as those mentioned here."  —Omaha World Herald

"Place ratings can be traced to the publication in the U.S. of Places Rated Almanac (1981). This best selling publication . . . appealed to companies interested in business or family moves."  —Urban Studies

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 662 pages
• Publisher: Places Rated Books, LLC; 7th edition (March 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979319900
• ISBN-13: 978-0979319907
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #82 in Books > Education & Reference > Almanacs & Yearbooks > Almanacs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tons of Great Indices but it Misses an Important One, March 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Places Rated Almanac (Paperback)

I've used the Places Rated Almanac (PRA) for my last two moves. It is well worth a purchase, especially for people who may be moving to areas that are totally unresearched.

The problem that I have with PRA is the lack of an index on the culture or "mood" of the cities involved. There certainly is a difference in culture between, Charleston S.C., Joplin, MO., and Phoenix, AZ. even if the score the same on the other indices.

Moving to a new city is, in some ways,like marrying another person by mail. It's great to know the age, weight, IQ, favorite hobbies of the individual, but not knowing their behavior or quirks can be disastrous. In my case, even with the last two PRA highly rated cities that I moved to, adverse culture was among the top reasons why I ended up leaving.

What would I recommend to the publishers of PRA? Hire a part time anthropologist. Look for possible indices (such as population inflow vs. outflow, town hall meeting topics, newspaper headlines, suicide rate, major religious activities, etc.). Scale the cities based on parameters such as "citizen involvement", "cohesiveness", "tolerance", and "skeletons in the closet". This is not as "tangible" as the elevation or average temperature, but it sure would help users of the PRA match their own cultural values with candidate cities.

79 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good with one caveat......., January 3, 1998

By 

Laurence J. Stybel "Boardoptions.com" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Places Rated Almanac (Paperback)

or a senior executive contemplating relocation, this is an outstanding reference book---with one caveat. WHAT IS GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK 350 statistical metropolitan areas are compared on such issues as job markets, cost of living, housing markets, educational standards, crime rates, health care, recreational facilities, climate, etc. The information is presented in an unbiased manner. ONE CAVEAT The last chapter of the book sums up all the different factors and statistically derives the top ten areas to live. The assumption behind the last chapter is that all people will give all factors equal weight. That assumption is bogus, to say the least. For example, with a sixteen year old daughter we would rate educational facilities higher than transportation. On the other hand, an 80 year old retiree might rate transportation and health resources higher than education! Skip the last chapter and focus on the facts in the rest of this great reference book. If you order this book, make sure you are getting the latest latest edition of PLACES Laurence J. Stybel Board of Directors Resource Center

54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book, August 17, 2002

By 

"nycathyj" (Steamburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Places Rated Almanac (Special Millennium Edition) (Paperback)

This book is just great. I have bought every retirement-places-rated type of book that I can get my hands on and this author is by far the best. The millennium edition is twice as big as the last edition and every subject is covered that anyone would want to know about an area; cost of living, transportation, jobs, education, climate, crime, the arts, health care, recreation. I can't wait for the next edition to come out! We're not retiring any time soon so it's helpful to really be able to study and evaluate where we are going to want to retire.