
California Coast. (Photo: coastal.ca.gov)
Top 250 Best Places to Live in the U.S. – California Not Even in Top 100
California doesn’t even make the US News best places to live Top 10, Top 50 or Top 100
By Katy Grimes, May 22, 2025 8:25 am
In the newly released 250 Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2025-2026, Frisco and Carmel are in the top 100 – but not San Francisco, California or Carmel, California – Frisco, Texas and Carmel, Indiana are more desirable on this list than California’s legendary coastal cities.
California doesn’t even make the US News best places to live top 10, top 50 or top 100. Could it be that California’s cities filled with drug addicted homeless vagrants living on the streets is a deal breaker for many? Or could it be our highest gas prices in the nation, highest taxes and regulations, failing public schools, trans agenda, biological men in women”s sports, “wildfire season,” high crime, largest illegal alien population in the country, our egomaniac governor and unstable Democrat supermajority makes people think twice?
These are the U.S. News: Best Places to Live in 2025-26 Top 10 – notably, three of the 10 cities are in Texas, and two in North Carolina:
- Johns Creek, GA
- Carmel, IN
- Pearland, TX
- Fisgers, IN
- Cary, NC
- League City, TX
- Apex, NC
- Leander, TX
- Rochester Hills, MI
- Troy, MI
Texas really dominated the top 100 with 28 cities listed.
Folsom, is the first California city to make an appearance at #119 with the median home value of $690,077, and the median rent is $1,818. The job market in Folsom is better than the national average. Unemployment in Folsom is lower than the national average of 4.5%. The median household income in Folsom is $145,991, compared with the national median household income of $79,466.
The next California showing is Palo Alto at #148, with a median home value of $2,764,855. The median household income in Palo Alto is $223,951, compared with the national median household income of $79,466.
Cupertino, CA came in at #151 with a median home value of $2,556,054.
San Ramon, CA came in at #180
I am partial to #45, Katy, Texas, where the median home value is $343,597. The national average home value is $370,489, so Katy, TX offers a less costly value of living compared to similarly sized cities.
U.S. News analyzed each city’s quality of life, value index, job market, and desirability.
Quality of Life included:
- Quality of Education
- Quality and Availability of Health Care
- Air Quality Index
- Environmental Risk
- State Economy
- State Infrastructure
The Value Index measured how comfortably the average resident of each city can afford to live within their means:
- Housing Affordability Index: This is determined by dividing the blended annual housing cost by the blended median annual household income for each city.
- Cost of Living Index: We used AGS’s Cost of Living index, which is a combination of analysis of costs from various sources for retail goods, shelter, gasoline (for automobiles) and utilities.
Desirability Index measured crime, weather, culture and commute.
The Job Market Index measured the strength of each city’s job market, Unemployment Rate and Median Household Income.
How far California has fallen to not even register in Quality of Life, affordability,
No doubt Brandon Richards (he/him |
bi+), Newsom’s Deputy Director for Rapid Response, would probably try to refute this article? He might instead point to the posh Marin County town of Kentfield where wealthy Democrats like “Hair-gel Hitler” Newsom and his Weinstein trollop wife Jennifer own a walled $9+ million dollar mansion that has six bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms that spans across 5,609 square feet on luscious grounds fitted with outdoor sculptures, a guest house, and a swimming pool and spa.
The #2 city on the list, Carmel in Indiana, looks intriguing with an unemployment rate of 1.9%, a median household income of $134,602 per year, and a median home sale price of $519K. Republican Sue Finkam is the mayor of Carmel. The Meridian Corridor in Carmel is home to more than 40 corporate headquarters and many more regional offices. The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel includes a 1,600-seat concert hall, 500-seat theater, and 200-seat black box theater. The city maintains more than 700+ park acres throughout Carmel, including 20 parks and greenways. The downside of Carmel is that the weather might be a little challenging for someone from California?
California’s near-total absence from this list is disgraceful.
Do any of our Dem-Marxist politician leaders give a rat’s behind? NO.
Apparently they’re happy about it.
No doubt their $oro$ and CCP-backed funders are pleased as the Democrat-led “community organizers” drive the California economy into the ditch…
These globalist entities are playing the long game with the intent of buying up the most desirable farm and ranchland on the cheap, as well as some of the most beautiful countryside in the world…
Do a DOGE-style deep dive into these Democrats and follow the money trail that underlies their votes and legislative proposals…
I believe California politicians and the electronic platforms that get them (s)elected are the most corrupt in the entire country, maybe the world….
Absolutely (s)elected with the help of the BAN on Voter ID and importing ~10 million new voters since 2021.
Enjoy #180 San Ramon while it lasts. Until chevron checks out
Sadly, conditions in the “Golden State” have turned out to be fools gold. It’s astounding how tone deaf our leaders have become and how they continue to gaslight the public about the fiscal, economic, and social conditions plaguing the state.
Tone deaf or following their own Agenda?
. I believe California is slated for more 15-minute Cities than any other state. One is right in the area that was decimated in January 2025.
(Things I wish I didn’t know…)
This is pathetic. California should have 5 out of the top 10 and half or more of the top 100, Newsom is probably headed to the French Laundry to console himself with a $5,000 bottle of wine before heading to his vacation house in Montana.
Wow, not even Carmel, CA made the top 100.
Carmel, IN did.
I hope our so called leaders in this state realize that natural beauty (diminished in some cases) and temperate weather CANNOT outshine an area where people can stay true to their morals, feel safe and afford an actual single family home and groceries and NOT BE TAXED TO DEATH!
More proof that everything the Democrats touch turns to sh*t.
Katy. Another great written article. And the Truth. Hard for us Californians but the truth hurts sometimes. Thank you. A. I’m trying to stick it out here.
I too am trying to stick it out. And if we do, California will be great again.
Do you think that the state will ever escape the blue grasp? 40% red in November of ’24 was hopeful. Now, to get the Voter ID BAN banned.
Best years of my life were the 90s in coastal SoCal. Now, Nevada is getting much worse in terms of taxes and citizens bearing the brunt and cost of illegals. At least SoCal had some redeeming qualities. I just don’t understand the attraction of the desert.
Best wishes to you, Katy.
I moved to Katy when I was around 3. Late 80’s . It’s far from the same place it used to be. No is moving here from all over the US. Fleeing the blue states… Cookie cutter neighborhoods and apartment complexes are being thrown up practically overnight. Investors are coming in and buying houses cash, pricing out the long time Katy residents and they are being forced to relocate. The flooding here has gotten worse because of all the development and it was bad to begin with. Crime has definitely risen. I am working on making a move to a different part of Texas currently. Change is inevitable, which I realize, but it’s now basically Houston and not the small quaint town it once was-it’s still a small world here despite that. I’ve met some great people from all over that now call Katy home. Ready for less traffic and a slower change of pace.
Appreciate your story, Carys Sullivan. I’m betting what you have told us is probably more common around the country and in so-called red states than we think; meanwhile we —- or maybe I should say I — retain idealized and possibly unrealistic versions of escape to small-town-city life in any state that is not Crazy California.
Like many of you, I was born in California, grew up here, worked and lived here, got married here, bought a home here, have roots and wonderful memories here, and, except for visits to husband’s family in the mid-west have almost exclusively traveled and vacationed here in California during our entire decades-long married life. This is mostly because of California’s awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping beauty and of course its variety.
It’s been awhile since we have traveled the state to the extent we used to, but having lived and worked and traveled in California during a more “golden” age, which by the way was not ALL that long ago, but certainly before it degraded on many levels thanks to our horrible “leadership,” husband and I are unmotivated to move to another part of the country. We would rather dig in here and do our best to Make California Great Again if at all possible. Is that crazy and a lost cause? Maybe. I don’t know, but I am more optimistic than not that it CAN happen and that it WILL happen. Guess we’ll see..
I know many people who feel the same way. I moved from the Midwest to Orange County in the early 90s. It was the best decade of my adult life, by far.
I can’t imagine being born, raised, and raising a family in such an idyllic place. I would stay and fight for it, too. If only I hadn’t sold my Dana Point oceanview home back in the 90s.
Best wishes.
Thank you so much for your very nice reply, Barb.
I also wish you hadn’t sold your Dana Point home.
Best to you Barb.
Take a look at Chad Bianco for Republican California Governor here ; https://youtu.be/1aLWX00yiAI?si=IRZbbp5lXnZn-O4M
A truly sad “State” of affairs…
With California’s numerous natural wonders, impressive geography, topography, climate and Pacific coastline it is literally criminal malpractice by our Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches that make California so undesirable.
CA voters had 3 chances to change direction and fix the state, but no, too many liberal retards stupidly allowed to vote, kept the pencil necked, hair gel, drama queen femboy in the governors seat. So those idiots are getting exactly what they voted for and I hope in gets a whole worst for them. Stupid f3cks deserve everything they voted for.