The best places to live and conduct business in the US
This varies from one person to another depending on the lifestyle, business type, and how the business is run.
For a Christian who loves outdoor activities and runs a software S-Corp, the following factors are important:
- Faith. A community with a lot of believers.
- Safety. Safety often highly correlates with many other factors such as hospitality, faith, and good culture. Every state in the US has many very safe neighborhoods as well as some with relatively high crime rates.
- Weather. The chance for severe weather that causes destructive damage to homes must be less than 1/50 a year. It should be suitable for year-round outdoor activities.
- Roads and trails for daily running.
- Roads and trails for weekend cycling.
- Sanity and trend of property prices.
- Corporate tax and reporting burden.
- Personal tax burden
American top states for business.
Best State ranked by US News and World Report
Living in a city to compete for housing against people who work in the city and have to live close to their jobs makes little sense. A nice suburb is the most sensible choice.
America is so diverse that one can find a nice place to live in every state.
Austin:
Dense commuter residences of north Austin have expanded to Georgetown. In its northern part - Leander and Liberty Hill, there are still some reasonably priced homes. Jarell is the next town to experience explosive growth if Austin continues to grow. Jarell still has lots of reasonably priced houses. Jarrell still has lots of ranches. It is as flat as a mirror.
To the south, Dripping Springs is at the front of expansion. It is a very nice community and still has some reasonably priced homes. Further south are Woodcreek and Wimberley both of which are nice bedroom communities.
To the beautiful west with lakes, a lot of commuters as well as retirees occupy the towns surrounding the lakes. Those towns look very nice and the homes are expensive. The hilly zig-zag roads around the lake do not offer much pleasure of driving.
Overall, Jarrel and Liberty Hill are two nice places with reasonably priced homes, a small chance of depreciation, convenience to go into Austin or the airport.
Charleston:
Charleston is in its second renaissance and has lots of reasonably priced homes in its suburbs. It may be too south to avoid frequent hurricane impact.
Wilmington:
Wilmington's hurricane risk is lower than Charleston's because it is 270 km northeast of Charleston.
It is a historic city in a renaissance. It has beautiful waters (ocean, rivers) to it pretty. The risk of flood from rivers is low.
Leland, a north suburb, is one of the nicest areas. Waterford gated community looks like a paradise. Unfortunately, it is a gated community for senior citizens.
There are a lot of safe areas around Wilmington. A large part of Leland is safe.
A round-trip airplane ticket for a European trip from Wilmington is about $600 more expensive than from Boston.
A nice 3-bd house in a good community far (>100km) from Boston in MA costs at least $400K and the tax is about $5K
A similar 3-bd house in a nice suburb of Wilmington costs $350k and the tax is about $2k. The tax alone saves $3k. The services in NC is less expensive than in MA. The cost saving is likely at least $5k/year. Wilmington is a much better choice than area within 200km of Boston.
North Dakota is ranked #5 for starting a business. Its cost of living index is 0.96