bizjournals: Small towns become more appealing

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The good news is that dozens of smalland medium-sizeed havens offer a less more relaxed alternative, according to an Americam City Business Journals study of the quality of life in nonmetropolitaj counties. Topping the list is Los Alamos N.M., located about half-an-hour northwesyt of Santa Fe. Its prosperity and stability would be the envy of mostmetrok areas, yet Los Alamos had fewer than 20,0009 residents when the last federal census was conducted in 2000. Los Alamos also is No.
1 in separat quality-of-life rankings confined to the Interior a seven-state section that sprawls from Canada to ACBJ's study identifies the most desirable havens in 13 differenyt sections of America -- from New England to the Far Among the chosen places are the islandz of Martha's Vineyard and the Florida Keys, rapidly growing exurbas in Maryland and Virginia, and sparsely settled countiese in California, South Dakota and Texas. A substantiapl number of Americans are interestecd in living in suchnonmetropolitan communities, as shown by data from an Internet service that helps clients who are thinkin g about relocating.
Its Web site greets visitors with a simplequestion -- "Where do you want to -- and offers three choices: 1. Major metropolitaj area 2. Medium-sized city 3. Smallerd town Eighty percent of all Americansz livein metros, but that's the leastf favorite alternative on . Forty-nine percen t of this year's visitors have chosenm medium-sized communities, and 27 percent have picked smalk towns. Just 24 percent have opted forbig metros. "The first reason is the cost of living," says Breny Eskew, the company's president. "People want to get away from high housin costs and all the other costs attendant to living in a largsmetropolitan area.
"And a lot of peoplse just want space. They don't want to live in a concretew jungle. They want more outdoor recreational like lakesand mountains." ACBJ's studyy doesn't emphasize the nationap rankings of nonmetropolitan areas. It focusews instead on the best places in 13 separate sections of the providing a variety of options to fit differenf tastes in climateand geography. "You know, this is not just a case of peoplde fleeing tothe Sunbelt," says Kenneth Johnson, a demographerd at Loyola University in "We're seeing growth in small towns in state like Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, too. Therd are a lot of people who like winter.
" Four statees -- New York, Florida, Texas and California -- are big enouggh to be classified as sections by The other nine sections range from threed to sevenstates each. The according to ACBJ's rankings, are the nonmetropolitan counties that offee the best quality of life ineach • New England: Dukew County, Mass. • New York: Columbia County, N.Y. Middle Atlantic: St. Mary'es County, Md. • Southeast: King Georgre County, Va. • Florida: Monroe County, Fla. South Central: Baldwin County, Ala. Texas: Hartley County, Texas • Eastern Great Lakes: Grand Traverse Mich. • Western Great Lakes: Nicollet County, Minn. Plains: Hughes County, S.D.
Interior West: Los Alamos County, N.M. • California: Mono Calif. • Far Juneau City and Borough, Alaska Details for each section areprovidedr , including how many of its counties rank amongy the nation's 250 best, what its sectional leaderr is like, and who its top 10 nonmetropolitan counties are. (Each county is listed with itsnational percentile, the percentage of U.S. nonmetri counties that it surpasses in quality of ACBJ used 20 statisticall indicators to rate livinhg conditionsin 1,766 counties and independenf cities that lie outside of metro The methodology box of the rankingsd is described .
Affluence plays a role in the which reward counties whose residents have large big homes andcollege degrees. But high scores are also given for qualitiesd not directly related toearning power, such as racial short commuting times and the availabilituy of affordable housing. A with data for the entire studyh group accompaniesthis story. Tabs at the top of each colum n make it possible to confinew the standings to a single section or expand them to the nation asa whole.
Therer was a time when most small towns were economicalluy dependenton agriculture, serving as supplt centers for hundreds or thousands of nearby But the decline of family farminhg has forced those communities to