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MONEY identified 100 spots that offer a healthy economy, affordable homes, and a high quality of life.

According to personal finance site SmartAsset, fewer than 35% of adults under age 35 own a home. But owning a home doesn't have to be a far-off dream, even if you're still in your 20s or early 30s. In a recent report, SmartAsset determined the best cities in the US for first-time homebuyers by looking at data on the affordability, mortgage availability, and stability of the housing market in every city with a population over 300,000. For millennials in search of their first home, Oklahoma and Texas are going to be the best buys — five of the top ten...

When it comes to restaurants, bars and unlimited evening entertainment options, cities like New York and London immediately spring to mind. But for people who actually live in such a major metropolis, the story may be a bit different. When it comes to cities where people have a truely high quality of life, a recent survey has found Tokyo, Japan, to be the top choice.

There are plenty of benefits to living in big cities like New York and San Francisco. But do they really offer the highest quality of life? Residential resource company Livability recently released its annual list of the 100 best places to live in the US, looking at factors like access to schools, hospitals, and infrastructure; affordability and income; and how residents take advantage of those opportunities. (You can read the complete methodology here.) Livability looked at more than 2,000 small- to mid-size cities in the US, with populations ranging from 20,000 to 350,000, to compile its ranking. 20. Eugene, Oregon...

For the fourth straight year, Washington, D.C. is the most literate city in the United States, according to a recent study on literacy. The study, by Central Connecticut State University (CCSU), examined how well Americans used their literacy skills in the nation’s largest cities. Rounding out the top five were Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Pittsburgh. CCSU ranked the cities based on six categories: bookstores, residents’ educational attainment, newspaper circulation, use of online resources, the library system, and periodical publishing resources. The most literate cities were largely in the Northeast, and they generally had a well-educated and well-paid population.Click here to...

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To conduct effective ministry, American Bible Society wants to know what U.S. cities embrace the best-selling book of all time. Chattanooga, Tenn., ranks No. 1, according to American Bible Society's study, America's Most Bible-Minded Cities. Knoxville, Tenn., claimed last year's top spot. America's Most Bible-Minded Cities, our second consecutive study, shows that the Midwest and South continues to perform strongly. Chattanooga, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; Shreveport, La.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Jackson, Miss.; all ranked among America's top 10 most Bible-minded cities in 2013. Not surprisingly, many cities in the East Coast continued to rank as the least Bible-minded in 2013....

Electoral trends show America's large cities growing more and more liberal, meaning urban conservatives are becoming more and more isolated. However, there are a handful of cities out there that buck the trend and still provide friendly habitat for city-dwelling conservatives. We scoured the country for large cities with populations over 200,000 that offer a combination of conservative values, a high quality of life, and plenty of big city activities to enjoy. We looked into recent voting trends, tax rates, business-friendly grades, locals who identify as "highly religious," gun-friendly laws, conservative local politicians, and more. Then we combined them with quality...

The United States, land of freedom and opportunity, is also the land of scowling faces and folded arms, according to a new poll. Travel magazine Conde Nast Traveler has unveiled the results of its annual readers' choice survey. More than 46,000 readers gave their opinions last year on everything from favorite airlines to best hotels and friendliest and unfriendliest cities. It's the latter category that might cause the most surprises, with U.S. cities dominating the "unfriendly" list. Newark, New Jersey, is the unfriendliest city in the world according to the survey. "Newark is best known for being the site of...

Before it had a chance to recover from a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people in 2010, Haiti was hit by a drought this past spring, followed by a tropical storm, two months of heavy rains, and eventually, Superstorm Sandy. No wonder the disaster-torn country is considered one of the worst places to live, according to a new global study of infrastructure and quality of life by New York City-based consulting firm Mercer. According to Mercer, Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s quake-ravaged capital, has the world’s worst infrastructure when judged by metrics including the availability of electricity, fresh water and public...

While the U.S. unemployment rate has improved markedly from the double digits during the recession, it was still stuck at 7.9% as of October. Some regions fare far better than rest of the country, despite the fact that more than 12 million people are still considered unemployed in the U.S. 24/7 Wall St. looked at the 10 metropolitan areas in the U.S. where unemployment barely exists. Higher education and industries that support it are the reason these metropolitan areas are doing well. College towns across America tend to have lower unemployment rates than the population as a whole, Martin Kohli,...

We wish that we could call this list, "The Happiest Cities In America." But right now every city in America is suffering. The least miserable cities might surprise you, including Pittsburgh and Buffalo. These cities experienced less of a boom during the bubble, so they're finding it easier to recover. Conversely the most miserable cities are mostly housing bubble capitals. Our list is based on an index from Brookings including unemployment rate and change in employment, home prices and gross metro product since before the recession. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ #20 McAllen, Texas Unemployment rate of 12.2% Employment up 2.0% from peak Gross...

You want the best for your family, and that includes great schools, affordable homes, low crime rates, plenty of jobs, and lots of parkland. So we crunched more than 8,000 bits of data in 84 categories to determine this year's top places to raise kids. Plus, see the complete list of Best Cities! 1. Washington, DC The history, the government, the breathtaking architecture and inspiring monuments—you don't have to be a child to get an amazing education in this city. Our nation's capital is also known for its plenitude of museums—in fact, there are 44, second only to the Big...

For the fifth year in a row, crime is down in the United States, according to FBI Statistics. The 2010 statistics show a 5.5% drop in violent crimes from last year's report. But parts of the country are getting worse. Flint, Michigan -- the most violent city in America -- saw a 10% increase in violent crime over last year, with 2,208 violent crimes per 100,000 people. Rust Belt neighbor Detroit was only slightly safer ....

These may be far from the best of times, but they are no longer the worst. Last year’s annual “Best Cities for Jobs” list was by far the most dismal since we began compiling our rankings almost five years ago. Between 2009 and 2010, only 13 of 397 metropolitan areas experienced any growth at all. For this year’s list, which measured job growth in the period between January 2010 and January 2011, most of the best-performing areas experienced actual employment increases — even if they were modest. For Forbes’ list of the best cities for jobs, we ranked all 398...

The Economist Intelligence Unit has identified the most livable cities in the world. Three of them are in Canada. Four are in Australia. There's also one in New Zealand. In fact, the EIU's list has hardly changed at all since last year, so there's little doubt that these are the world's best cities. Cities were ranked on 30 criteria involving health care, stability, culture, environment, education and infrastructure. CLICK THE ABOVE LINK FOR THE LIST OF WORLD's BEST CITIES

What people are looking for when they relocate changes from time to time. In the 90s, it was a city with low crime. Then, it was places with good schools. "These days, you want a job and to make sure you can get a house there," said Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net, which helps people find the best places to live, work or retire. Sperling crunched the numbers to find the 10 best cities to relocate to today. The list takes into consideration all kinds of data points from cost of living to crime rates, the number of colleges and how...

1. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood 2. Austin-Round Rock 3. Huntsville, Ala. 4. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission 5. Kennewick-Richland-Pasco, Wash. 6. Washington, D.C.,-Arlington, Va.,-Alexandria, Va. 7. Raleigh-Cary, N.C. 8. Anchorage, Alaska 9. El Paso 10. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Source: www.milkeninstitute.org/newsroom/newsroom.taf?cat=press&function=detail&level1=new&ID=186

We live in challenging times. Unemployment remains high, and the U.S. lead in technology and science is slipping as many foreign countries gain ground. But some U.S. cities, though slowed by the Great Recession, still thrive by lifting good old American innovation to new levels. And that will help put more Americans back to work and keep our international edge.

Some of the best places in the country to call home this year are areas where the local economy is stable and the housing market hasn't been hit with huge home price declines, according to RelocateAmerica.com's annual list of the top 100 places to live. Topping the list: Tulsa, Okla. "The economy there has been very stable," said Steve Nickerson, president and CEO of TrueV New Media Group, which operates the RelocateAmerica.com Web site. The strength of the energy industry in the area was part of why Tulsa came out on top, he said. Cities have to be nominated to...