Top 20 metros of misery

Source: Forbes

America's Most Miserable Cities

Miami is a playground for the rich and famous. Celebrities flock to parties at South Beach clubs and then return to their $10 million mansions in Miami Beach and Key Biscayne. It’s a leading city in culture, finance and international trade. But away from the glitz and glamor, many ordinary Miamians are struggling.

A crippling housing crisis has cost multitudes of residents their homes and jobs. The metro area has one of the highest violent crime rates in the country and workers face lengthy daily commutes. Add it all up and Miami takes the top spot in our ranking of America’s Most Miserable Cities.

The most famous way to gauge misery is the Misery Index developed by economist Arthur Okun in the 1960s, which combines unemployment and inflation. Our take on misery is based on the things that people complain about on a regular basis.

We looked at 10 factors for the 200 largest metro areas and divisions in the U.S. Some are serious, like violent crime, unemployment rates, foreclosures, taxes (income and property), home prices and political corruption. Other factors we included are less weighty, like commute times, weather and how the area’s pro sports teams did. While sports, commuting and weather can be considered trivial by many, they can be the determining factor in the level of misery for a significant number of people. One tweak to this year’s list: we swapped out sales tax rates for property tax rates. Miami would have finished No. 1 under the old methodology as well (click here for more details about the criteria for the list).

In Miami there is a growing divide between the top 1% and the rest of the metro area. Life is good for the likes of LeBron James and Latin pop crooner Enrique Iglesias, who’s building a $20 million compound on a private island with girlfriend Anna Kournikova, but if you’re among the 75% of households with an annual income under $75,000, it can be a hard place. The median home price is down 41% the past three years, sixth worst in the country, to $169,000. It’s great news for first-time homebuyers; not so great for the 47% of homeowners in Miami sitting on underwater mortgages.

A whopping 364,000 properties in the Miami area have entered the foreclosure process since 2008, according to RealtyTrac. The number of foreclosure filings slowed in Miami and across the country last year, but the housing market is far from a comeback.

Miami voters are fed up. Last year 88% voted to throw Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez out of office in the biggest recall ever of a municipal government official. They were dissatisfied with property tax hikes he pushed though during Miami’s real estate meltdown, while doling out raises to staffers at the same time. Miami residents were further outraged by the city and county covering 80% of the cost of the Florida Marlins $634 million stadium set to open in April despite the Marlins turning fat profits in recent years.

To replace Alvarez, Miamians selected retired firefighter Carlos Gimenez in an election that featured Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew fame, who famously was brought up on public obscenity charges for performing songs from his album “As Nasty As They Wanna Be.” The controversial rapper, who promoted an exotic dancer tax during his mayoral campaign, finished fourth with 11% of the vote. Consider: 11% of voters thought “Uncle Luke” would be the best choice to run the eighth most populous county in the U.S.

Full List: America’s Most Miserable Cities
Gimenez’s office took issue with Forbes’ use of some data from 2010 for our ranking. “We’ve completed a number of initiatives and infrastructure projects during the past two years, which if used in the measurement criteria for your report, would dramatically change its result towards a much more positive position for Miami-Dade county,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “In addition, our crime rate has been moving downward steadily, our property taxes were dramatically reduced last year by over $200 million, and our unemployment rate has been reduced by around 30% since last summer and continues to move downward.”

Miami has local company in misery on our list: the West Palm Beach metropolitan division ranks fourth and Fort Lauderdale is seventh. Both areas have been hit hard by the housing crises.

South Florida politics have long been stained by corruption, which we factor into our list based on data from the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice on the number of politicians convicted of crimes. Southern Florida has had 354 public officials convicted of crimes over the past decade, which is one of the highest rates in the country on a per capita basis.

The latest trouble in the West Palm Beach area involves the mayor of Boynton Beach, Jose Rodriguez, who was suspended from his office last month by Gov. Rick Scott after Rodriguez was arrested for allegedly using his position to obstruct a child abuse probe involving his wife’s estranged daughter.

The Miami Heat brought Florida sports fans much joy when it paired James and Dwyane Wade in 2010 and the duo led the Heat to the NBA Finals. The rest of the Miami pro sports scene is pure misery, with the Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers all among the worst teams in their respective sports last year (the Panthers have rebounded this season).

Michigan’s troubled duo of Detroit and Flint clock in at No. 2 and No. 3 among the most miserable cities. The cities have been reeling for decades due to the decline of the U.S. auto industry and in recent years have been demolishing houses to change their city landscapes. Detroit has closed schools and cut wages for government employees, while Michigan appointed an emergency manager last year to take over Flint’s budget and operations. Detroit and Flint rank No. 1 and No. 3 when it comes to violent crime, and unemployment over the past three years in both communities has also been among the worst in the U.S.

Last year’s most miserable city, Stockton, ranks No. 11 this year. Stockton got a boost as housing prices have stabilized to some degree after a 45% drop between 2006 and 2008. They also benefited from our replacement of sales tax rates with property taxes in the methodology (Stockton would have finished No. 6 under the old methodology). Stockton still has plenty of problems, though. It ranks among the country’s six worst when it comes to unemployment, foreclosures and violent crime.

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