San Francisco plummets in annual best cities list
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San Francisco's ranking in an annual list of the country's best cities fell for the second year in a row due to the loss of high-paying tech jobs, steep housing costs and affordability challenges.
State of play: The Milken Institute's yearly report measures U.S. cities' economic performance based on job and wage growth, affordable housing, economic equality and other factors.
- 200 metro areas and 203 small cities are assessed in the annual report.
The big picture: While many cities have largely emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, big cities like San Francisco are making a sluggish recovery.
Driving the news: San Francisco experienced the most dramatic drop among the biggest cities, plummeting to 126th place this year after coming in 27th last year.
- The last time the city's metro area ranked in the No. 1 spot was in 2020, before falling to 24th place in 2021, 27th in 2022 and 35th in 2023.
Zoom out: Huntsville, Alabama; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Austin, Texas; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Olympia, Washington; Palm Bay, Florida and Boise City, Idaho were among the top 10 best-performing big cities.
- Raleigh, North Carolina; Ogden, Utah, and Salt Lake City topped the list.
- Some smaller cities, including St. George, Utah (near Zion National Park) and Auburn, Alabama, are also growing due to lower housing costs and better economic equality, per the report.
How it works: The annual rankings from Milken — a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank — are based on its Best Performing Cities index, which takes into account cities' labor markets, tech industry growth and economic access.
Reality check: The report doesn't explicitly look at other quality-of-life factors people may consider when picking a place to live, including traffic congestion, public transit access or park space.