Relocate America ranks Dallas, TX as the #5 Best City to Live in America

While you know I am a fan of Dallas, TX as a great market to own rental property in, it is also a highly desirable place to LIVE.

Each year RelocateAmerica.com researches, identifies and shares the best places to live in America. For 2011, the team found the best communities that are well positioned for economic recovery, already experiencing strong economic recovery or have proven overall economic stability. Factors such as employment, education, community leadership and overall quality of life are strongly considered and all the data is examined to determine the Top 100.

In 2011 Dallas was ranked the #5 Best Place to Live in America (Austin, Texas was #1)

Dallas Real Estate Investor Field Trip 2011

The following is a reprint of the article posted at:

http://www.relocateamerica.com/texas/cities/dallas

Dallas, a richly diverse city, offers a thriving culinary scene, a leading arts district, countless luxury accommodations, professional sports, trendy entertainment districts and endless shopping opportunities. As the Southwest’s leading business and financial center, we boast the largest wholesale market in the world, and lay claim to being one of the top convention cities in the United States.

Despite economic downturns in other cities across the country, the City of Dallas continues to experience sustained economic development and growth, especially in our expanded downtown neighborhoods and Southern Dallas business parks. Dallas is renowned for its commercial drive and cosmopolitan flair. With its concentration of high-tech companies, corporate headquarters and wholesale trade markets, it’s a metropolis devoted to business. Dallas also claims one of the largest urban arts districts in the U.S. and is a magnet for top scientists and doctors, including three Nobel laureates.

We have focused on the development of downtown Dallas over the past few years, to reach our goal of making downtown a 24-hour neighborhood. Downtown Dallas is glitzy, with several arts and entertainment districts nestled amid its futuristic corporate skyline. In 1999, about 500 people were living in the central business district. Today more than 3,700 call downtown home. Dallas is a leader in transit-oriented development, which provides new housing, adds sustainable density to accommodate the continued projected growth, provides new retail, employment and entertainment anchors for many of Dallas’s single-family neighborhoods, it improves mobility and energy efficiency. And Dallas boasts a moderate cost of living, well below major East and West Coast cities.

Dallas is a richly diverse American city, home to people with many cultures, religions and lifestyles. This important convergence of uniqueness and differences is reflected throughout the sights and sounds of the city. Dallas’s authentic arts, music, food, places of worship, historic landmarks and urban lifestyle all contribute to the city’s makeup. Historic buildings also contribute. Built in 1921, the Majestic Theater is wonderfully restored with all of its charm and features sight-line seats, and state-of-the-art stage, sound and lighting equipment. Programs include musicals from the Broadway Contemporary Series, and the Dallas Black Dance Theatre.

The City of Dallas has been “going green” for many years, even before the green movement was in fashion. In fact, our Office of Environmental Quality racked up so many green initiatives and accomplishments over the past two decades that the Regional Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called Dallas “a leader among cities,” standing ready to be a model for the rest of the nation. Out of all U.S. cities, Dallas is the Number 1 purchaser of clean, renewable power; Dallas boasts the largest alternative-fueled fleet in Texas and one of the largest in the nation; Dallas has been chosen as the first and only pilot city for the EPA’s Sustainable Skylines Program aimed at improving air quality.

The Dallas Park and Recreation department maintains more than 400 parks, including 17 lakes, more than 17,000 acres of greenbelt/park land, and more than 61 miles of jogging and bike trails throughout the City. We are reinvesting in neighborhood and community parks, developing two new major athletic complexes and adding 15 miles to our city-wide trail system. Through a public-private partnership, we are building a 5.2-acre park on a deck over Woodall Rodgers Freeway, designed by renowned landscape architect James Burnett.

Currently the freeway and overpasses prevent movement between our growing Arts District and our Uptown area, whose explosion of residential and retail growth has made it the hippest place to shop, eat and live in Dallas. When the park is complete it will include a children’s garden and playground, a dog park, cafe and outdoor terrace, acoustical performance stage, plazas and water features, shady groves and lawn space and wireless Internet access. It will finally connect the Central Business District and Uptown, and promote walkability and livability between two of the city’s most vibrant entertainment and cultural districts. We are also embarking on a significant restoration and enhancement of Fair Park, a National Historic Landmark with the largest collection of Art-Deco buildings in the nation, and transforming the river into our city’s front door, a spectacular showcase of nature, recreation and innovation with a signature bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Of course, we take our sports seriously in Dallas. Whether it’s professional basketball, college football or a raging rodeo, on any given day you can find a spectator event that suits your particular appetite. The Dallas Cowboys play football in the largest domed stadium in the world, with the world’s largest column-free interior and the largest high definition video screen which hangs from 20 yard line to 20 yard line. The Texas Rangers play major league baseball in The Ballpark in Arlington, about 15 miles to the west. NASCAR racing can be seen at the Texas Motor Speedway north of Forth Worth. Two professional golf tournaments are held in the Dallas-Fort Worth area every May.

The City of Dallas is focused on doing everything possible to create and maintain a vibrant and growing economy. Business opportunities. Quality, affordable housing. Higher Education. Arts and entertainment. Friendly neighbors. Dallas a city that models its slogan, “Live large. Think big.” Its pioneering spirit is alive and well, and the contributions of its residents continue to enrich the community and quality of life. More than 500 people move to the greater Dallas area each day from every part of the nation and the world for reasons as varied as they are. But the fact is that Dallas is big enough for all of them.