US News: Where Sarasota Ranks In Best Places To Live

SARASOTA, FL -- With it's world-class beaches, postcard-worthy sunsets and cultural offerings, Sarasota is easy to love. But apparently we're not the only ones who noticed.

Sarasota ranked as the 18th best place to live among America’s 125 largest metro areas, according to a new report published Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. The news and information publisher determined the rankings based on factors such as quality of life, job market, value of living there and desire to live there.

The report only ranks the 125 most populous metro areas. Most of the top 25 are located in the middle of the country, though the tech boom has benefited the Pacific Northwest too.

Austin ranked as the best place to live for the third year in a row, followed by two Colorado cities. Interestingly, the Northeast was notably lacking at the top of the list. Washington, D.C. ranked 19th and the next highest city in the region was Portland, Maine, at 23.

“Our Northeastern cities, which are epicenters of higher education and economic development, are not growing nearly as much as places in Florida, California and Texas,” Devon Thorsby, real estate editor at U.S. News, said. “Plus, they are expensive to live in. Top-ranked places have the characteristics people are looking for, including steady job growth, affordability and a high quality of life.”

Here are the top 10 places to live in 2019:

1. Austin, Texas
2. Denver, Colorado
3. Colorado Springs, Colorado
4. Fayetteville, Arkansas
5. Des Moines, Iowa
6. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
7. San Francisco, California
8. Portland, Oregon
9. Seattle, Washington
10. Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina

San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico that was devastated by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, ranked last. Five California metro areas also fell in the bottom 10. They were: Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Fresno and Salinas.

Other major metros at the bottom of the list include Memphis, New Orleans, Miami, Los Angeles and Philadelphia.

Quality of life and value received the most weight in the rankings. The authors created indexes for both using metrics such as crime rates, quality of healthcare and education, median household income, proportion of homeowners with a mortgage, and yearly housing costs. Click here to read the full methodology.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report