Where Are The Best U.S. Cities To Live In 2017?

Where is the best city to live in the United States? If only we all could have the true answer.

U.S. News & World Report — certainly one of the most reputable outlets among the dearth of those who have recently begun trying to rank anything and everything — took a stab at it for the second year in a row, using highly reliable data to arrive at its conclusions.

The report looked at the 100 most populous metro areas in the country and graded them based on several factors, including the job market and affordability. Those categories were given different weights and were combined to come up with the final ranking.

Here were the top 10 places to live in the country, according to the rankings:

1. Austin, TX

2. Denver, CO

3. San Jose, CA

4. Washington, DC

5. Fayetteville, AR

6. Seattle, WA

7. Raleigh & Durham, NC

8. Boston, MA

9. Des Moines, IA

10. Salt Lake City, UT

Austin jumped up one spot to No. 1, switching places with last year's top city of Denver. You can click here to see last year's rankings.

Click here to see this year's full list.

These were the categories used to come up with the rankings, along with how heavily they were weighted:

• Job Market Index (20 percent): A look at both the 12-month moving unemployment rate and the median salary, weighted equally.
• Value Index (25 percent): A comparison of the median annual household income against the blended annual cost of living, which looks at utility costs and taxes compared against mortgage rates and monthly rents.
• Quality of Life Index (30 percent): A look at how satisfied residents are with their daily lives, which takes into account crime rates, quality and availability of health care, quality of education, well-being and the commuter index.
• Desirability Index (15 percent): Based off a nationwide Google Consumer Survey that asked people which city they would like to live in.
• Net Migration (10 percent): Looking at how fast people are moving in or out of major metro areas.

You can read the full methodology here.

And, for fun, here were the bottom 10 metro areas ranked by U.S. News & World Report:

100. San Juan, PR

99. Modesto, CA

98. Stockton, CA

97. Bakersfield, CA

96. Fresno, CA

95. New Orleans, LA

94. McAllen, TX

93. Memphis, TN

92. Miami, FL

91. Jackson, MS

90. Birmingham, AL

See the full rankings from U.S. News & World Report here.

Image: Austin, Texas; via Ed Schipul, Flickr; used under Creative Commons