With July and August ranking among the most popular months to move and about 80% of the U.S. population living in urban areas, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s Best Big Cities to Live in as well as accompanying videos.
To take the guesswork out of finding the right city for urban dwellers, WalletHub evaluated the 62 largest U.S. cities in terms of 56 key metrics. The data set ranges from quality of public-school system to job opportunities to median annual property taxes.
| Best Big Cities to Live in | ||||
| 1 | Virginia Beach, VA | 11 | Raleigh, NC | |
| 2 | Austin, TX | 12 | Minneapolis, MN | |
| 3 | Seattle, WA | 13 | Denver, CO | |
| 4 | San Diego, CA | 14 | Colorado Springs, CO | |
| 5 | Las Vegas, NV | 15 | Tampa, FL | |
| 6 | San Francisco, CA | 16 | Washington, DC | |
| 7 | New York, NY | 17 | Pittsburgh, PA | |
| 8 | San Jose, CA | 18 | Mesa, AZ | |
| 9 | Honolulu, HI | 19 | Omaha, NE | |
| 10 | Portland, OR | 20 | Boston, MA | |
Best vs. Worst
- Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the highest homeownership rate, 63.85 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in Miami, the city with the lowest at 30.24 percent.
- Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the lowest share of residents living in poverty, 8.00 percent, which is 4.7 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 37.90 percent.
- San Francisco has the lowest median debt rate (per median earnings), 13.97 percent, which is six times lower than in Aurora, Colorado, the city with the highest at 83.68 percent.
- Wichita, Kansas, has the shortest average commute time, 18.20 minutes, which is 2.2 times shorter than in New York, the city with the longest at 40.80 minutes.
- Virginia Beach, Virginia, has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 1.38, which is 15.1 times less than in St. Louis, Missouri, the city with the most at 20.82.
