A Portland street in Laurelhurst under yellow October trees, a dark green house at the corner

108 places · 1,592 posts from locals · no pitches

Helpful local forums written by (real) locals. No pitches, no fuss, no BS.Real locals. No pitches, no fuss, no BS.

Type a city or a state. You get a guide by someone who lives there, the thread where locals answer what you’d actually ask, and the numbers, kept honest.

“Lived in Texas for 13 years and Dallas for half of those years. I've yet to see a republican flag or someone open carrying.”
Rachel, 13 years in Dallas, Texas

Photo Oregon Essential

This weekPortland, Maine listing price fell 4.0% to $600,000 in October 2026Newest guide, Portland, MaineLast reply in the threads, November 6

A brick townhouse with green shutters and a green door on a West Village street — Photo The Honest Local

Hey neighbor!

The belief is simple. Everyone deserves a fair shot at a good life, and sometimes (hell, often) that requires leaving your comfort zone.

That’s where we come in. This is a forum run by locals who want you acquainted with a new city or state before the moving truck arrives. The pros and the cons, told straight, by people who actually live there, and a thread under every guide where a local answers the thing you can’t find anywhere else.

The numbers are ours too, the same public readings for every place, ranked, with a source and a date on every one. No secret partnerships, no ulterior motives. Just real people sharing real stuff.

The locals at The Honest Local

The country right now the same readings every guide carries, as of November 6

Across America a typical rental runs a month, a typical home is worth , and sellers are asking $424,500. The jobless rate sits at 4.1%, and a gallon of regular is $4.27. Every place we cover carries these same readings with its own rank. See all of it on the Living-In Map.

The places 108 guides, each written by someone who has lived there, with a thread of locals under it

San DiegoCalifornia

84 posts from locals

Read the guide and the thread

Every city · Every state · Compare two places

What locals said 1,592 posts in the threads, every one from a person; the summaries are drawn from them and checked against them

Locals keep circling back to the same two topics: heat and cost.

Summers routinely hit 112 to 120 degrees, the air quality in Phoenix gets called out as bad, and more than one person warns that gas and housing prices have caught up to California.

Arizona65 posts · ask your question

Locals split hard on Tennessee.

Tennessee57 posts · ask your question

Ask a question under any guide and a local answers. How the thread is kept honest.

The lists our own scores from at least two public sources, the 100 largest metro areas and every city we cover

Affordability Score, Little Rock · Safety Score, Provo · Snow Score, Syracuse · Disaster Score, Virginia Beach · All fourteen rankings

Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach seen from under the red umbrellas of a beachfront bar in Honolulu

Ask the thing you can’t find anywhere else.

Under every guide there’s a thread. A local answers, usually the same week.

Find your placePhoto Embrace Someplace

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Where are you thinking of moving?

Type a city or a state. You land on its guide, written by someone who lives there, with the thread and this week’s numbers.

Every city · Every state · The Living-In Map

Every guide 50 states, 58 cities and 29 lists, each written by someone who lives there, each with its thread

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One email a week, written from the tape. What moved, what locals said, what got answered.

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