My husband is a UC Berkeley grad who works in technology and he says that Silicon Valley wouldn’t have seemed like a natural fit for start-ups in the early days either. Apparently, what it had going for it was being close enough to SF to attract a lot of Stanford and Berkeley graduates and inexpensive land for building fabrication plants. The Philly metro area has some great schools that churn out a lot of graduates, is conveniently located on the I95 corridor, has an airport with direct routes to major international hubs, and each funding round can probably last longer due to the lower rents and cost of living compared to other major cities.

There are so many factors to consider. Would you be working fully remote or would you be commuting some or all of the time? If you commute how far would be too far from the office? Where would you be commuting to? Do you want a walkable community or are you OK with driving to most places? Do you plan on sending your children to public school or private school? What do you like doing in your free time? Do you prefer old houses or new construction? How do you feel about living in apartments? Do you want to be able to have a pet above a certain size? What is your budget?

I have lived in or near seven of the cities on this list (including Philadelphia). Based on my previous experiences living in the other cities I suspect this list is more about the availability of high-paying jobs and a good ecosystem for start-ups than cost and quality of living. Philadelphia’s presence on the list makes sense in that context.

We moved to the Main Line from out of state expecting to go into Philadelphia regularly, but it turned out to be a very occasional thing. For us it was because we often end up waiting forever for the Paoli/Thorndale trains to show up, finding parking in certain parts of Philadelphia can be really difficult, and Uber can get expensive fast. We are thrilled to have more city businesses opening here because it doesn’t seem as if the train schedule is going to change anytime soon. We would love for it to be easier to go in more often though.

2022 was a good year for my family. My health improved after a crappy 2021, my husband got a promotion and pay raise, both my kids are academically caught up after a SNAFU a few years ago, and our first year with two teenagers we can have real discussions with has been great. I’m really hoping this is something we can build on in 2023.

I live in a suburban district that had enrolment growth they were unprepared for. They ended up building a new school to deal with it. A couple of our elementary schools were routinely at capacity, so students enrolling after a certain date in addresses zoned to those schools were more likely to be bussed to another school in the district. If you move to an area where none of the schools are at capacity and you aren’t applying for a charter school then it is unlikely you will run into any problems.