Top Ten Places For Business And Careers

"In a year of rising prices, ten metro areas stand out when it comes to keeping costs down and attracting smart people...

The most expensive state in which to hang your shingle is California, which has 12 of the 20 costliest metro areas in the nation. (Hint: Housing prices had a lot to do with it.) Our seventh annual ranking of Best Places for Business and Careers relies again on Economy.com, the West Chester, Pa. research firm, which helped us weigh business costs (labor, energy, tax and office space expenses) and living costs (housing, transportation, food and other household expenditures). Economy.com also helped assess the education levels of the work force, as well as job and income growth and migration patterns over the past five years. For quality-of-life issues we examined crime rates and used a culture-and-leisure index developed by Bertrand Sperling, a consultant in Portland, Ore. who keeps track of museums, theaters, golf courses, sports teams and the like."