Sheepdip

Well I'm in the 5th state.....

http://www.money-rates.com/research-...iving/2013.htm

Pulaski

What a bizarre mish-mash of criteria - including pay levels, which only affects those working, and unemployment rate which only affects those not working.

robin1234

New York is number four in the list; redeemed only by the fact that wages are among the highest in the nation. Those high wages (presumably driven by wage levels in NYC) sure make folks up here in the north country feel better. Our wage rates are about on a par with Louisiana and Mississipi.

Englishtart

We are in SC too, not sure I agree with the listing. Our Son is on his way here in the Summer and I have been doing some research for him on job openings/housing costs etc, there are lots of job openings in this area,Charleston, pretty decent pay too and the costs for housing are very reasonable.

civilservant

These sorts of lists are always a little misleadingly, for example I'm sure Buffulo, NY has a cheaper costs of living that NY, NY. The same is true of most urban areas in most states.

SultanOfSwing

Illinois is number 22. How, then, is it that everyone I know is bitching that they have no money (and in the case of my wife's relatives, expecting us to be the solution to that )?

I agree with the general sentiment that it is hard to be accurate with this type of assessment. Cost of living varies so much across the state that it could be great in one part but not another, irrespective of the wages and other factors.

Pulaski

Agreed, Virginia contains much of suburban DC, yet in the west and south west is not much different from WV and KY that it borders, which is as extreme a range as any state, though likely similar to the difference between NYC and the rural far north of NY.

jeffreyhy

It would be nice to know how the two New Yorks would rate - NYC and its suburbs, and the rest of the state. Averaging the size and weight of an elephant and a mouse to tell you the size of a typical animal is meaningless.

Regards, JEff

N1cky

Bizarre that Hawaii is number 1, however it was number 1 in the happiest state to live a couple of months ago. Not sure how both those two things can be true.

Pulaski

Different surveys, different surveyors. ... Anyhow, you don't have to be rich to be happy, right?

Which reminds me of a conversation I had with a colleague in January 1991, on the way to the tube in the West End, after leaving a client's office one cold and damp evening after a long day in the office. We agreed that if we could wangle positions at an executive/ senior level it would be worth staying in London, but if not it would be better to at least go somewhere where the weather was better! . I think I managed to achieve the latter, but I lost touch with my former colleague.

N1cky

No you don't have to be rich, but you have to be able to make a living to be happy, surely.