How to Decide Where to Live

Ditch the Checklists — Use This Instead!

Where should you live? It’s a huge decision, but most guides reduce it to a soulless checklist: cost of living, crime rates, walkability scores. Those things might matter, but they won’t make a place feel like home. If you’ve ever moved somewhere that “looked good on paper” but felt wrong, you know what I mean. Here’s a better way to decide where to live — one that centers the human experience, not just the stats.

The Issue with Generic Advice

The first 20 search results to the prompt “how to decide where to live” include several articles with titles like “14 Factors to Consider When Deciding Where to Live.” These articles have an average of 10 factors but can consist of dozens. In collecting the lists across websites, I found 114 factors, some similar items like “Cost of Living” and “Affordability,” but some peculiar factors like “Walkable to Restaurants” and “Near a University” that seemed targeted to specific groups (foodies? students?).

To complicate things more, a couple of articles recommend devising your own list of as many factors as you’d like, including things like “Active Startup Scene” or “Close to Museums.” Then, once you’ve created your exhaustive list of personalized factors, these articles instruct you to rate each…