We found the 30 best American cities to live in after the pandemic

Fargo

Some people might be considering moving to a new part of the US after the coronavirus pandemic.
We used nine metrics for over 380 US metro areas to calculate an overall score that we used to find the best cities to move to after the pandemic.
Some of the 30 best cities to move to are in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.
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If you are considering moving to a new place after the novel coronavirus pandemic, you may want to consider one of these 30 US cities.

Recent polling has suggested that many Americans are thinking about moving. The news website Axios reported in late April on a Harris Poll survey that found that about one-third of Americans said they were thinking about moving to less densely populated places. And recent research from Moody's Analytics found that less densely populated places with a larger share of jobs requiring a bachelor's degree or higher were likely to recover first from the economic impact of the pandemic.

During stay-at-home orders to slow the spread of the virus, more and more Americans have transitioned to working from their homes. In a Gallup analysis, 62% of respondents in a survey conducted from March 30 to April 2 said they were working from home, compared with 31% of respondents in a survey conducted from March 13 to 15.

New Gallup polling has indicated that even after stay-at-home orders lift and employees can return to offices, some people are thinking about working remotely at least part of the time. In a survey conducted from April 13 to 19, 53% of respondents said they would work remotely as much as they could, while 47% said they would return to the office as much as they previously did.

Business Insider decided to find out which cities could be the best to live in after the coronavirus pandemic for those Americans seeking a new home and planning to continue remote work.

To do this, we used nine economic, educational, and demographic metrics from government data sources and academic research that we think people might consider when moving and that could help a metro area recover faster from the economic effects of the pandemic.

These measures are the pre-coronavirus unemployment rate, ability to work from home, population density, housing affordability, monthly household costs, cost of living, weekly two-way work commute, total elementary- and secondary-school spending per student, and share of residents age 25 and over who have at least a bachelor's degree.

Each measure was rescaled to a uniform z-score, allowing us to add the values together to get a final overall index for each metro area that we then used to rank the 30 metro areas at the top of the list.

Here are the 30 best cities to live in after the coronavirus pandemic, based on our analysis:

30. Danville, Illinois

Danville's cost of living — the metro area's price level of goods and services compared with the US's — is 21.4% lower than the national average. The city's population density of 84.3 people per square mile is also lower than in most metro areas.

29. Grand Island, Nebraska

In Grand Island, 74.1% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, indicating better housing affordability than most metro areas. Grand Island's cost of living is slightly lower than in most metro areas, at 15.7% lower than the national average.

28. Peoria, Illinois

Peoria is among the 100 metro areas with the lowest cost-of-living scores, at 12% lower than the national average. Average housing costs in the city are $875.22 a month.

27. Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.9%, 0.6 percentage points below the national rate. Omaha's cost of living is 7.9% lower than the national average.

26. State College, Pennsylvania

State College's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 3.6%, 0.1 percentage points higher than the national rate in February. Additionally, 46.7% of residents who are at least 25 years old have a bachelor's degree or higher, the 18th-highest share among metro areas.

25. Green Bay, Wisconsin

In Green Bay, 75.5% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, the 16th-highest share among metro areas. Average housing costs are $916.86 a month.

24. Columbus, Indiana

In Columbus, 79.5% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, the highest share among metro areas. Its pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.3%, tied for the 13th lowest among metro areas.

23. Iowa City, Iowa

Iowa City's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.2%, tied for the sixth lowest among metro areas, and 49.3% of residents who are at least 25 years old have a bachelor's degree or higher, the 10th highest among metro areas.

22. Lansing, Michigan

Lansing is among the metro areas with the highest share of jobs that could be done from home, at 41%. Lansing's cost of living is 8.8% lower than the national average.

21. Syracuse, New York

Syracuse's cost of living is 3.5% lower than the national average. Syracuse is also among the 100 metro areas with the highest share of jobs that could be done from home, at 38%.

An earlier version of this post misstated Syrcause's unemployment rate.

20. Cheyenne, Wyoming

Among the metro areas, Cheyenne has the shortest weekly commute to and from work, at two hours and 28 minutes, and the 18th-lowest population density, at 37.1 people per square mile.

19. Ithaca, New York

Ithaca has the seventh-highest total spending per student in elementary and secondary public schools, where the school district in the metro area with the most students enrolled spends $21,220 per pupil. The metro area also has the sixth-largest share of residents with a bachelor's degree or higher, at 51.9%.

18. Wausau, Wisconsin

In Wausau, 77.5% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, the fourth-highest share among metro areas, and average housing costs are $879.32 a month.

17. Madison, Wisconsin

In Madison, 42.6% of jobs could be done from home — a higher share than in most metro areas. The pre-coronavirus unemployment rate of 2.6% was lower than the national rate in February.

16. Dubuque, Iowa

In Dubuque, 74.1% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, which is more than in most metro areas, and average housing costs are $905.57 a month.

15. Logan, Utah

Logan's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2%, tied for the second lowest among the metro areas. The weekly commute to and from work is two hours and 57 minutes, tied for the 16th shortest among metro areas.

14. Lincoln, Nebraska

Lincoln's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.7%, lower than most metro areas, and 72.3% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing — it's among the 100 metro areas with the best housing affordability.

13. Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville had a pre-coronavirus unemployment rate of 2.2%, tied for the sixth-lowest rate among metro areas, and 41.5% of jobs could be done from home, a higher share than in most metro areas.

12. La Crosse, Wisconsin

In La Crosse, 73.7% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, which is higher than in most metro areas. It has the 15th-shortest weekly commute to and from work, at two hours and 56 minutes.

11. Cedar Rapids, Iowa

In Cedar Rapids, 75.9% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, the 13th-highest share among metro areas. Its pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 3%, 0.5 percentage points lower than the national rate in February.

10. Columbia, Missouri

Columbia's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.7%, lower than most metro areas, and its weekly commute to and from work is two hours and 58 minutes, the 18th shortest among metro areas.

9. Bismarck, North Dakota

In Bismarck, 76.7% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, the ninth-highest share among metro areas. Its pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.4%, the 19th lowest among metro areas.

8. Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines' pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.7%, which was lower than in most metro areas. Additionally, 42.7% of jobs could be done from home, the 17th-highest share among metro areas.

7. Rochester, New York

The Rochester metro area school district with the most students enrolled spends a total of $24,943 per pupil in elementary and secondary public schools, the second-highest amount among metro areas. And 39.3% of jobs could be done from home, a higher share than in most metro areas.

6. Ames, Iowa

Ames' pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2%, tied for the second lowest among metro areas. Additionally, 50.7% of residents who are at least 25 years old have a bachelor's degree or higher, the ninth-highest share among metro areas.

5. Champaign, Illinois

Champaign's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 3.2%, which was 0.3 percentage points lower than the national rate in February. The school district with the most students enrolled had the 20th-highest total spending per pupil in elementary and secondary public schools, at $17,606 per pupil.

4. Bloomington, Illinois

The share of jobs that could be done from home in Bloomington is 39.4%, and 72.2% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing; both shares are higher than in most metro areas.

3. Fargo, North Dakota

Fargo's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 2.1%, tied for the fourth lowest among metro areas. The weekly commute to and from work in Fargo is two hours and 52 minutes, tied for the 10th shortest among metro areas.

2. Jefferson City, Missouri

Jefferson City's cost of living is 18.3% lower than the national average and the fifth lowest among metro areas. And 77.2% of households spend less than 30% of their income on housing, the seventh highest among the metro areas.

1. Springfield, Illinois

Springfield's pre-coronavirus unemployment rate was 3.5%, equivalent to the national rate, and 42.9% jobs could be done from home, the 16th-highest share among metro areas.