This article by Richard Sisk first appeared on Military.com, the premier resource for the military and veteran community.
Veterans might want to think twice when choosing a city to live in, and then think again before buying a home, according to separate surveys recently conducted by private firms.
Tampa, Florida, was rated No. 1 for veterans among 100 cities nationwide on the basis of affordability, access to Department of Veterans Affairs facilities and other factors, according to the 2019 Best & Worst Places for Veterans to Live survey by the personal finance website WalletHub. Detroit was ranked No. 100.
A separate study by the website House Method on the best cities for veterans to buy a home put San Antonio at the top of a list of 50 cities and Los Angeles at the bottom.
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The House Method study ranked the cities on 10 factors, including cost of a home, average veteran income, and quality of VA health care.
The top 10 cities for veteran home buying are:
- San Antonio
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Columbus, Ohio
- Orlando, Florida
- Richmond, Virginia
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Kansas City, Missouri
- Cleveland, Ohio
At the bottom of the list of 50 cities were Miami, San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles. In a release, House Method said the big cities at the bottom ranked poorly for cost of living and other factors.
WalletHub's best and worst places for veterans to live survey listed the following top 10 cities:
- Tampa
- Austin, Texas
- Orlando, Florida
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Scottsdale, Arizona
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Gilbert, Arizona
- St. Petersburg, Florida
- Jacksonville, Florida
The bottom five places on the list of 100 were Indianapolis, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Jersey City, New Jersey; Newark, New Jersey; and Detroit.
In a release, WalletHub said the cities were compared on a total of 20 indicators, such as livability, affordability and veteran-friendliness.
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It also found that the lowest veteran unemployment rate was in Santa Ana, California, and the highest was in Newark, New Jersey.
The city with the fewest homeless veterans per veteran population was Virginia Beach, Virginia, while the city with the most was San Francisco, the WalletHub study found.
The full WalletHub survey can be found here.
The full House Method survey can be found here.
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