Forbes names Columbus as one of top 10 best cities to move to in 2024
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A recent study by Forbes Home named Columbus as one of the top 10 best cities to move to in 2024.
The media company analyzed the top 50 most populated cities in the United States based on a number of factors, including housing costs, cost of living, crime rates, air quality, quality of education, median income, employment rates, weather, entertainment establishments, average commute time and net migration. Each metric was given an individual weighting to provide every city with a score out of 100.
Columbus narrowly made the list of the top 10 best cities to move to in 2024, securing a spot at No. 10. The study gave Columbus a score of 74.63 out of 100, with the city boasting an employment rate of 97%, having an average monthly housing cost of $1,203 and seeing a median family income of $63,284.
The study additionally claims Columbus has a “fairly low” crime rate, with 44 out of 1,000 residents being impacted by crime. Despite the city’s good qualities highlighted by Forbes, Columbus saw a net loss of 984 residents from 2016 to 2020.
The best city to move to in 2024 according to Forbes is Omaha, Nebraska, which received a score of 100. The high score is thanks to the city’s “reasonable” median monthly housing cost of $1,188, “impressive” 98% employment rate and 117 sunny days a year. Even with the city’s high score, it did see a net loss of around 5,000 residents from 2016 to 2020.
Raleigh, North Carolina, is listed as the second best city to move to in 2024, which scored 83.12 out of 100. The city has a “reasonable” median monthly housing cost of $1,446, high employment rate of 97% and sees 109 sunny days per year. These factors may have contributed to the city seeing an “impressive” net migration of 14,919 people.
In third place is Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with a 97% employment rate, “affordable” average monthly housing cost of $1,081 and “relatively low” crime rate of 37 out of 1,000 people affected. The city scored an 80.25 out of 100.
Following closely behind Oklahoma City, the fourth-best city to move to is Wichita, Kansas, with a score of 80.02 out of 100. Wichita has the lowest median monthly housing cost out of the study’s overall top five cities, at $930. The city also has a 98% employment rate and sees 128 sunny days per year.
Coming in fifth place is Colorado Springs, Colorado, scoring a 79.56. The city has an employment rate of 97%, has an average monthly housing cost of $1,500 and sees a median family income of $69,266. The city additionally saw an “astonishing” net migration between of 6,124 people.
Rounding out the top nine are Tulsa, Oklahoma (77.50), Louisville, Kentucky (76.81), Tucson, Arizona (76.35), and Virginia Beach, Virginia (75.09).
Of the 50 cities included in the study, Oakland, California (0), San Francisco (9.87), New York (11.37), Bakersfield, California (12.06) and San Jose, California (12.86) received the lowest scores.
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