Bozeman, Montana is #2 in the nation for Dreamtowns that offer refuge from big cities and congested suburbs

America may be a metropolitan nation, but most of us don’t seem very happy about it.

A total of 252 million people — 83.5 percent of all Americans — live in metropolitan areas. That includes 164 million in the 51 biggest metros, the ones with populations above 1 million.

Yet a substantial number of these residents of big cities and inner-ring suburbs don’t have their hearts in it. They would prefer to live on the suburban fringe or in small-town America, as repeatedly shown by surveys during the past decade:

…

Bozeman, Montana: This Rocky Mountain community is fast-growing and prosperous. Only four micropolitan areas have expanded more rapidly than Bozeman since the start of this decade. The local poverty rate is the lowest in any U.S. micro, and the unemployment rate is the second-lowest.

by G. Scott Thomas

Full Story: http://www.bizjournals.com/edit_special/68.html

(Many thanks to Henry Fischer, St. Cloud Area Economic Development Partnership, St. Cloud, MN. http://scapartnership.com/ for passing this along. Russ)