FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

"An MSA, or Metropolitan Statistical Area, is defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a region that consists of one or more counties, anchored by an urban center with a population of at least 50,000, plus adjacent counties that are socioeconomically tied to the urban center primarily through commuting patterns. In simpler terms, an MSA represents a major city and its surrounding areas where people might live and commute to the city for work or other activities."

Our rankings are derived from a combination of numerous data sources, including real estate prices, cost of living, amenities, your user preferences via selected factors, and formulas to weight and score each MSA. Please see the About - Methodology page for more detailed information.

Yes. While both options provide MSA rankings, the MOVE page focuses on factors relevant to personal relocation, and the INVEST page is geared toward real estate investment. All factors are scored differently for each option.

The analysis of the underlying data is the strength of our platform, so it is critical that we update whenever the data for any of our metrics changes. This occurs at minimum once per month, but sometimes as frequently as every day!

Absolutely! With our platform, you can tailor the rankings based on factors that are most important to you. Simply click on the "FACTORS" button, select all of the criteria important to you, and then click apply to create your custom ranking.

We aggregate data from various trusted real estate sources and update the figures regularly.

On these multi-axis charts, the further you get from the center, the higher the score. Ten is always the best score in any category, and 0 is always the worst. For example, on the Climate Score chart, if an MSA has a value of 8 on the summer axis, that would mean the summers in that city are very pleasant, not too hot or humid.

In addition, the larger the area of the shape, the better the overall climate is. MSAs that have moderate values in all 4 categories score much higher overall than those MSAs that do very well in only one category, and poorly in the other 3. Click on San Diego to see an example of scoring well in all climate categories.

It is important to note that the State Tax Burden chart is showing the tax burden as a percentage of the median Household Income. This is not the same as the actual tax rate levied by each state for the various types of tax.

You can reach out to us through our "Contact Us" page or by clicking on the "Feedback" slider on the right of every page. We're always here to help!