Photo by vramak

Forbes.com recently listed America’s most stressful cities.  You can follow the link to the original article through Yahoo! Real Estate.  The factors taken into account were unemployment rates, cost of living figures, median home price drops, population density, sunny and partly sunny days, and air quality.  Today, I’ll present the flip side to yesterday’s list.  Here’s the top five least stressful cities:

Austin

Austin ranks as the least stressful city of the 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas we examined. It has a year-over-year median home-price drop of only 1%, and an unemployment rate of 7.1% as of June. It also had the lowest population density.  Maybe a little too sleepy for me.

San Antonio

San Antonio’s sunny weather, high air quality and an unemployment rate in June of 6.9% are just a few of the factors allowing its population to beat stress.  Good hoops team, too.

Nashville

Nashville, America’s home of country music, has the lowest cost of living of the 40 metropolitan statistical areas we measured. That combined with its good weather–208 sunny and partly sunny days in 2007–and high air quality bring the stress level down.  My musical tastes are more Led Zeppelin than Tim McGraw, so this one is a no-go for me.

Dallas

Dallas, the country’s fourth-largest metropolitan statistical area, ties with Kansas City, Mo., as the 36th most stressful city. Factors helping its case are its relatively low median home-price drop of 5%. The city’s economy, based on banking, energy and transportation, saw an unemployment rate of 8.2% in June.  I’m a New York Giants fan, so the only thing that I like from Dallas is Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Next.

Kansas City

One factor helping residents of Kansas City beat stress is its low population density of 256 people per square mile. It also ranks in the bottom 10 for stress relating to a year-over-year median home-price drop of 9.2%.  I visited KC about 20 years ago, and there were no people walking on the sidewalks.  Maybe they saw me coming.

Looks like I’m stuck in stressful old New York.  A little stress can be a good thing if channeled properly.  How stressful is your city?  What do you do to cope with the stress?

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