This week, U.S. News and World report again released its popular ‘best places to live’ ranking, and once again, Colorado got snubbed in a big way. Once upon a time – in 2024… just two short years ago – Colorado Springs ranked as the 3rd-best place to live in the United States in the same report with Boulder ranking fourth. This year, neither spot managed to crack the top 250.

Midland, Texas. Palatine, Illinois. Enid, Oklahoma. All of those places along with 83 others were determined to be ‘better places to live’ than anywhere in Colorado. The top ranking Centennial State spot in the 2026-2027 report was Parker, ranking 87th.

While this is a better performance than that of last year – when Centennial was the highest ranking Colorado spot at 154th followed by Parker in 192nd – it’s still a result that’s likely difficult for local residents to grasp. After all, Colorado’s access to outdoor recreation is on par with the best in the country, if not the world. But is that enough to deem it a great place to live?

It’s not hard to point to Colorado’s cost of living as a key factor in the abysmal ‘best places’ showing, reported by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce as the fourth-most expensive state in the country in 2025, which is a climb from the 17th-most expensive state in 2022. In terms of housing affordability, the state ranks even worse – the 3rd-most expensive, which is an increase from the 10th-most expensive in 2021.

Following Parker on the 2026-2027 ‘best places to live’ ranking, Centennial ranked 107th, Castle Rock ranked 133rd, and Arvada ranked 247th… and that’s it for Colorado spots that managed to sneak into the top 250 nationwide.

Obviously any sort of ranking of this nature is taking a lot of factors into consideration and any sort of year-over-year variance in a few data points may mean a major swing in placement considering how many contenders get included and how tight the rankings are – for example, 33 places tied with a rounded overall score of 5.9 in the report.

It’s also worth taking a look at the methodology of the report – while Coloradans may argue that access to outdoor recreation should play a bigger role in a spot’s overall score, these factors get a bit lost in the mix. ‘Value Index’ metrics account for 28 percent of the final score in the U.S. News and World Report ranking – a category of metrics where Colorado ranks low. The other three metric categories were deemed to matter less – Quality of Life at 27 percent, Desirability at 24 percent, and Job Market at 21 percent. It’s easy to imagine how Colorado spots may have performed had that not been the case.

So, there you have it – apparently Colorado isn’t that great of a place to live (I type while rolling my eyes). If you want to live in the best place in the country, head to Carmel, Indiana. Want to live in the second-best place? The nearby Fishers, Indiana snagged that spot. Third best? Flower Mound, Texas. Fourth best? Ankeny, Iowa. Fifth best? Johns Creek, Georgia. Sixth? Hoover, Alabama is the place for you.

Yes, Colorado is expensive. That’s no secret. That said, it’s probably so expensive because it’s a great place to call home.

Find the full report here.

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