Top 10 Miserable Cities
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Living in an area that often ranks near the top of the listings for the highest cost of living in the United States, there have been numerous times where the desire to relocate has been strongly considered.
Over the last month or two that desire has been getting stronger as my wife and I browse through the real estate listings online and research various parts of the country. Both of us have lived in the same general area for our entire lives and cannot deny that it would be nice to explore other areas - although there is also a good deal of fear involved in making that type of change.
One area of fear - or at least uncertainty - is what that would mean for our children.
As a parent, one of your goals is to provide your children with an environment that will allow them to explore every possibility and living in a major metropolitan area means there are resources available to you that may not be there otherwise. However, with the higher cost of living often comes the need for both parents to work or at least one parent to work more and that can have a negative impact on quality family time.
While evaluating potential locations to live within the United States, most parents will agree that it is important to live in an area with relatively low crime that also has a positive economic outlook.
The other day there was an article published by Kurt Badenhausen on Yahoo! Real Estate that examined the most miserable cities in America.
The article builds on the Misery Index, created by economist Arthur Okun, and the Misery Score to create a unique ranking of the 150 largest metropolitan areas. The Forbes Misery Measure includes the unemployment and personal tax rates used in the Misery Index and Misery Score while also adding a look at commute times, weather, crime and the number of toxic waste sites.
According to the Forbes Misery Measure, the top ten miserable cities include:
- Detroit, Michigan
- Stockton, California
- Flint, Michigan
- New York, New York
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Chicago, Illinois
- Los Angeles, California
- Modesto, California
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Providence, Rhode Island
Unfortunately we currently live in a suburb of one of these cities and had considered another as a potential destination if we were to leave our current home.
We came very close to moving to the Knoxville, Tennessee area - which is too small for this list - about a year and a half ago but after numerous trips to the area we were not able to find the house that we loved enough to move.
More recently, we have looked at areas such as Columbia, South Carolina as a place that might be nice. Last night I was chatting with Cory from A Good Husband and he mentioned Portland, Oregon as being very nice.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on cities that are great for raising a family while also not breaking the bank in terms of the cost of living.
And if you happen to live in such a city and have a need for a programmer with technical management experience that can also blog, be sure to let me know! 
The Man Page is your home to get career advice, parenting tips, or just kick back and escape from the pressure of being a man. Join Derek Semmler - a working husband and father to two young boys, as we tackle the issues facing men today and have a good deal of fun in the process. He also blogs at 
Can I put a second plug in for Portland? There’s a 3 BR/2 Bath house a half mile away from us for $260,000. We’re 15 minutes from downtown Portland, 5 minutes from Nike’s world headquarters, and 15 minutes from Intel’s world headquarters.
On second thought, don’t move here…we have too many people moving here as it is…
Cory Huff’s last blog post..A Good Husband Does What He Loves
Derek, You should have looked west of Knoxville, in Kingston, Tennessee. Greatest place in the world to live. We’re surrounded by lakes, property is reasonably priced, property taxes are low and Tennessee has no state income tax. Maybe you should look once again.
They left El Centro, CA off the list. Not sure why. It’s wretched.
Wess Stewart’s last blog post..Have a Happy V.D.
@Cory :: So you’re going to be like that huh?
@Ron :: I’ll have to give Kingston a look. The name is familiar, maybe from when we were searching on Land & Farm website.
@Wess :: Most likely because it is not large enough in population. The article only ranked the 150 largest metro areas.
Kingston is a small town west of Knoxville, Tennessee. Surounded by beautiful lakes and only 20 minutes from west knoxville shopping.Close access to I-40. Two hours from Nashville, One & 1/2 hours from Chattanooga, three hours from Atlanta.Great place to work, play & retire.
Ron, I think we may have actually seen one house in Kingston the last time we were out there. One issue we seemed to find was that we were looking for something with at least 5+ acres and many of those properties didn’t seem to have high-speed interweb access available, which is a requirement for me.
Derek, come and join us in Sydney, the most beautfiul harbour in the world, provided you can afford the millions to live in sight of it.
If not, possibly one of the worst places in the world to live, which is why I put up with a 1.5hr commute each way to live in a National Park instead.
toddlerdaddy’s last blog post..Our toddler has a friend!
Sydney sounds very nice but we are short the millions of dollars right now. Although I would eventually like to visit, we’ve never left the confines of North America believe it or not.
You live in a national park? I didn’t realize that was even possible, but it sounds like it would be amazing.
that’s a damn shame.. my city is the most miserable in the whole fricken country. Oh well… It’s true :/. Michigan as a whole is not the best place to be, and the economy sux there.