Best Place to Live State/town

I love living in Northern California and would not live anywhere else. I am 5th generation Californian and we tend to stay put. It is a great place for many, many reasons. If you come here, though, please bring water. We need it desperately.

I am so spoiled by great weather and natural beauty I cannot imagine living anywhere else permanently.

Schools are some of the best in the country, community is small but has excellent youth programs and resources for families. You can walk, run, swim, hike, camp, or just enjoy the views almost 365 days per year. My kids don't go to the mall to hang out, they go to the beach or on a hike. I like that. I think being surrounded by nature instills a great appreciation for it, which is necessary for the survival of humankind.

When your wanting a little more action, SF is under 2 hours away.

The only downside is the price tag.

We are natives of the Bay Area (San Francisco and surroundings). If you have the money to live there, it is hands down the best place on the planet to live. (Well... unless you can afford to live in Paris. And if so, definitely live there!)

More recently, we moved to Sacramento, CA, which is about an hour from San Francisco. We still have some of the advantages of a large town (good restaurants, museums, plenty of choices for school districts or private schools, lots of higher-level sports teams for kids, a symphony, a ballet, etc.), but it still has a little of the small-town feel left, too, which is nice. The weather is pretty warm during the summer, and not too cold in the winter (it doesn't snow, but we will get a very occasional overnight freeze). And if we want to go do something in San Francisco, we just have to hop in the car and we are there in no time. The best part of all is that the cost of living is far, far less than in the Bay Area. Our property taxes aren't too bad. Our sales tax and state income tax are pretty hefty, but that's the price you pay for living in near-paradise, I guess. ;)

This is such a vague question.
First of all, doesn't it depend on your job/s? Clearly you need a good income to raise a family. I don't know very many people who can just pick up and move where ever they want to. So where can you find work in your field? Seems to me that's the only logical place to start.
Second, what about family and friends, how important is it to be close to the people you care about?
Third, what is your lifestyle like? I live in Northern California, in a crazy expensive area, and I can tell you that as hard as it is financially, it is worth it to be close to everything we can access within a day, beaches, LA and San Francisco, Disneyland and professional performances, concerts and sporting events, mountains, skiing, lakes and rivers, the wine country, it's an amazing place to live AND the weather is mild. My idea of hot is 90's and cold is 50's. The only time I deal with the snow is by choice, same with the desert, I get to pick and choose.
So really, no one else can answer this question without REALLY knowing you.
For what it's worth, I have a friend who moved to rural Ohio last year, and while they are killing it financially (house is bought and paid for, unheard of in California) they really miss their friends, hate the hard winters and unhealthy lifestyle and lack of diversity where they live now, basically they are surrounded by bunch of fat, white, uneducated, racist types :-(

Chicago (not Illinois) is a very expensive place to live, but not nearly as expensive as California!

We've lived in our house just outside of Springfield, IL, for about 8 years, and our property taxes haven't significantly increased. The cost of living outside of the Chicago area is significantly cheaper than in the Chicago area.

My SIL is from Chicago and now lives near us. Sometimes she misses the downtown scene, but she has remarked many, many times about how great Central Illinois is and how it has many of things Chicago has without the high cost and traffic. She and I both have a 20 minute commute to work, and we often laugh about the number of people that think 20 minutes is long commute.

Central Illinois doesn't have the museums or zoos or specialty attractions that Chicago has, but we have most of the restaurants, great schools and not too far from St. Louis (or Chicago, really).

We've lived all over & I can honestly say that every place we've been has had wonderful attributes as well as some disadvantages; our attitude is what has made the difference.
The things that are important to us may not be as important to someone else. We tend to appreciate places that are homeschool friendly as well as pro 2nd Amendment.
Texas was good because it doesn't have state tax along with the two points above; additionally, we have tons of family & friends there.
Florida was great because of the beaches :-) I don't think they have state tax there either but could be wrong.
Oklahoma will always be special to me because that's where I grew up.
Hawaii was absolutely amazing for so many reasons.
Virginia was excellent because of the rich history of the area and the close proximity to so many other historical places.
Colorado was lovely because of the mountains and the amazing hiking available.
Now we're in Iowa & enjoying it here. The pace of life is slower that what we've been used to for the past several years & for right now, that's a good thing.
Deciding where to live and what's important is so personal - hope you find a wonderful place!

Canada. High taxes, but family friendly, good schools, universal health care. I wouldn't dream of living anywhere else.

You might check out this recent article: http://time.com/money/collection/best-places-to-live-2015/

It's hard to know what's best for you because you don't say anything about yourself and your own interests/needs/job situation.

I like where I live (central MA) because it's suburban and the schools are excellent, with many activities available both in and out of school. We have a ton of restaurants, decent shopping, and several malls about 20 minutes away. We are diverse - a lot of ethnicities and religions in the neighborhood and the schools. We are less than an hour from Boston by car or train (history, culture, colleges), 90 minutes to the beaches and summer fun Cape Cod (not counting summer traffic), 30 minutes from the unsung gem of Worcester (colleges, museums, restaurants), and 20-60 minutes from some of the best rural areas (state forests/parks, babbling brooks, open space, tiny town charm, etc.). We have local farms, but we have technology and life sciences. We have the Berkshires, but we're close to the mountains of New Hampshire and the beaches of southern Maine and Rhode Island. What don't I like? Traffic, high-ish taxes, town meeting form of government (takes forever, most people don't go so decisions are made by small group who sit through it all), and the winters that are getting longer (we were in the national news at least 3 times a week last winter - but everyplace is getting worse in many ways). If you hate snow, don't move here!

One thing a lot of people don't consider when looking for a place to live is the politics of the region and the state. If you're a red state lover, a blue state is a huge change and vice versa. If you are a pro-choice, marriage-equality, gun-control supporter, you'll love Massachusetts. If you want open-carry gun laws and conservative politics and are hoping for a strong Republican party, you will be miserable here. The same sort of thing could be said for most any city and state, and a lot of people don't look into the political climate like that.

I think a lot of times we focus on "good schools" and forget the other values we want our kids raised with and that we ourselves want to live with when the kids are asleep or grown and moved away. As they say during the safety lecture on every airplane, you gotta put the oxygen mask on yourself first, right.

I moved a lot growing up and have lived all up and down the east coast, I currently live near DC. I think this question is relative, because there is always some drawback - no where is perfect. First, find work in different places and then research how it works for your family, then you'll know.

I do want to move further south, but my husband is happy here. I do enjoy where we live too, but I hate the politics here, I don't like the high cost of living, airports/malls are at least an hour away from our home, and the traffic can be a nightmare. Otherwise, I truly enjoy being so close to our nations capital. There is something very beneficial to raising our kids here. So we'll pay the money...plus we get all 4 seasons.

Kalamazoo MI public schools offer FREE college! No joke, google Kalamazoo Promise. We love it here. 1 hr to Lk Michigan, 1 hr to Grand Rapids for a little bit bigger city, 2 hrs to Chicago if you want to visit. It's a nice size smaller city, plenty to do, nice downtown life with festivals almost every weekend spring to fall, parades stuff like that. There are several nice venues to go see concerts, plays, stuff like that. It's artsy, it's a college town.

You can Google 'Best Places to Live' and there are plenty web sites that will go through all sorts of lists and factors that make a place worth looking at.
Jobs, climate/weather, crime, schools, traffic, taxes, hospitals/medical care, do you like museums/opera/concerts/sports/zoos, etc.
One person might like a rural setting over a bustling suburb or urban setting while others like season tickets to hockey games.
One might like living in the mountains while others like being near a beach.

I like living somewhere where there's enough winter to freeze the bugs back a bit but not so much that I have to shovel a lot of snow for 6 months out of the year.

This all depends on you and what your family priorities are.

I am in the Plano TX area which is highly rated on best place to live statistics. We are about 1/2 hour (in good traffic) from downtown Dallas. We have top rated schools, the 3 Senior High Schools are all on the top 100-150 rated schools in the US. Most of the feeder schools are exemplary and top rated as well.

Right now, we have major corporations flocking here and relocating HQ here... Toyota, Liberty Mutual, State Farm to name a few.

There is a housing shortage now with all the new people coming in. In fact, we received a letter from a realtor offering cash for our condo where our daughter lives about 20 minutes away in the prime spot in Plano. Sight unseen and WAY more than we paid for 2 years ago. NO way we are selling.

We don't have a state tax but our property taxes are higher than a lot of places which is one reason we have great schools.

I LOVE our weather because I HATE the cold and snow. July and August are tough weather months with the heat. We don't have a lot of snow. I don't care for January and February so we try to go to Miami or somewhere warm for a winter break.

We have 2 great airports and we live a little less than 1 hour from each and can be at either coast within 4 hours counting travel time from our home!! We have a lot of travel with our company and this is a huge perk for business.

There are SO many things to do throughout the entire DFW Metroplex. Sporting events, concerts, the BEST shopping.

There are all kinds of neighborhoods and family friendly activities. We moved here in1989 from NC and we were discouraged at first due to all the concrete and no trees It was a priority or us to have trees and not a postage stamp yard with zero lot line. We've lived in the same 3 mile radius since we moved in 1989. We've built homes and are currently in the home we will probably die in someday. We are on a huge lot with privacy, trees, woods, not looking into our neighbor's house, wildlife and I am 3 minutes from my favorite grocery store. Everything is convenient yet we are tucked away in our own little private sanctuary.

SO, if you hate the heat you would not like TX. We have a good bit of traffic... you must plan your travel time. The expressways are great but you'll get run over or shot at if you are not driving 80+.

I would not live any where else.

I really like the Pacific Coast. San Diego(La Jolla), Santa Barbara, Carmel, Marin County and other towns in between.

I have friends who have moved to other areas (Texas for example). They can live in a beautiful house with great neighbors. They are happy with their move.

I personally would not choose to live in the snow, but plenty of people do and seem to manage.

Well, last week they said that the best place of all is Australia. But like others say, it all depends on so many factors. We are just outside Chicago, taxes could be better are not as bad as in the city. If we moved 2 towns west, our taxes could be slightly lower. Unfortunately we are stuck until the value goes up.

My husband likes being near Chicago. I grew up in the city and pretty tired of the hustle and bustle and shenanigans. When we vacation we go to SW Michigan. We love it. Getting into the state is like losing a load of stress. We have even talked about buying a vacay home or something. Snow is okay but honestly, lake effect snow prevents me from saying "let's move to MI".

Well, we don't have low taxes, but Irvine, CA is extremeley family friendly and the schools are great. Housing prices are high and the city is growing rapidly, but there are tons of parks, sports, opportunities, etc. Plus we are close to the beach and the mountains, to LA and San Diego.