Say what?!? Asheville makes 'worst place to live' list, based on standard of living

For a couple of decades now, Asheville has been the champion of "best of" lists from national publications and marketing outfits lauding the area's natural beauty and livability.

But this week? Not so much.

In a Dec. 14 article titled, "The best and worst places to live if you only care about money," National Public Radio's Planet Money notes that our fair mountain town did not fare well in a recent Stanford University study about livability and income. In fact, Asheville made three highly unfavorable lists:

• The five places with the lowest standard of living for college graduates. Asheville came in fifth, after Medford, Oregon; Provo, Utah; Salem, Oregon; and Olympia, Washington.

• The five places with the lowest standard of living for those with only a high school diploma. Asheville topped this list, followed by San Diego, California; Manhattan, Kansas; Medford, Oregon; and Jacksonville, North Carolina.

• The five places with the lowest standard of living for those who didn't finish high school. Asheville was fifth on this list, following San Diego; Cheyenne, Wyoming; Los Angeles; and Miami.

By the way, Natchez, Mississippi, came out looking strong in this study,

"A fascinating new study by Stanford University economist Rebecca Diamond and University of California, Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti finds that Natchez and its surrounding area offer one of the highest standards of living in the U.S. for workers without college degrees," Planet Money's Greg Rosalsky wrote.

As Rosalsky noted, the researchers spent four years "crunching an enormous data set that dives into the day-to-day finances of 3 million American households. This allowed them to see how much people earn, how much they spend and what they buy."

The researchers then constructed a cost-of-living index that "paints a vivid picture of prices and typical consumption patterns throughout the United States." Silicon Valley in California ranked as the most expensive area in the country, while Natchez, Mississippi, topped the list for most affordable.

Now, Rosalsky is quick to point out, "There's obviously much more to the value of living in a place than simply the size of your paycheck minus the cost of stuff you buy. Like the cultural scene, the opportunities for your kids, the crime rate, the quality of schools and bars, the proximity to hiking trails or surfing spots and so on."

While Asheville has no surfing, other than unemployed people on friends' couches, it is known for its natural beauty, a moderate climate, proximity to national and state parks, vibrant dining and beer scenes, and an overall quirky vibe. And people keep moving here in droves, whether for retirement or work.

Asheville certainly makes a lot of "best of" lists, whether it's "Best Places to Live for Singles (Money Magazine) or one of the "10 Best Places to Retire in America," (Money.com). Ironically, a recent Realtor.com assessment said Asheville ranks fourth in top cities job seekers 'are now flocking to."

In short, the article is based on a "cold calculation," as Rosalsky puts it, based on average income minus taxes and expenses.

"This cold calculation misses a lot of the intangible and priceless stuff that can make a place cool," he writes.

One other caveat with the Stanford study: the researchers' data dates to 2014, so it's a little dated. But Asheville does routinely rank among the most expensive places to live in North Carolina, and its wages lag behind other metro areas in the state. As the Citizen Times reported in May, Asheville has the highest cost of living in the state, outpacing large metro areas such as Raleigh and Charlotte.

And if you follow the link to the study, then search for Asheville, you'll find another quirk: nothing comes up. Moretti explained this in an email to the Citizen Times.

"Greg Rosalsky asked us to produce additional rankings — top 5 and bottom 5 for high-, mid- and low-education households — that are based on our data but are not included in the paper," Moretti said.

More: Priced out of Buncombe: 'Half a million dollars for a run-down shack in the back is ridiculous'

While its livability may be in question, Asheville absolutely has an embarrassing number of job openings. As of late October, the metro region had about 23,000 job openings, and just over 8,000 unemployed individuals in the region, according to Nathan Ramsey, director of the Mountain Area Workforce Development Board.

"If every unemployed individual got a job, we would still have around 15,000 job openings," Ramsey said in October. "Our greatest challenge is the decline in our workforce since March 2020."

Going back to the study, these are the places that fared well in those categories Asheville did not:

Places with the highest standard of living for college graduates: McAllen, Texas; Houston; Huntington, West Virginia; Beaumont, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina.

Places with the highest standard of living for those with only a high school diploma: Gallup, New Mexico; Summersville, West Virginia; Natchez, Mississippi; Graham, Texas; Marquette, Michigan.

Places with the highest standard of living for those who didn't finish high school: Summersville, West Virginia; Paris, Texas; Gallup, New Mexico; Galesburg, Illinois; Cadillac, Michigan.

"The differences in standard of living across places are very large for high school dropouts in particular," Moretti told Planet Money. "A family, headed by a high school dropout, who moves from the most expensive city in the U.S. to the most affordable one would gain 26% in terms of consumption. There's a significant improvement in what they can afford to buy."

Ramsey acknowledged that here in the mountains, "our average wages overall are below North Carolina and national averages," and the cost of living is high. Workers typically earn less in Asheville than the state average, he noted.

"For healthcare and hospitality and tourism, jobs in our region pay more than the North Carolina average for that sector," Ramsey said. "So college grads, high school grads, etc., that work in those sectors potentially will make more than other places in North Carolina."

Our region does have plenty of good paying jobs, and we have a "talent war" going on for the best candidates, Ramsey added.

"We don’t have large corporate HQs here like the large North Carolina metros, as generally businesses are smaller here," Ramsey said. "There has never been a better time to find the right job for an individual than now."

Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Kit Cramer noted the title of the article states, "... if you only care about money."

"I have a daughter moving here — and bringing her own job, although there are plenty of options — in a week," Cramer said via email. "Housing will be a challenge. I’d like to think her dad and I are the main attraction for her coming to Asheville, but I’m well aware there are lots of other things that make our community appealing to her."

Simply put, 'it's gorgeous here," Cramer said.

"It’s cool, literally and figuratively," Cramer said. "People can enjoy great arts and entertainment and food and the great outdoors."

On the job front, she said the Chamber's strategy with its "5x5 plan has been, and continues to be, the attraction of jobs in a broad array of sectors that pay salaries higher than the current averages.

"Whether through recruitment of new businesses, expansion of existing businesses or creating the next headquartered company through entrepreneurship, we’ve remained focused on higher wage jobs," Cramer said. "We’ve never been the low-cost option, although we continue to work on ways to do things like get more workforce housing built, and more missing middle housing. It’s more expensive to develop in the mountains and has only been exacerbated in recent years."

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville makes 'worst place to live,' based on standard of living