What Each Limit Does to a Search for Where to Live
Counted with the Place Finder’s own rules, some limits barely dent the map and some remove most of it. One, violent crime, cannot be applied to nearly a third of cities.
Of the 4,203 cities the Place Finder lists, a single limit set on its own leaves out anywhere from 3% to 61% of them, counting both the cities that fail it and those with no figure to judge them by. The loosest limit here (not rated elevated or high for extreme heat) leaves 4,061 passing; the tightest (violent crime of no more than 250 per 100,000) leaves 1,656. Limits do not remove independent slices of the map. Take warm winters and no hurricane risk: 1,164 of the 1,803 cities with an average January low of at least 32°F (65%) are free of an elevated or high hurricane rating, against 78% of all cities, so the two limits pull against each other.
Key findings
- 1,803 cities (43%) have an average January low of at least 32°F. Only 1,164 of those are also free of an elevated or high hurricane rating.
- Only 1,255 cities (30%) are free of an elevated or high rating for all six hazards the Finder can rule out. The other 70% carry at least one.
- Violent crime has no published figure for 1,254 of 4,203 cities (30%), because reported crime is published by police department and only where a department reported every month. A limit of 250 per 100,000 passes 1,656 and cannot be applied to the 1,254 with no figure, which the Finder leaves out and counts.
- The most restrictive combination tried here — rent within 30% of $90,000, crime of 250 or less, math at 50% or more, unemployment of 4% or less — leaves 402 of 4,203 cities.
One limit at a time
| Limit | Cities that pass | Share of all | No figure to judge by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent within 30% of a $60,000 income (two bedrooms, up to $1,500) | 1,662 | 40% | 153 |
| Rent within 30% of a $90,000 income (up to $2,250) | 3,168 | 75% | 153 |
| Rent within 30% of a $120,000 income (up to $3,000) | 3,853 | 92% | 153 |
| January average low of at least 25°F | 2,585 | 62% | 0 |
| January average low of at least 32°F | 1,803 | 43% | 0 |
| July average high of no more than 90°F | 2,915 | 69% | 0 |
| Unemployment of no more than 4% | 1,757 | 42% | 0 |
| At least 50% of students proficient in math | 1,884 | 45% | 6 |
| Violent crime of no more than 250 per 100,000 | 1,656 | 39% | 1,254 |
| A major airport within 45 miles | 3,572 | 85% | 0 |
| Property tax rate of no more than 1.0% of home value | 2,274 | 54% | 318 |
| Not losing people to other parts of the US (net migration of 0% or more) | 1,867 | 44% | 123 |
| Not rated elevated or high for hurricanes | 3,276 | 78% | 0 |
| Not rated elevated or high for tornadoes | 3,747 | 89% | 0 |
| Not rated elevated or high for earthquakes | 2,863 | 68% | 0 |
| Not rated elevated or high for wildfire | 3,685 | 88% | 0 |
| Not rated elevated or high for flooding | 2,972 | 71% | 0 |
| Not rated elevated or high for extreme heat | 4,061 | 97% | 0 |
Limits set together
| Limits set together | Cities that pass | Share of all | Left out for a missing figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mild winters and no hurricane risk: January low of 32°F or more, not rated for hurricanes | 1,164 | 28% | 0 |
| Mild winters and summers: January low of 32°F or more, July high of 90°F or less | 761 | 18% | 0 |
| No earthquake, hurricane or tornado rating | 1,698 | 40% | 0 |
| None of the six hazards rated elevated or high | 1,255 | 30% | 0 |
| A $90,000 income for rent, January low of 25°F or more, no hurricane or earthquake rating | 702 | 17% | 0 |
| Rent within 30% of $90,000, crime of 250 or less, math at 50% or more, unemployment of 4% or less | 402 | 10% | 188 |
How much of each figure exists
| Figure | No published figure | County or metro area figure |
|---|---|---|
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | 153 | 0 |
| Median home value | 10 | 0 |
| Median income | 0 | 0 |
| Unemployment rate | 0 | 2,501 |
| Students proficient in math | 6 | 619 |
| January average low | 0 | 0 |
| July average high | 0 | 0 |
| Violent crime, per 100,000 | 1,254 | 0 |
| Distance to a major airport | 0 | 0 |
| Property tax rate | 318 | 0 |
| Net migration within the US, one year | 123 | 4,080 |
The counts describe the figures as published today and move as they are refreshed. Thresholds are examples: a person looking for a warm winter may mean 40°F, not 32°F, and the Finder lets them say so. A figure that belongs to a county or metro area is treated as the city’s for screening and marked with a dagger where the Finder shows it. A hazard rating is a statement about exposure across a whole area and says nothing about a particular street or building.
Methodology
Every published city with an Area Score, which is the set the Place Finder lists. Each limit is applied with the Finder’s own screening code and the figures the Finder loads, so a count here is the number of cities the tool would show with that limit set. A city passes a limit when its figure is on the right side of the line. A city with no published figure for the limit neither passes nor fails: it is counted separately as left out for a missing figure, which is what the Finder does by default, and it is never estimated. A rent limit is stated as an income, as the Finder states it: two-bedroom Fair Market Rent may take 30% of it. A hazard is avoided when the city is rated elevated or high in the FEMA National Risk Index for that hazard, flooding meaning coastal or inland. The thresholds are examples chosen to be round and common, not recommendations, and none of them is what the site thinks a person should want.
Sources
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information — U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) (1991-2020)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Local Area Unemployment Statistics (la)
- Federal Emergency Management Agency — National Risk Index (1.20.0)
- U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics — Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments (CCD 2024 directory, EDFacts 2018-19 school-year assessments)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer — Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency (Uniform Crime Reporting, through 2025)
- U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) (2024)
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research — Fair Market Rents (FY2026 Small Area Fair Market Rents)
Related
Every figure here is recalculated from the same measurements the profiles use. See the methodology for how the underlying data is collected and normalized, and the editorial policy for how these reports are written.