# Most over-rated state to live in? (US only) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377 "2012-03-21T05:06:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/21 "2012-03-21T16:23:05Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Louisiana. > > The French Quarter is like twelve blocks in New Orleans. Take that away and what’s left? West Mississippi. Wrong, the French Quarter is a big tourist trap. There are much better, more interesting parts of New Orleans. Most of Louisiana is a cess pool. So I don’t think it can be called “overrated.” The answer is obviously Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Lickety\_Split\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/67e7ee/32.png) [@Lickety\_Split\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lickety_Split_1)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/22 "2012-03-21T16:36:12Z")
Texas. Trust me: I’ve lived here off and on for 15 years. And that’s in Austin, which is probably the best place to live in this state. But, yeah, Texas: apocolytpc-type Summer heat; way too many illegal Mexicans, who will soon take over this state; extortion-worthy utility bills; and too much just plain butt-ugly landscape. Houston boasts the worst air in the country; El Paso is basically Mexico; Amarillo is, well, Amarillo, and Dallas is tolerable only if you have enough money to insulate you from the citiy’s myriad ills and the fact it is has more a-holes than a proctologist’s waiting room. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/23 "2012-03-21T18:06:56Z")
Add to that that Texas women seem to have the highest per-capita rate of makeup use of anywhere I’ve been…and I have been a lot of places. I swear, some of them look like Kabuki actors. I bet some of them are pretty, but who can tell under all that? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/24 "2012-03-21T18:30:59Z")
I would say Ohio is the most overrated, but even though it does actually suck living here, everyone knows it sucks living here and no one makes any attempt to pretend otherwise. Although in my neck of Ohio, the economy is definitely booming now, especially in the meth industry. ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Goliath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rex\_Goliath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Goliath)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/25 "2012-03-21T18:37:55Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Yeah, I’d love to know how Mississippi qualifies as an “overrated state.” National punchline more like it. Yep. Little known fact: the state motto of Alabama is not, in fact, _we dare defend our rights_, but “thank God for Mississippi.” In fact, if you google it right now, you’re much much more likely to see Alabamians praising Mississippi for being slightly worse than you are to see any real, genuine enjoyment of anything Mississippi has to offer. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/26 "2012-03-21T18:53:05Z")
Austin, Texas is incredibly overrated. All the Yankees who are thinking about moving here should reconsider and stay FAR away. You’ll hate it here, really. All the magazines that make Austin look cool? Lies, nothing but lies. (Okay, I KNOW this isn’t likely to keep more people from moving here, but it was worth a shot!) ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/27 "2012-03-21T18:57:35Z")
California, full stop. Overpriced, overpopulated with the homeless, and ready to slide into an apocalyptic economic depression every other year. Every time I visit I wonder why anyone stays. ETA: This is too vitriolic, but I’m getting tired of people wondering why I don’t move to California. Honestly, people, where’s the appeal? EATA: **Astorian** , that was awesome. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/28 "2012-03-21T19:14:17Z")
> [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](#): > > Wrong, the French Quarter is a big tourist trap. There are much better, more interesting parts of New Orleans. > > Most of Louisiana is a cess pool. So I don’t think it can be called “overrated.” Yep, three blocks of Frenchman Street alone makes New Orleans a world class city. The rest of the state is something awful though. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/29 "2012-03-21T19:39:06Z")
Definitely Florida, for reasons stated above. I guess if ALL you care about is warm weather then it’s a good move. But I think warm sunny days are quickly outnumbered by the cost of insurance and the large numbers of cranky elderly who get angry if you approach their lawns. But mostly, the cockroaches. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/30 "2012-03-21T20:19:41Z")
I’d say “New Jersey” but it’s not rated very highly. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/31 "2012-03-21T20:24:19Z")
> [@rachelellogram](#): > > Definitely Florida, for reasons stated above. I guess if ALL you care about is warm weather then it’s a good move. But I think warm sunny days are quickly outnumbered by the cost of insurance and the large numbers of cranky elderly who get angry if you approach their lawns. But mostly, the cockroaches. Florida is a redneck cesspool too, except for a few exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/32 "2012-03-21T20:28:03Z")
SoCal. Everything that made it cool years ago, the beaches, surf towns etc, has long been overdeveloped away. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/33 "2012-03-21T20:44:52Z")
Florida would top my list. I know a lot of people who dream of moving to Florida. But I don’t see that it has much going for it…there are better places for weather, better places for scenery, better places for schools, culture, economic growth. Colorado and California and new York are other states that have a lot of dreamers wanting to move there, and I think…why? ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/34 "2012-03-21T21:29:36Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Florida would top my list. I know a lot of people who dream of moving to Florida. But I don’t see that it has much going for it…there are better places for weather, better places for scenery, better places for schools, culture, economic growth. > > Colorado and California and new York are other states that have a lot of dreamers wanting to move there, and I think…why? Yeah if the question had been about which CITY is the most overrated, I would have to go with NYC. I visited once and well, maybe I’m a country mouse, but it was _so loud_. It got kinda stuffy in the hotel room, but we couldn’t sleep with the window open. Even at 3am during the week, it was all honking taxis and enormous trucks and people shouting. Boourns. ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/35 "2012-03-21T21:33:01Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > I vote for Colorado. Everything Colorado offers Utah offers even better. The skiing is better and WAY? closer than most of Colorado. The weather is better. The women are much more attractive and the “notch” (the only part of Utah worth occupying) is very clean and, as long as you aren’t a holy roller squashed by the Mormons it’s a pretty easy place to live. The large number of military bases in CO brings the area down IMHO (this coming from an active duty officer). > > Your opinions? > > ETA: Colorado does have a much better selection of beer though. I guess I forgot that. Utah is a bigger cultural wasteland than is Colorado. ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/36 "2012-03-21T21:34:24Z")
Florida. It’s Ohio with hurricanes: flat, ugly, overpopulated, and depressing. With hurricanes. ---
**Author:** ![LegsAkimbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@LegsAkimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LegsAkimbo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/37 "2012-03-21T21:53:34Z")
> [@Docta\_G](#): > > Florida. It’s Ohio with hurricanes: flat, ugly, overpopulated, and depressing. With hurricanes. Well, no, I have to disagree here. I am from Ohio and live in Florida. I can’t wait to get out of Florida but I would never, never want to return to Ohio–they aren’t the same except for hurricanes. Ohio doesn’t even belong in this discussion since it’s hardly “overrated”–who on earth has ever wanted to move to Ohio? The only good things about Florida are the white sand beaches in the Gulf at the Panhandle. But they are also overrated since for most months of the year it is too impossibly hot to go to the beach and for many of the other months you will be run off those beaches by the biting black sand flies. Ohio has no beaches, no mountains, normally terrible winters in the northern part and yet hot summers. Florida is awful and I look forward to getting out of here in a little over two years. There are typically about 10 nice-weather days a year. I’m sick of having to worry about alligators in every waterway (my friend was fishing from the bank of a river last week and pulled her catch onto the grassy bank toward her, only to have a gator come out of the water right behind it trying to steal it. Who needs that?). The biting yellow flies (like horse flies, raise a welt when they bite, they are here for months) are so thick in the summer that you can hear them ticking against all the house windows, trying to get in to suck your blood. We live in a dry county because God doesn’t want you to drink anything but beer or wine. It’s a long drive to a liquor store. In this part of Florida, religion rules. Yes, Florida is overrated and yes, anyone wanting to move here is insane. And yet it’s better (yeah, yeah, IMO) than Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/38 "2012-03-21T22:11:50Z")
Hot, dusty gang war zone where the nanny state won’t let you fart without an “impact study” and taxes you to near death. Overpriced, overhyped. Fires, floods, mudslides and earthquakes to boot! Makes Texas look good! ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/39 "2012-03-21T22:16:18Z")
> [@LegsAkimbo](#): > > Well, no, I have to disagree here. I am from Ohio and live in Florida. I can’t wait to get out of Florida but I would never, never want to return to Ohio–they aren’t the same except for hurricanes. Ohio doesn’t even belong in this discussion since it’s hardly “overrated”–who on earth has ever wanted to move to Ohio? The only good things about Florida are the white sand beaches in the Gulf at the Panhandle. But they are also overrated since for most months of the year it is too impossibly hot to go to the beach and for many of the other months you will be run off those beaches by the biting black sand flies. Ohio has no beaches, no mountains, normally terrible winters in the northern part and yet hot summers. > > Florida is awful and I look forward to getting out of here in a little over two years. There are typically about 10 nice-weather days a year. I’m sick of having to worry about alligators in every waterway (my friend was fishing from the bank of a river last week and pulled her catch onto the grassy bank toward her, only to have a gator come out of the water right behind it trying to steal it. Who needs that?). The biting yellow flies (like horse flies, raise a welt when they bite, they are here for months) are so thick in the summer that you can hear them ticking against all the house windows, trying to get in to suck your blood. > > We live in a dry county because God doesn’t want you to drink anything but beer or wine. It’s a long drive to a liquor store. In this part of Florida, religion rules. > > Yes, Florida is overrated and yes, anyone wanting to move here is insane. And yet it’s better (yeah, yeah, IMO) than Ohio. Never said Ohio is overrated, just that both states are flat, ugly, overpopulated, and depressing. And Florida has hurricanes. ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/40 "2012-03-21T22:21:03Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Hot, dusty gang war zone where the nanny state won’t let you fart without an “impact study” and taxes you to near death. Overpriced, overhyped. Fires, floods, mudslides and earthquakes to boot! > > Makes Texas look good! I’ve lived in both states, and California is clearly paradise compared to Texas. Texas just plain sucks: it’s a huge state, and almost all of it is uninteresting. Quite an accomplishment. Furthermore, California is easily the most diverse state; e.g., the redwoods are not exactly a “[H]ot, dusty gang war zone,” dope-growers notwithstanding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377.md?page=3)