Column · city comparisons mislead
Rent, salaries, commute times and weather are measurable, so they dominate comparisons. Access to a specific kind of work, the density of a particular community, or the tolerance for a particular life are not measurable at scale, so they disappear.
Because the unmeasured factors are often the reason someone moves, and the measured factors are often the reason they move back. A ranking can be accurate and still be useless for a decision.
Your own bundle. Five line items, priced for the specific neighbourhood and the specific routine. It takes an afternoon and it is more accurate than any index, because it is the only index that includes the things you will actually do.
Any comparison that ranks places, jobs or products on a single axis is answering a question nobody asked. Find the axis that matches your decision, and accept that it will be harder to measure.
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