# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/41 "2012-03-21T22:33:40Z")
> [@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! I’m a Californian, and I was gonna give you a piece of my mind… but that is pretty accurate. In Los Angeles, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/42 "2012-03-21T22:40:04Z")
I would say Maine, but people have to actually \*want \*to live someplace in order for it to be overrated. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/43 "2012-03-21T23:07:10Z")
What? I spent a week in Maine a few years ago and thought it was one of the best places I’d ever been. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/44 "2012-03-21T23:14:39Z")
It’s the second week when it gets to you. ---
**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, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/45 "2012-03-21T23:15:57Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > It’s the second week when it gets to you. I assume you’re talking about the mosquitoes. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/46 "2012-03-21T23:18:21Z")
California. Mostly because it is full of Californians. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/47 "2012-03-22T00:19:48Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Most over-rated? Every four years, New Hampshire. No, not every four years. Always. Please stay away in droves. - what? You know our unofficial state motto is “go away and leave us alone” ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/48 "2012-03-22T00:57:49Z")
> [@Docta\_G](#): > > I assume you’re talking about the mosquitoes. I hail from the land of giant flying cockroaches. I’m not easily impressed. (And I did get eaten to hell by the mosquitos.) ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/49 "2012-03-22T01:31:58Z")
> [@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. Hello, I would like to disagree (this is the right room for that, innit?). 1. Re: women, Mark Twain said that Mormons were performing a public service by being willing to marry more than one of the hideous beasts in their ranks. So I’m not so sure of your claim in that regard. 2. Utah doesn’t have a big city that’s anywhere near Denver in terms of overall economic activity. So people that do big-city type jobs just couldn’t really think of living in Utah in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![pbbth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f9ae1b/32.png) [@pbbth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pbbth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/50 "2012-03-22T02:03:06Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Since it keeps coming up, why is Texas overrated? > > Yes, Bush came from there. Now that we got that reason out of the way, what are the others? Texas is incredibly hot and not designed well. If you don’t have a car or if your car breaks down you are completely fucked. There is next to no public transportation and everything is laid out so that it is as far away from everything else as possible. There is a culture there of shooting/hunting/fishing as entertainment that overlaps with a stunning amount of pride in embracing ignorance. Texas is the only place I’ve ever been where people were proud to tell me that they didn’t read books or any of that nonsense. My friends who still live in Texas like to make fun of me for moving away, telling me about their fabulous $100,000 3 bedroom homes. I like to tell them about how I don’t have to live in Texas anymore and that you couldn’t drag me back there by offering me a free house full of kittens and chocolate chip cookies. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/51 "2012-03-22T02:06:31Z")
California. there’s no way those shitheads can live up to the hype. ---
**Author:** ![whc.03grady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a6a055/32.png) [@whc.03grady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whc.03grady)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/52 "2012-03-22T03:08:44Z")
Texas deserves all the crap it’s getting in this post, but as a couple other posters have said, the topic is which state is the most overrated. I’ve never, ever heard anyone except Texans speak highly of Texas. Outside its own borders, it is not overrated. Therefore it is not the most overrated. In terms of, “which state do a great many people from all over think highly or very highly of, and yet is least deserving of this acclaim”, the answer, by far and without any doubt is California. Colorado, which is probably second, is a very, very distant second. California far far far far far and away. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/53 "2012-03-22T03:23:29Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > California. Mostly because it is full of Californians. Keeping in mind that this is a generalization and not applicable to every Californian, what makes you say that? ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/54 "2012-03-22T05:08:33Z")
Jealousy, obviously 😃 Having never lived anywhere but California, I’m afraid I’m not qualified to answer the OP’s question. ---
**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 22, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/55 "2012-03-22T05:28:42Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > I’m a Californian, and I was gonna give you a piece of my mind… > > but that is pretty accurate. In Los Angeles, anyway. I’m sorry and Thank you, and vice-versa. I lived there for a while and am happy to have retreated… HOME! I’ll visit, but will _NEVER_ live there again. EDIT: the gang-war zone is alive and well in Northern Cali, as told by a buddy in Fresno and my sister in the Sac area. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/56 "2012-03-22T06:11:46Z")
Before I answer the question, I’d like to see how the states are actually rated, by Forbes or anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/57 "2012-03-22T06:28:26Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > SoCal. Everything that made it cool years ago, the beaches, surf towns etc, has long been overdeveloped away. Amen. Lived my first 54 years in San Diego. Left 7 years ago because “my” San Diego isn’t there any more. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/58 "2012-03-22T11:47:20Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Keeping in mind that this is a generalization and not applicable to every Californian, what makes you say that? Because I was born there, and lived there for 36 years. Of course, not all Californians are the same. But there is a critical mass of tiresome poseurs there that enforces the stereotype and makes life there irritating. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/59 "2012-03-22T11:52:35Z")
More on California: I always like my trips to California. For those of you who live there, if you live in a rural area, or smal time, can yo live reasonably? Like St. Helena or Healdsburg-a bit outside Napa? These places look nice to me. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2012, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377/60 "2012-03-22T12:00:15Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Keeping in mind that this is a generalization and not applicable to every Californian, what makes you say that? the overinflated sense of self-importance. At least, of southern California. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-over-rated-state-to-live-in-us-only/616377.md?page=4)