In a report published by Gallup and Healthways, a well-being management company (whatever that means!), Washington, D.C. had the 2nd highest well-being among big cities in the U.S. in 2009.
That was the result of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index which has been randomly polling 1,000 people per day, 350 days per year for the past 25 months.
The survey comprised of 42 core questions designed to measure how respondents are faring in all aspects of their lives; physically, emotionally, socially and professionally, as well as to take a daily pulse of how Americans rate the overall quality of their current life and outlook for the future.
The first ranking big city was San Jose, CA. The other eight big-cities after Washington, D.C. were Raleigh, NC, Minneapolis, MN, San Francisco, CA, Boston, MA, Seattle, WA, Virginia Beach, VA, Atlanta, GA, and Kansas City, MO. The key in this ranking is the definition of “big-cities”, which is Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with population of 1 million or more.
The same survey also ranked cities without taking population size into consideration, and, interestingly, D.C. ranked well again. This time it was in the 8th position, with Boulder, CO, Holland, MI, Honolulu, HI, Provo, UT, Santa Rosa, CA, Santa Barbara, CA and San Jose, CA ahead of it. Rounding out the top 10 were Ogden, UT, and Oxnard, CA.
Bottom line: If you’d like to live in an area that ranks among the top in the country in terms of quality of life, is also the 2nd most literate city in the U.S., and is also considered a great place to be by foreign investors, then the Washington, DC area is it.
And if you need a buyer’s agent to help you find a nice, quality home, definitely give me a call!
