In a report published by Gallup and Healthways, a well-being management company (whatever that means!), Washington, D.C. had the 2nd highest well-being among big cities in the U.S. in 2009.

That was the result of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index which has been randomly polling 1,000 people per day, 350 days per year for the past 25 months.

The survey comprised of 42 core questions designed to measure how respondents are faring in all aspects of their lives; physically, emotionally, socially and professionally, as well as to take a daily pulse of how Americans rate the overall quality of their current life and outlook for the future.

The first ranking big city was San Jose, CA. The other eight big-cities after Washington, D.C. were Raleigh, NC, Minneapolis, MN, San Francisco, CA, Boston, MA, Seattle, WA, Virginia Beach, VA, Atlanta, GA, and Kansas City, MO. The key in this ranking is the definition of “big-cities”, which is Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) with population of 1 million or more.

The same survey also ranked cities without taking population size into consideration, and, interestingly, D.C. ranked well again. This time it was in the 8th position, with Boulder, CO, Holland, MI, Honolulu, HI, Provo, UT, Santa Rosa, CA, Santa Barbara, CA and San Jose, CA ahead of it. Rounding out the top 10 were Ogden, UT, and Oxnard, CA.

Bottom line: If you’d like to live in an area that ranks among the top in the country in terms of quality of life, is also the 2nd most literate city in the U.S., and is also considered a great place to be by foreign investors, then the Washington, DC area is it.

And if you need a buyer’s agent to help you find a nice, quality home, definitely give me a call!

]]> http://www.calltheo.com/move-to-dc-improve-your-well-being/feed/ 0 http://www.calltheo.com/dc-tops-foreign-real-estate-investors-list/ http://www.calltheo.com/dc-tops-foreign-real-estate-investors-list/#comments Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:31:37 +0000 Theo http://www.propertylicious.com/?p=523 For yet another year, foreign investors in real estate showed preference to the U.S. as the market with the most capital appreciation potential. And Washington D.C. tops the list of U.S. cities, followed by New York, and at a distance by San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles.

These are the results of the 18th annual survey of the members of the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), which was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009. The association’s nearly 200 members own more than $842 billion of real estate globally including $304 billion in the U.S.

It is notable that this year, 51 percent of respondents identified the U.S. as providing the best opportunity for capital appreciation. Comparatively, the same number for the previous years was 37 percent in 2008, 26 percent in 2007, and 23 percent in 2006. It feels like 2003 again, which was the last time respondents’ perceptions for U.S. real estate were as strong, reaching again 51 percent.

Want more good news? Two thirds of respondents plan to increase their investment in the U.S. in 2010 compared to 2009.

On a global level, Washington D.C was the second favorite city for investors’ real estate dollars, losing the first place it held in 2009 to London. New York was in third place, while Paris and Tokyo placed at a distant fourth and fifth place respectively.

Personally, the most interesting piece of information that came out of this report was that an increasing number of survey respondents say that “green” attributes influence their property purchases.

Specifically, 14 percent indicate that green attributes “significantly” influence their decision-making when considering a property; 70 percent say green attributes are “somewhat” of an influence. In the 2009 survey, the numbers were 12 percent and 60 percent respectively. Also, the number of respondents saying that “green” attributes are of no influence at all, dropped to 17 percent in 2010, from 28 percent in 2009.

We’re getting there!

You can read the full survey results at www.afire.org

The study ranks cities with population of 250,000 and above and focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

To be honest, I am a little skeptical about the methodology and the indicators, but if the study shows that DC rocks, I’ll take it!

The author of the study compared his results with other studies and discovered that the top ranking cities in literacy seem to rank well in various quality of life surveys. For example, DC also ranks among the top cities with most active singles’ scenes, most walk-able cities, and healthier cities in the country.

Just another reason why DC is a great place to live!

View study: Central Connecticut State University

Via: Washington Business Journal

Sixteen of the top 50 counties in the United States with the highest share of wealthy young people are in the Washington, D.C. area.

Loudoun county has 10 percent, or 10,327 young adults, making more than six figures – more than San Francisco and New York in terms of percentage of the population. Arlington County captured the second spot, followed by San Francisco, Manhattan and Douglas County, which is situated between Denver and Colorado Springs in Colorado.

The report author believes that part of the appeal of the Washington area is jobs in both the private and public sector, as well as strong education and healthcare institutions, a moderate climate and easy access to recreational facilities.

Aren’t these some of the elements that support a strong housing market? I love the DC area! Despite short term ups and downs, our homes are safe in the long term.

Read the full article at Reuters.