50 Smart Places

Minneapolis Skyline August 2005
Originally uploaded by squoosh.

Today our car said it was 100 degrees out. That's hot. We spent most of the day inside and after getting a bit of cabin fever, finally decided to venture out. Since it's Memmorial day, not much is open except good old Borders Bookstore,they never seem to close.
I saw THIS great article in Kiplingers magazine. It's called "50 Smart Places to Live". They listed the fifty top cities in the US that are fun, vibrant and affordable at the same time. These are cities for people like us, in our 20's or 30's, with young families, looking for affordability, but at the same time for culture and interest.

We miss San Francisco all of the time. The arts, the natural beauty, the great restaurants and diversity. It didn't make the top 50 though, San Fran is just too darn expensive! Kiplingers based "affordable" as $300,000-$400,000 which to some maybe be a lot, but for urban living, is pretty resonable. We thought Metro Detroit's housing prices and cost of living were inflated and then we moved to the Bay area! Of course after that, we moved back to Detroit and thought it was cheap! Now we are back to complaining about Detroit again. How easily one forgets the $2,000/mo. in rent for 900 square feet!

Anyway, at the bottom of the article, you will find more links and tools. Be sure to check out the complete top 50 list and the "find your own best city" tool.

Ann Arbor, Michigan came in number 25! We've both have always loved Ann Arbor, even if we are Spartans, not Wolverines. It is a beautiful city with great resources, the University of Michigan, museums, restaurants, libraries, parks. It's about 40 miles away, a little too far a communte for Jon. Maybe someday though, sometimes we feel that a change of scenery would be nice.