Oakland and San Francisco Ranked Among the “Most Exciting Cities in the Country”

According to real estate blog Movoto.com, Oakland and San Francisco are ranked first and third, respectively, as the most exciting cities in the country. The good folks ate Movoto.com established a set of criteria to determine a city’s quotient for being exciting, which included the following:

  • Park acreage per person
  • Percent of population between 20 and 34 years old
  • Fast food restaurants per square mile (the fewer the better)
  • Bars per square mile
  • Big box stores per square mile (the fewer the better)
  • Population diversity
  • Movie theaters per square mile
  • Museums per square mile
  • Theater companies per square mile
  • Music venues per square mile

To Bay Area residents, we would guess that the big surprise is that Oakland outranked San Francisco for being a more exciting place to live. The city on the east side of the Bay has long been regarded as the lesser sister to beautiful San Francisco, but that may be changing. Lower crime rates and housing prices, a better overall standard of living and many other factors have inspired Bay Area residents and people moving to the area to take a fresh look at Oakland as a more desirable place to live. Where San Francisco’s geographical location is stunning, young professionals are finding that more employment opportunities and a lower cost of living make Oakland more accessible, affordable and livable for singles and couples looking to purchase their first homes. Say what you want about Movoto.com’s credibility for determining what makes a city exciting, but one thing’s for sure: Oakland’s days of being a punch line appear to be over.

The cities among the country’s most exciting included these:

  1. Oakland, CA
  2. Boston, MA
  3. San Francisco, CA
  4. Seattle, WA
  5. Washington, D.C.
  6. New York, NY
  7. Milwaukee, WI
  8. Atlanta, GA
  9. Philadelphia, PA
  10. Portland, OR

It appears that the people at Movoto.com have figured out what Bay Area residents have known for a very long time. No matter which side of the Bay you call home, it is a very fine place to live based on the criteria established by the millions of people who already live here!