Affordability Takes Center Stage in Personalized Rankings

FRANKLIN, Tenn., March 31, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Livability.com unveiled today its highly anticipated 2026 Top 100 Best Places to Live list, showcasing the nation's most vibrant and livable small to mid-sized cities. This list, now in its 13th year of publication, empowers users to customize the set of places based on their individualized priorities, from health and cost of living to entertainment and the local job market.

Affordability Takes Center Stage
Recognizing that Americans are facing shifting economic conditions and a higher cost of living than ever before, this year's proprietary algorithm gave extra weight to the Housing and Cost of Living category. To ensure the list highlights truly accessible communities, Livability only includes cities with a median home value under $500,000. The selection process also features a rigorous analysis of average rents and home prices relative to local incomes to give affordable places a competitive edge.

"Our 'Top 100' is an annual data-driven collection of what we consider to be the best small to mid-size cities," says Amanda Ellis, Livability.com editor-in-chief. "As Americans face consistently evolving work dynamics and a desire for the best quality of life possible amidst inflation and uncertainty, our list celebrates places where people can more realistically build families, launch businesses and lead meaningful lives."

Data-Driven Personalization
Livability.com partnered with the data experts at Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS) to analyze more than 2,000 U.S. cities with populations between 75,000 and 500,000. The ranking is curated using nearly 100 data points across eight broad categories:

• Economy
• Housing & Cost of Living
• Amenities
• Transportation
• Environment
• Safety
• Education
• Health

While the algorithm assigns a LivScore to determine the final 100, the platform's intuitive filtering system allows users to refine the list by category importance, population size and region.

This year's Top 100 Best Places to Live list highlights a diverse number of communities, from tech hubs like Tempe, AZ, to growing Southern cities like Murfreesboro, TN and our top-scoring city, Huntsville, AL, along with: 

• Colorado Springs, Colorado
• Tampa, Florida
• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Billings, Montana
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Charleston, South Carolina
• Sugar Land, Texas
• Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Spokane, Washington

For media inquiries, please contact:
Amanda Ellis, Editor in Chief | aellis@livability.com

About Livability.com:
Livability.com highlights the best small to mid-sized cities and what makes them great places to live, work and visit. Through exclusive research and original content, we examine affordability, cultural amenities, talent attraction and more, celebrating the accomplishments of cities through various rankings, our annual Top 100 Best Places to Live and articles exploring the who, what, why and how behind the "where." Livability is a division of Journal Communications, Inc., based in Franklin, TN.

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SOURCE Livability.com