The cities in the ranking were rated on a range of factors indicating affordability, real estate market attractiveness and quality of life, and given an overall total score out of 100 (where 100 = the top score). To produce this report, WalletHub compared 300 cities of varying sizes across 22 indicators. 

In the ranking below, the top five cities have an average total score of 64.5.

Below the total score, each city's ranking out of the 300 cities on affordability, real estate market and quality of life is listed.

Source: WalletHub which used data from U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Council for Community and Economic Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Insurance Information Institute, The National Association of Realtors, ATTOM, a property data provider, and WalletHub research.