Fresno makes U.S. News’ 2023 ‘Best Places to Live’ rankings. Here’s where we rank
Fresno, long accustomed to coming in near the bottom of various national rankings despite its place as California’s fifth-largest city, has another unfortunate distinction that’s unlikely to receive a place of honor at City Hall.
The Fresno metro area came in at 146th out of the 150 largest metro areas in the U.S. on U.S. News & World Report’s latest version of its annual rankings of “Best Places to Live.” Fresno is joined by 11 other California cities – including those in the inland Central Valley region – among the 50 lowest-ranked areas in the magazine’s annual list.
The online magazine issued the rankings early Tuesday morning.
Only two California cities — both in the San Francisco Bay Area — ranked among the top 50 large metro areas nationwide. A total of 14 places in the state were included in the rankings.
Editors at U.S. News tapped San Jose as the 13th best place to live, while nearby San Francisco came in at No. 45 in the rankings. Both cities’ rankings slipped from the list released in 2022, with San Jose slipping eight spots from No. 5 and San Francisco dropped 35 places from its 10th-place spot in 2022.
The Fresno metropolitan area encompasses the entirety of Fresno County with a population of more than 1 million people, including the city of Fresno and its 500,000-plus residents.
Other California cities on the 2023 list are:
San Diego: 93rd, up 14 spots from 107th in 2022.
Santa Barbara: 124th, up two spots from 126th in 2022.
Santa Rosa: 125th, up seven spots from 132nd in 2022.
Sacramento: 127th, down five spots from 122nd in 2022.
Los Angeles: 139th, down 11 spots from 128th in 2022.
Vallejo/Fairfield: 142nd, unchanged from 2022.
Salinas: 143rd, up one spot from 144th in 2022.
Modesto: 145th, up one spot from 146th in 2022.
Fresno: 146th, down five spots from 141st in 2022.
Visalia: 147th, up one spot from 148th in 2022.
Stockton: 148th, up one spot from 149th in 2022.
Bakersfield: 149th, down two spots from 147th in 2022.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer told The Fresno Bee that such rankings miss the mark when it comes to evaluating communities. “I get tired of hearing people who live thousands of miles away putting a ranking on Fresno’s livability,” he said. “They don’t know what they don’t know.”
“As Fresno’s mayor, and knowing how great this city is, I don’t give any credence to it,” he added, and I don’t think anyone else should, either.”
Fresno City Council President Tyler Maxwell, whose district encompasses parts of central and east-central Fresno, concurred. Maxwell was born and raised in Fresno, and moved to the East Bay for about seven years before returning to Fresno.
“I came back to Fresno because it had that a sense of communities that those cities just didn’t have,” Maxwell said. “Where else can you find a city as big as Fresno that still has that small-town vibe to it?”
What do the rankings measure?
“This year’s rankings are a reflection of the current economic, social and natural factors that impact a place’s livability for its residents,” said Devon Thorsby, real estate editor at U.S.News. “People are considering more than housing when they look at an area’s affordability – they want to know how much goods cost in that area.”
“The ever-present risk for severe weather and a community’s ability to recover — coupled with the area’s opportunities for social activities — are also taken into account when evaluating a best place to live,” Thorsby added.
Nationwide, the Wisconsin city of Green Bay topped the U.S. News rankings, followed by Huntsville, Alabama; Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina; Boulder, Colorado; and Sarasota, Florida, as the five highest-ranked places.
Rounding out the top 10 are Naples, Florida; Portland, Maine; Charlotte, North Carolina, Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The methodology of the rankings includes weighted evaluations of such factors as:
Quality of life: Includes crime rates, quality of education, happiness and well being, average commute times, quality and affordability of healthcare, air quality and risk of natural disasters.
Value: Includes housing affordability, household income, housing costs, and the cost of living compared to the national average.
Desirability: Includes results from a nationwide survey of about 3,500 people asking where the would most like to live; migration, weather, and restaurants/bars and events/activities as a rate per 10,000 people.
Job market: Includes unemployment rates and average salaries.
Despite low ranking, plenty of positives for Fresno
Such formulaic factors, Mayor Dyer said, miss the mark. “There are things that can’t be measured by some of the statistical data that they measure us by,” he said.
Dyer noted that the city has experienced a 38% decline in its poverty rate over the past eight years, was cited as having the second-strongest economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and was ranked in the top 10 places for growth in worker productivity.
Wages in Fresno had the highest percentage growth in 2022 in the state, and Fresno Yosemite International Airport has seen a 122% increase in passengers compared to before the pandemic.
Dyer, who was Fresno’s longtime police chief before he was elected mayor in 2020, added that the city has seen marked decreases in murders, violent crime and property crime from 2022 levels.
Dyer and Maxwell both noted Fresno’s central location within California and its proximity — within a couple of hours drive — to the Pacific coast and to the forests and national parks in the Sierra Nevada range on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley.
“Fresno is still one of the most affordable places to live, in one of the best states,” Maxwell said. “And you can get just about anywhere you need to within about 15 to 20 minutes; you can’t do that in those bigger cities. I don’t think those studies take that into consideration.”
“When you look at all of those factors, and the fact that the L.A. Times said we had the hottest real estate market in the state, I’d say we are one of the best cities to live in,” Dyer said. “And shame on those people who would rank us otherwise.”
