Great Then, Great Now

MONEY's top places have always had great schools, reasonable housing and a genuine sense of community. For many, the trick today is to maintain those virtues when everyone wants to move in.

When MONEY started ranking places to live 20 years ago, we knew we were onto something. People feel passionately, to put it mildly, about where they live, and our rankings earned us equal measures of praise and vilification. Michael Moore's film about the decline of Flint, Mich., Roger & Me, featured local residents burning copies of the magazine after the city turned up last on our list.

We've made several changes to our methodology since then. The most significant: Through the 1980s and most of the '90s we looked at only 300 broad geographic areas known as metropolitan statistical areas. An MSA is typically a central city and its surrounding suburbs, comprising hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people. But as data collection and processing became easier and better, we've been able to examine communities, not just regions.

Why change? Relevancy. A metro area's job growth or cost of living clues you in to the economic prospects of its towns, certainly, but school quality, safety, green space -- those are local issues.

And while we no longer rank the worst places to live -- frankly, that just seemed like piling on -- much of what we do hasn't changed. We still dig through thousands of data points looking for places with the right mix of economic opportunity and family friendliness. And we still love to get a debate going.

NASHUA, NH
1987 / 1997

When MONEY began naming best places in 1987, Nashua was riding high on the Massachusetts Miracle -- a tech boom spilling over the New Hampshire border into the sleepy former mill town. Nashua had much to offer: low taxes, proximity to Boston, a strong local economy and an easy drive to White Mountain skiing and Atlantic Ocean resorts. The late '80s tech miracle faded, of course, but Nashua bounced back and landed the No. 1 spot again in 1997. Since then Nashua's economy has become less tech-dependent, although the sector, along with health care, still dominates higher wage jobs.

The Nashua Pride, a Can-Am minor league baseball team, arrived in 1998. Housing remains affordable, and unemployment is below the national average. And even today you'll find mention of MONEY's ranking on relocation chat boards. On the downside, the biggest job growth lately has been in the retail and service sectors. And while the city boasts a charming downtown, the Nashua Riverwalk -- a showpiece in the works for decades -- still isn't finished.

Biggest development since 1997: Efforts to get a train line to Nashua, a commuter link into Boston and the high-tech corridor, are finally moving forward, with funding approved in both New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

Seattle, WA
1989

Back in 1989 a three-bedroom Tudor in Seattle sold for around $130,000 and Boeing dominated the economy, although the area's growing importance as an international trade zone was providing some needed diversity. Oh, and local coffee retailer Starbucks had a few dozen stores, and a nearby software outfit known as Microsoft was really ramping up. Now those corporate giants, along with the rise of internet retailer Amazon.com, have made Seattle a destination for on-the-rise professionals.

Despite Boeing's corporate-headquarters move to Chicago in 2005, the company's main manufacturing facility is in Seattle and has been busier than ever with rebounding demand for aircraft. The influx of the well educated and well heeled has turned Seattle into a cultural mecca. The downside of all this upside: Seattle is far more expensive. Housing prices have more than tripled. And it still rains. A lot.

Biggest development since 1989: The Rem Koolhaas-designed library opened in 2004, and the experience music Project museum, designed by Frank Gehry, opened in 2000, offering classes and rock-themed exhibits, including a collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia.

Rochester, MN
1993 / 1999

In 1993, MONEY said Rochester was bustling yet bucolic, radiating a cosmopolitan style without big-city ills. It was a leader in the region when it came to job growth, with plenty of start-up capital flowing, especially to medical-technology firms that fed off the Mayo Clinic. The clinic remains a powerhouse with more than 15,000 employees, and it continues to be a medical pioneer. Its executive-health program brings a five-star clientele of CEOs and celebrities to town, and that has spawned a growing service sector, including a brand-new International Hotel, to tend to their needs. That's a plus, considering that IBM, which employed 7,600 in 1993, has cut its Rochester ranks to just 4,400 today.

Housing in Rochester remains surprisingly affordable, and the lush green space that attracts so many people to the city has been maintained and preserved. Still, growth has its downside, namely clogged roadways and hints of sprawl.

Biggest development since 1999: Construction is under way on Rochester's first state college, and a $30 million, 10-story bioscience center should be completed by 2009.

Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC
1994

It's no secret that the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area has a lot of gray matter, with three major universities -- Duke, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State -- and the famed Research Triangle Park. In 1994 all that brainpower, plus the area's idyllic setting, job opportunities and great weather, made it our Best Place.

Today it remains a job mecca, and Triangle Park alone is home to 40,000 employees at 130 companies with a diverse group of employers in high-tech, life sciences and academe.

The metro area added nearly 30,000 jobs in 2006, and Black Enterprise magazine named Raleigh/Durham the third-best area in the U.S. for African Americans in 2007. Rapid growth -- before 1994 and since has increased traffic and sprawl. Several school districts have switched to year-round schedules to help ease overcrowding, despite loud objections from parents.

Biggest development since 1994: Public and private investments worth a combined $1.8 billion will dramatically reshape Raleigh's downtown core. Construction began earlier this year.

Gainesville, FL
1995

Gainesville led the country in employment growth in 1995. It was a place where you could work in town, live in the wilderness and have a maximum 30-minute commute. A typical three-bedroom cost just $82,000. The University of Florida and its 50,000 students were, and remain, central to Gainesville's job boom and identity.

Today unemployment is still low and the city is in the throes of a go-green campaign; Gainesville Regional Utilities is the efficiency leader of all Florida utilities, drastically reducing customers' energy usage. And despite expansion in outlying communities, the city has largely escaped the overbuilding that plagues much of Florida.

Two things Gainesville hasn't escaped: housing-price escalation and crime. That $82,000 house will cost you $200,000 today. And the city has seen an uptick in crime, particularly drug-related incidents. On the upside, everybody knows the Gators now; Florida's football team won the national championship this year, and the basketball team grabbed the same title for the second year in a row.

Biggest development since 1995: In 2006 the university received funding for a new center to fight infectious diseases, opened a genetics research complex and treated its first patients at its new Proton Therapy Institute.

Charlottesville, VA
1998

Strength of its public schools, low cost of living and such cultural and scenic assets as Thomas Jefferson's Monticello estate, the University of Virginia and the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains. The city spent nearly twice as much per pupil as and had far fewer students per class than the national average, and reasonable property taxes and good water quality rounded out the picture.

Since then the city's population has held fairly steady, although the greater Charlottesville area has seen a boom in residents. MONEY's was one of the first of a host of best-place listings, followed coincidentally or not -- by a near tripling of housing prices in less than a decade. These days a four-bedroom home easily costs $400,000, and that's before you update the kitchen. In response, city officials have lowered property taxes.

Charlottesville's historic downtown walking mall has more than 30 restaurants, a 1930s movie palace turned performing arts center and a new 3,500-seat open-air pavilion, which brings in national acts three seasons of the year.

Biggest development since 1998: The John Paul Jones Arena, a 16,000-seat indoor stadium and the largest arena in the state, was built.

Sarasota, FL
2000

Named MONEY's Best Small City back in 2000, Sarasota boasted miles of white-sand beaches, excellent schools, perpetual sun and affordable homes. MONEY's ranking helped boost Sarasota from sleepy retirement haven to a family hot spot, with all the good and bad that go with it.

These days you can forget about inexpensive housing. In the past six years home prices have more than doubled. In response, the city recently unveiled a program designed to make housing in the area more accessible to low and middle income families. Buyers will pay only for building, while ownership of the lots is retained by a nonprofit corporation.

The county has maintained restrictions on development, at least in the heart of the city. But that hasn't stopped the metro area from adding 65,900 jobs between mid-2001 and mid-2006, making it the fourth fastest area for job growth in the country.

Biggest development since 2000: In 2006 the city broke ground on Payne Park, a $9 million, 29-acre park that will include an auditorium, tennis courts, a skateboard park, walking trails and open fields.