Bob

MA, apparently.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states


I find that hard to believe but it scored well in most of the metrics apart from CoL...

The Moose

Interesting info. I wonder how out of date it is - I would be very surprised if ND was 2nd in economy since the oil price has gone down the toilet.

robin1234

That's great! I should look at houses in Fitchburg again ....

Pulaski

Those sorts of analyses are twaddle. Any one state might be "best" for some notional average person, but in the real world people have very diverse priorities. With all due respect to those who make their home there, it would be in the bottom ten states for me, maybe even the bottom five, ahead of three states on the west coast.

mrken30

I have no idea what Berkshire county, MA is like, but apparently house prices dropped there over past year by over 6%.

http://trends.findthehome.com/storie...hire-County-MA

You may want to live in a blue state according to some if you want your house price to appreciate.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...election-chart

Bob

Yeah, I don't know how improved that might be

Bob

It is beautiful out there. Not much in the way of work outside of academia as you've got Amherst, Northampton and the likes.

cautiousjon

Err, really? I heard that California is (one of) the most expensive state(s) in which to do business, which doesn't sound very business friendly to me.

mrken30

There are a lot of high quality graduates.

robin1234

Nah Berkshire Co is Lee, Stockbridge and those places. Northampton is further east .... it's pretty wild & woody in Berkshire county, really up in the hills.

robin1234

Hmm.. we are in a blue state and I'm pretty sure our house has declined in value steadily since we bought it in 1997.

cautiousjon

Who are likely very expensive (especially in STEM fields).

Hiro11

Excellent hiking and mountain biking in the Berkshires and Taconics. It's a beautiful corner of the country. Lots of picturesque little towns and rivers. The area's also been a very posh country house / vacation resort location for at least a century, there a ton of old money in the Berkshires. Also, the Clark Art Institute is an unsung gem.