It can be from any point of view but you can focus more on quality of life. In my opinion, Indianapolis is very underrated, it’s not the most exciting city but it has a lot of good metrics and it’s relatively cheap. what do you think?

48 comments

  2. I never really knew much about it other than the airport, but Atlanta is quite wonderful. It seems to be known for heat, traffic and hip-hop, but it’s not really hot (compared with many places) and the traffic is on par with other cities. It has a vibrant economy. Tons of nearby activities. Tons of trees, water and wildlife in the city.

  3. Galveston, it gets a lot of shit, for its crappy brown water, but the beaches are absolutely beautiful, the houses and architecture are amazing.and the restaurants amazing…

    Also it’s history.. yeah very underrated

  4. Pittsburgh – there’s always something fun to do happening. The skyline and bridges are beautiful. The different neighborhoods are interesting. I’m definitely biased.

  5. Just about any mid sized East coast city. Richmond, VA and New Haven, CT come to mind

  6. I always say Minneapolis is a hidden gem. Gets really cold but there’s tons to do even in winter. Super artsy and progressive and a lot of young professionals there. Focus on community throughout the neighborhoods and good cost of living. Traffics not to bad either.

  8. Richmond, Virginia is my choice.

    Another underrated city is Olympia, Washington.

  9. Detroit and Metro Detroit

    Affordable, summers aren’t horrible, good dive bars, Delta hub city, and close enough to Michigan’s natural beauty.

  11. Portland Maine. Its like a smaller version of the other Portland before they ruined it.

  12. Cincinnati, OH!!!

    I’m newer to the area living in NKY, but we’re in Cincy every weekend. The city has amazing views , food, culture, and an awesome vibe. I feel like I’m discovering something unique every week about the city. It has a lot of family friendly, individual, amd couples activities/events.

    I highly recommend Cincinnati!

  13. My answer to this is always Omaha.

    I spent a week there for work a while ago (7 years ago. Jesus, where does time go?), and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

    Honestly if I had visited Omaha before Grand Rapids, we’d probably live there right now instead.

  14. Many Midwest cities (sans Chicago) are incredibly underrated. Maybe not to visit, but definitely to live in. Low cost of living and good paying jobs.

    Namely Columbus, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Indy.

    I’d rank Columbus as the most underrated. It’s over a million and population (top15 in the US, 2nd in Midwest behind Chi) and has over a dozen universities in the area. Massive growth and development, no shortage of job openings with Intel and Honda among others expanding in the area. Cinci and CLE don’t even compare, yet always are know more widely due to sports teams.

    All that and if you ask a European if they know about it and they’d shrug 🤷‍♂️.

  17. St. Louis is very underrated. Low cost of living, especially housing. Little congestion. Great public amenities like parks, a free zoo, a free art museum, the City Museum. Beautiful historic architecture and a really good restaurant scene.

  19. Kansas City. My wife went there for a work trip and liked it, so we went together for a 4 day weekend and had a great time. Even the people we met that live there were surprised that we chose it for a vacation.

  22. I’m from Erie, PA and it used to be known as “Dreary Erie” and was considered by some to be one of the worst small cities in the country. Although the crime has gotten worse in recent years, the city has vastly improved in many other ways. I moved to Atlanta for 20 years, and when I moved back recently, I was surprised how much more there was to do, craft beer, good restaurants, a big lake front project.

  23. Buffalo is low key a pretty fun City.

    Great if you’re into architecture and museums, presidential history, historic walkable neighborhoods, crazy bar hopping spots and cool industrial areas turned into breweries, James Beard nominated restaurants and quirky businesses.

    Love living here. Bought my home for $180,000 in a nice neighborhood close to bars, restaurants, shops and even an Olmsted Park. Got plenty of money left over to save to travel. I could never have been able to do that in a city like NYC.

  24. Milwaukee is a great city. Tons of old school Wisconsin vibes mixed with a more modern trendy feel. Harley museum is incredible and I highly recommend Bryant’s cocktail lounge.

  25. Indianapolis is a terrible city. People live there.

    The best cities are where no one lives.

  30. I spent a day in Madison, WI and I’d like to go back and spend more time there. Seems to be a pretty good place.

  31. I’ve spent a ton of time in Madison, WI and it’s an excellent city. It’s smaller so it’s not a pain in the ass to get around, but it’s large enough to have a solid culture. The bars and restaurants are great, the parks near the lakes are excellent, and even the surrounding communities are fun to go to. I mostly stay in Middleton when I go and I love the downtown area.

  33. I think Chicago, IL is nicer than people give it credit for, the crime problems are really localized to certain areas, and crime in general is exaggerated. On the flip side it has tons to do, great public transit, and is surprisingly affordable for the third most populous city in the US.

    A lot of people really like Madison, WI. I grew up in the area and while it is nice, especially state street area, I personally think it’s a little overrated, but a lot of people say the opposite. It is quite affordable, public transit is pretty good, plenty to do in the area.

    Ultimately I’d rather not live in either Chicago or Madison, I’m more of a small city person (like pop 100k and less). So I’ll throw in my current home (and home for the foreseeable future), Janesville, WI. While not really a well known city outside of Wisconsin (besides for being the hometown of former House Speaker Paul Ryan), within Wisconsin it has a pretty lousy reputation, which I think is completely unwarranted. Crime was a problem 10+ years ago, largely driven by the closure of the GM plant (which was a major employer of good paying jobs) in the late 2000s which severely damaged the local economy. But the city has bounced back, crime is back to similar levels to other similarly sized cities, and the economy is relatively strong (and more resilient now since there isn’t any one big employer that the entire economy is built around), but the reputation persists. People say there isn’t much to do, and I find it’s only really true if you compare it to somewhere like Madison, which is an unfair comparison being that the Madison MSA has nearly 7 times the population as the Janesville-Beloit MSA. Downtown is rapidly redeveloping, there is a fantastic parks system (more park acreage per capita than any other major city in Wisconsin, and it’s not even close), and there are many events and festivals going on throughout the year. Public transit is decent for a small US city, though has a lot of room for improvement, and is a very affordable place to live.

  36. Does Arcata, CA, qualify as a city? If so, I’d put it up there. With the coast and Redwoods so close and great food, I have loved my visits there.

  39. Foreigner’s perspective but I quite like Lexington KY. Feels pretty much how I would have imagined an American medium city in “lite” mode (obviously areas differ but in general I’d say it feels pretty affluent, it’s very green, got a pleasant downtown and a smattering of sort-of-historic architecture, surrounded by the beautiful Bluegrass, quite church-y but also very bourbon/distillery-y).

  40. St. Petersburg, FL. Written off in my mind as a retirement bedroom suburb of Tampa until I saw what it is in 2019. Amazing place.

  42. The Hartford, CT area is great. Not exactly Hartford downtown. But all the towns around it especially West Hartford.

  44. Pittsburgh is extremely underrated imo. Beautiful area, cheap, cool neighborhoods.

  45. Tucson, AZ. One of three UNESCO World Gastronomy Cities in the US. San Antonio is more recent but it was originally Tucson and New York City.

    We have the airplane graveyard, a mountain that has a higher face than anywhere in the continental US, awesome food, good music venues, and Sonoran dogs

  47. Although it’s definitely gotten more well known/highly rated recently I’m still going Pittsburgh

  48. Greenville, SC. Super sophisticated city with a relative low cost of living. Amazing downtown. White hot economy and surprisingly progressive for being in the Bible Belt.

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