America's 20 most miserable cities
Drugs. Violence. Unemployment. Is your community one of the 20 most miserable cities in America?
Forbes Magazine used nine factors in ranking the 20 most miserable U.S. cities of 2013. They included unemployment, crime, taxes, weather, home prices and commute times.
Forbes Magazine used nine factors in ranking the 20 most miserable U.S. cities of 2013. They included unemployment, crime, taxes, weather, home prices and commute times.
20. Youngstown, Ohio -- City has been trying to recover since the exodus of the steel industry began 25 years ago. More residents have left Youngstown than moved there for 21 straight years.
19. Gary, Ind. -- Although it's no longer the murder capital of the U.S., this city 25 miles from downtown Chicago is still plagued by high foreclosures and migration rates.
18. Poughkeepsie, N.Y. -- Property taxes are high here, and the commutes are long. Residents' average commute of 31.9 minutes is the sixth highest in the U.S.
17. Cleveland -- Only Detroit and Flint have seen more people leave than the city of Cleveland in the past three years, according to Forbes.
16. Atlanta -- While slowly improving, home prices here are off 42 percent from 2007 and foreclosures rates are among the highest in the U.S. Traffic is also really, really bad.
15. Atlantic City, N.J. -- Gov. Chris Christie proclaimed that the state's gambling was "dying" in 2010, and things haven't gotten much better since. Casino revenues are spiraling downward, contributing to a recent jobless rate of 14.4 percent.
14. Milwaukee, Wis. -- The average low is 13 degrees here in January, and property taxes also rank among the highest in the country.
13. Camden, N.J. -- More than 42 percent of residents live below the poverty line here, making it the most impoverished city in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau.
12. St. Louis -- This city and Detroit were the only two cities that ranked in the bottom 50 percent of all nine metrics of misery measured by Fortune. The worst scores for St. Louis came on net migration.
11. Toledo, Ohio -- Jobs are next to non-existent in Toledo, resulting in the fourth highest net migration rate behind Detroit, Flint and Cleveland.
10. New York -- Taxes are the highest in the U.S. here, and New Yorkers also rank first when it comes to the longest commutes.
9. Lake County, Ill. -- It may be one of the richest counties in the country, but this Chicago suburb has long commutes and generally lousy weather. Home prices are also down 29 percent in the past five years.
8. Stockton, Calif. -- The most miserable city in 2011 became the largest municipality to file for bankruptcy last year. Stockton has the highest foreclosure rate in the country, and is among the five worst for crime and unemployment, according to Forbes.
7. Warren, Mich. -- Like Detroit, the Warren metro area has seen home prices collapse -- off 53 percent the past five years.
6. Vallejo, Calif. -- The city emerged from bankruptcy last year after filing in 2008, but problems remain with large numbers of foreclosures and high unemployment.
5. Modesto, Calif. -- This city jumped from 19th to fifth on this year's list primarily because of the housing bust. There were 6,859 foreclosure filings in 2012, according to RealtyTrac, the third highest number in the country. Recent unemployment was 15 percent.
4. Chicago -- Residents must endure gridlock traffic, plummeting home prices and brutal winters. The migration rate out of Chicago is the sixth worst among the 200 largest metros, according to Forbes.
3. Rockford, Ill. -- Property tax rates remain super high, while a 30-year decline in manufacturing has hurt the economy and kept unemployment among the highest rates in the United States.
2. Flint, Mich. -- Crime remains a severe problem, with the violent crime rate the third worst in the U.S. Only Detroit has a higher rate of residents leaving, and homes are being demolished right and left.
1. Detroit -- Violent crime is down, but it's still the highest in the country with 1,052 violent crimes per 100,000 people, according to the FBI. Home prices haven't rebounded there much either.
