People Like Their Small Towns

"The bad news is that millions of Americans are fed up with big-city prices and congestion. The good news is that dozens of small and medium-sized havens offer a less expensive, more relaxed alternative, according to an American City Business Journals study of the quality of life in non-metropolitan counties.

Topping the list is Los Alamos County, N.M., located about half-an-hour northwest of Santa Fe. Its prosperity and stability would be the envy of most metro areas, yet Los Alamos had fewer than 20,000 residents when the last federal census was conducted in 2000.

Los Alamos also is No. 1 in separate quality-of-life rankings confined to the Interior West, a seven-state section that sprawls from Canada to Mexico.

ACBJ's study identifies the most desirable havens in 13 different sections of America -- from New England to the Far West. Among the chosen places are the islands of Martha's Vineyard and the Florida Keys, rapidly growing exurbs in Maryland and Virginia, and sparsely settled counties in California, South Dakota and Texas."

Source: American City Business Journals