(MONEY Magazine) – CELEBRATING NO. 1 NASHUA, N.H.

--Area population: 175,800 --Unemployment rate: 2.3% --Four-bedroom house: $125,000 --Property tax: $3,700 Sales tax: None --Top state and local income tax: None --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 106 --Annual sunny days: 197 --Biggest employers: Digital Equipment, 603-884-5111; Sanders, 603-885-4321; Southern New Hampshire Regional Medical Center, 603-577-2000 --For more information: 603-881-8333; http://www.ced.nashua.nh.us

It looks like the New Hampshire Department of Motor Vehicles needs to alter the Revolutionary War-era motto printed on the state's license plates. Today it reads LIVE FREE OR DIE. After the results of this year's survey sink in, it might well be BEST PLACE TO LIVE FREE OR DIE. Led by No. 1 Nashua (pop. 175,800), three New Hampshire spots have cruised into the top 10 of MONEY's 11th annual Best Places to Live survey, which ranks the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the country. Following close behind Nashua, also in southern New Hampshire, is seaside Portsmouth, which sailed into fifth place, and No. 6 Manchester, a 15-mile drive north from Nashua.

This isn't the first time the Granite State has rocked into the national spotlight. Nashua was our original No. 1 in 1987, making it the first Best Place to rise to the top twice. The friendly former mill town on the Merrimack and Nashua rivers, 36 miles north of Boston, got there this time courtesy of a bustling tech-driven economy that rebounded smartly from a painful '89-'93 recession. "A lot of people unfamiliar with the area have the misperception that this is Cow Hampshire," says Michael Valuk of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce. Not Vice President Al Gore, who said in a May trip to Nashua: "New Hampshire has an amazing story to tell."

Sure does. As you can see in the top 10 table on page 140, Nashua's economy now ranks among the best 10% of the 300 metro areas in our survey. What's more, the violent-crime rate is an enviable 84% below the national average. That no doubt will make a big impression on our readers; when polled, they voted low crime this year's most important factor in choosing a place to live. Access to top-quality health care also scored high, and Nashua doesn't miss a heartbeat there, thanks in part to its proximity to Boston's world-class medical facilities. Life in Nashua seems to be as sweet as the state's maple syrup.

For a rousing testimonial, just ask Craig Tobin, president of Oxford Health Plans New Hampshire, a managed-care firm. His company's parent, Oxford Health Plans of Norwalk, Conn., moved its back-office operations here in 1994 after a nationwide search. It now employs 1,425 people locally and will hire another 600 or so within two years. "We looked at the low cost of living, low crime and high quality of life, and you can see why we fell in love with the area," says Tobin.

That safe, snug, healthy feeling makes the Nashua region a great place to raise a family. The schools are rock solid and both kids and parents have an impressive array of recreation options. New Hampshire's lake region, anchored by Lake Winnipesaukee 50 miles north of Nashua, can float the boat of any water-sport enthusiast. For crisp salt air to clear their heads or a just-pulled-from-the-ocean lobster to fill their stomachs, Nashuans head for the nearby New Hampshire and Maine coastlines. And when the yen for big-city activity sets in, Boston is less than an hour away. The urge to hike can be sated in the fabled White Mountains, a 90-minute drive north, which converts to a skier's delight in winter. (Incidentally, that season is a five-month affair, with an average temperature of 21 [degrees] F and six feet of snow.) "Everything is so accessible here that you can do whatever you like without a major production," says Bob O'Brien, director of corporate communications at NuMega Technologies, a Nashua-based producer of debugging programs for Windows software.

To be honest, Nashua itself isn't the stereotypical New England town with clapboard homes and a village green anchored by a charming 18th-century white-steepled church. About 25% of the work force toils in Massachusetts, and the area resembles your basic commuter suburb with strip malls and modern housing subdivisions. However, the neighboring towns of Amherst, Brookline, Hollis and nine other communities that make up the greater Nashua metro area ooze classic Yankee charm.

Right behind Nashua in our ranking is No. 2 Rochester, Minn., which features the famed Mayo Clinic as a local health-care provider and top-grade schools. No. 3 Monmouth/Ocean counties, N.J. is home to some terrific shore towns plus more than 70 retirement communities. Florida accounts for three top 10 spots, making it three years in a row that the Sunshine State has placed multiple metros high in our ratings: Tiny Punta Gorda (No. 4), 20 miles south of Sarasota on the Gulf Coast, is sprouting new jobs at a sizzling pace. In the northeast corner, No. 9 Jacksonville had the best economic score among the top 10 places. And No. 10 Fort Walton Beach, a haven for Air Force retirees, offers affordable housing in Florida's panhandle. Last year's No. 1, Madison, Wis., slid slightly to No. 7 but still offers a joie de vivre and a jubilant economy. The lone West Coast representative in this year's top 10 and the one with the biggest population (1.6 million residents) is No. 8 San Jose, which includes Silicon Valley.

A complete list of the rankings of all 300 metro areas begins on page 138. You can find detailed data on all of them in the new MONEY publication America's Top Places to Live Today ($7.95; 800-284-7800). If you want to come up with your own best places to live, enter your priorities in our interactive ranking of the 300 metro areas at our Website (money.com).

The top 10 are a geographically diverse group, they have plenty in common:

--Lack of tax. New Hampshire and Florida do not levy any state or local income taxes. New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax either, but residents owe a 5% state tax on interest and dividend income above $2,400 for joint filers.

--Gobs of jobs. Among all 300 metro areas, Punta Gorda is projected to have the strongest job growth over the next three years--13.8% total--according to NPA Data Services, an economic research firm in Washington, D.C. Jacksonville, Madison, Rochester and San Jose also rank high for future job growth. That should catch the attention of anyone thinking about moving. "Most people seek out communities with strong job growth," says Bob Katz, who is president of Easy Analytic Software, a Fresh Meadow, N.Y. compiler of demographic data.

--A sense that big isn't best. Five of our top 10 spots are home to fewer than 250,000 residents; Rochester is the smallest, with a population of 112,900.

Nashua's rise to No. 1--it was No. 42 in 1996--results from a resurrection that makes you think the place should be renamed Phoenix. (The actual Phoenix is No. 36 this year.) Beginning in late 1988, a downturn in the region's technology sector and military cutbacks choked local businesses, including Nashua's largest employers, Digital Equipment and Sanders, an electronics firm. In 1991, unemployment peaked at 8% and home values were down 20% or more from their '88 high as the area fell to No. 233 in our rankings. "It seemed like just about everybody lost their jobs in the late '80s," says Martha Oxner, a Merrimack resident who got laid off in 1989 and now runs a successful tailoring business from home.

Yet with typical Yankee bootstrapping, Nashuans energized their area. The tech surge was key. That's not too surprising, considering that New Hampshire has more techies per capita--78 per 1,000 workers--than any other state, according to the American Electronics Association. The Greater Nashua Software Entrepreneurs Group (GNSEG) was founded in 1993 and continues to offer financial, marketing and development advice to its 1,000 members. "The big firms here shed highly educated technology people who stuck around and went to work for themselves," says Forrest Milkowski, 46, director of product marketing at 150- person White Pine Software. The Greater Nashua Center for Economic Development also launched a program to encourage tech start-ups. So far, nearly 50 companies are up and running.

Service firms are also fueling the economy. Boston-based Fidelity Investments, for example, moved into a 600-acre Merrimack complex last year, where 900 shareholder service and technology staffers are already at work. Another 800 employees should be on board by the end of the year.

All told, Nashua has created a more diversified economy for its residents. "There is a much better mix in the types and size of companies," says Russ Thibeault of Applied Economic Research in Laconia, N.H. Because of the tight labor market--the recent unemployment rate is 2.3%--firms are getting creative to attract and retain employees. Sanders just switched to a schedule that will give employees two Fridays a month off.

Nashua is shaping up as a great place for telecommuters too; it snagged the third best rating for small metro areas in the April '97 MONEY/PC World survey of telecommuting hot spots. And those telecommuters can work from a home whose value is now steadily rising. Prices are increasing about 5% or so a year, and Jocelyn Lavoie of Norwood Real Estate/ Better Homes & Gardens says sellers are getting about 97% of their asking price.

Grumbling about the property tax levy is a local pastime, however. A typical $125,000 house carries a $3,700 annual property tax bill. Then again, those taxes help finance strong schools. Jane Truelove, who relocated from Boston last year to run Fidelity's operations, says her nine-year-old daughter is being pushed as hard in the local public school as she was in a private school in Boston. "The curriculum didn't miss a beat," she says.

Of course, no place is perfect. For one thing, Nashua lacks broad racial diversity (it's 96% white). And no one will mistake the area for a cultural or culinary hotbed. That said, there is a mini restaurant revival afoot. Martha's Exchange, Michael Timothy's, Coyote Cafe and Cafe Pavone are drawing diners back to Main Street in downtown Nashua. There's even live jazz four nights a week at Michael Timothy's wine bar.

To arrive at our 1997 Best Places rankings, we used a proprietary system similar to ones employed in prior years. First, Roper/Starch Worldwide polled a representative sample of 503 MONEY readers (median income: $70,040) and asked them to rate 41 quality-of-life factors on a scale of 10 (most important) down to 1 (least important). You'll find the complete poll results on page 153.

Then MONEY staffers and Bert Sperling at Fast Forward, a Portland, Ore. demographic consulting firm, collected data for the 300 largest metropolitan statistical areas as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. We used a combination of government data, such as the FBI's 1995 Uniform Crime Report, as well as figures from private sources. For example, the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association supplied cost-of-living data, and we used the Mobil Guide's four- and five-star restaurant ratings. Arizona State University provided recent job growth stats. In instances where we didn't have data on a locality, we either used a state figure or extrapolated from a similar metro area.

We used two new data suppliers for housing figures. Runzheimer International, a Rochester, Wis. firm that specializes in corporate relocation analysis, provided the average price of a four-bedroom/three-bath home for households with $60,000 incomes, plus property taxes on those homes. The average home price for our 300 areas is $169,000. "The Midwest and the Southeast are where you can generally find the best home values today," says Art Balicki, a cost-of-living consultant at Runzheimer. Regional Financial Associates in West Chester, Pa. provided '95-'96 housing appreciation rates. The 14% rise in Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. topped the charts.

Armed with our cavalcade of calculations, we assigned all the information to one of nine broad categories: crime, economy, health, housing, education, weather, leisure, arts and culture, and transportation. Then we weighted the data to reflect what readers told us they valued most in our poll. Once we had our final ranking, MONEY reporters visited the top 10 and bottom five places for on-site inspections.

As you might expect, readers' changing preferences along with shifts in a region's fortunes and new sources of data can cause a metro area to move dramatically up or down from year to year. Two New Jersey metro areas, Bergen/Passaic counties (No. 70) and Mercer County (126), home to Princeton, had the biggest swings upward, rising 158 and 139 slots, respectively. Both scored especially well in health care, crime and access to the arts--they received points for their proximity to New York City's offerings.

Our bottom five places struggled with below-average scores in nearly every category. Sioux City, Iowa (No. 296), which abuts but does not include thriving Dakota Dunes or North Sioux City, is projected to creak along with a job growth rate that is about one-fourth the 4.5% national pace over the next three years. Lima, Ohio (No. 297) is still feeling the pain of the 8,000-plus jobs lost in the military downsizing that began in the late 1980s. Anniston, Ala. (No. 298) is expected to have the bleakest job expansion of all 300 regions in our survey and is already feeling the impact from the scheduled 1999 closing of the Army's Fort McClellan. Rockford, Ill. (No. 299) moves up a slot from last year, but locals insist their area gets a bum rap from MONEY. According to recent community surveys, most residents approve of everything from their health care to the economy, though there is agreement that safety and schools need to improve.

Davenport, Iowa is No. 300 this year (Moline and Rock Island, Ill. and Bettendorf, Iowa are the three other anchors of the region). The agri-dependent area on the banks of the Mississippi is still struggling to recoup from the farm recession of the mid-1980s. Even so, residents feel their place is a pretty darn fine spot to live.

You will find a whole lot more information about the rest of our top 10 spots starting on page 144. --C.F.

2 ROCHESTER, MINN.

--Area population: 112,900 --Unemployment rate: 2.7% --Four-bedroom house: $122,100 --Property tax: $1,544 Sales tax: 7% --Top state and local income tax: 8.5% --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 254 --Annual sunny days: 200 --Biggest employers: Mayo Clinic, 507-284-2511; IBM, 507-253-4011; Rochester School District 535, 507-285-8573 --For more information: 800-634-8277; hps.com/Rochester/

Once people live in Rochester, they rarely want to leave. "Four years ago, when IBM transferred me to Somers, N.Y. and then to Austin, I was big blue," says Scott Enke, 40, who had lived in Rochester with his wife Cyndy, 38, and their kids Zach and Micah since 1988. "We missed our friends. We missed the snow." So last February, when Enke found out that the assembly unit he manages was relocating to Rochester, he immediately applied to make the move. The Enkes just returned in late May. "The whole family is happy to be home," he says.

Yep, residents here feel there's no place like Rochester, our No. 1 spot in 1993 and a member of our top five ever since. The rest of the state is pretty great too. Indeed, Morgan Quitno Press, the Lawrence, Kans.-based publishing and research company that recently helped MONEY rate America's safest cities, just declared Minnesota to be "1997's Most Livable State."

But even in a state acclaimed for its quality of life, family-oriented Rochester stands out in several ways. With the highest number of doctors per 100,000 people of all the 300 metro areas we surveyed (1,698), the home of the Mayo Clinic is a medical mecca. The region's largest employer, Mayo has 1,100 physicians who run a special division that caters solely to locals. "What a bonus to know that some of the best doctors in the world are right down the road if you need them," says Ken Dewan, 47, owner of an Internet marketing firm in town.

Access to top docs isn't the only thing the Best in the Midwest can brag about. The local economy has been on the upswing since 1994, when downsizing cost 5% of the local labor force their jobs. The recent IBM move here, for example, meant 400 new jobs, and disk-drive maker Western Digital has announced plans to boost its local 240-person work force by 17% this year. Engineering and manufacturing firm Pemstar plans to double its 350-person staff by 1999. Today the unemployment rate in the tiniest burg in our top 10 is a scant 2.7%, half the U.S. average. The city's finances are so solid that Rochester is one of just 12 cities in our ranking that earn Standard & Poor's top triple-A bond rating.

As in recent years, the metro area (which includes all of Olmsted County) also scores well for its affordable housing and superior public schools. Residents spend 35% less for a four-bedroom home than those in the average metro area in our survey. Property taxes are relatively low too. Kids attend schools with the third highest high school graduation rate among our 300 places, right after St. Cloud, Minn. and Reno, according to Expansion Management magazine.

Though some might shudder just thinking about a place with an average snowfall of 49 inches, hardy Rochesterites see winter as an opportunity to go cross-country skiing. In warm weather, residents bike along 30 miles of paved trails, tee off at one of the eight public golf courses or hitch up the powerboat and head 30 miles northeast to take a cruise on the Mississippi. When folks get the itch to visit the big city, a 90-minute drive north takes them to Minneapolis, where they can catch a Twins, Vikings or Timberwolves game.

Getting to work is a snap. "I moved here nine years ago from Tempe, Ariz., where it took over an hour to drive to the office," says real estate agent Bonnie Braasch, 51. "Here, I can be at my desk, coffee in hand, in 10 minutes." --A.W.

3 MONMOUTH/OCEAN COUNTIES, N.J.

--Area population: 1,035,000 --Unemployment rate: 5.6% --Four-bedroom house: $127,500 --Property tax: $4,000 Sales tax: 6% --Top state and local income tax: 6.37% --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 240 --Annual sunny days: 204 --Biggest employers: Fort Monmouth (Army base), 908-532-0101; Lucent Technologies, 908-949-3000; County of Monmouth, 908-431-7300 --For more information: 800-523-2587; www.wmchamber.com and www.oceancountygov.com

The Monmouth and Ocean County region in east-central New Jersey is kind of like heavyweight George Foreman. The 1,106-square-mile area, which broke into our top 10 for the first time this year, always had tremendous resources but took a while to get the respect it deserves.

For people who like to live near--but not in--big cities, there may be no better locale than our Best Big Place to Live. Monmouth County, about 60 miles south of New York City, includes no fewer than 53 towns--ranging from reserved Spring Lake, with its elegant oceanfront mansions, to Red Bank, a funky community filled with antique shops and restaurants. Ocean County, farther south, is more rural, with 120,000 acres of public land and 45 of the counties' combined 72 miles of Atlantic coastline.

New York City's spectacular museums and arts offerings help Monmouth/Ocean tie (with the Big Apple itself and five nearby areas) for the best arts score in our survey. "On weekends, my family can drive into the city, see a show and then get back home to sleep in our own beds," says Carol Wilusz, 50, a Holmdel real estate agent.

The quality and quantity of health-care resources draws ovations too. The 10 major hospitals include 500-bed Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, praised by local moms for its obstetric care. Only a few miles east, in Burlington County, is Deborah Heart & Lung Center, rated by the nonprofit research group Consumers' Checkbook as having the lowest mortality rate of all 5,500 hospitals it analyzed.

Despite these and other big-city amenities, the Monmouth and Ocean communities retain a small-town feel. The violent-crime rate, for instance, is 65% lower than the national average. Soccer moms and scout leader dads are the norm. Although sports fans can root for 12 big-name pro teams in the vicinity, the loudest cheers can be heard at the pint-size gridiron in Toms River, whose Pop Warner football team was the national champion last year. "People come here because it's a family community," says Gary Lotano, 42, a commercial developer in Toms River and father of two.

Being near family is also why so many Northeasterners choose to retire here. Ocean County has 70 planned adult communities, up from 45 just 10 years ago. Shooting pool recently in the clubhouse of the Four Seasons in Lakewood, rated one of the 20 best retirement communities in the U.S. by New Choices magazine, Ed Cebula explained why he and his wife Helen gave up their home near Boca Raton last year: "We liked living in Florida, but now we're just an hour away from three of our kids and four grandkids."

An estimated 40% of residents work outside their home counties, many traveling to jobs in New York City and Northern New Jersey, so the average commute of 27 minutes rates the seventh longest in our survey. While resident Valarie Gilbert, an Ernst & Young network engineer, wishes she and husband Allen didn't have to get in their cars so often, especially to chauffeur daughters LaTi, 10, and Talya, 3, she's philosophical: "On balance, it's hard to find a better place to live." --J.K.

4 PUNTA GORDA, FLA.

--Area population: 126,500 --Unemployment rate: 4.3% --Four-bedroom house: $135,000 --Property tax: $2,019 Sales tax: 7% --Top state and local income tax: None --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 275 --Annual sunny days: 264 --Biggest employers: Charlotte County Schools, 941-255-0808; Charlotte Regional Medical Center, 941-639-3131; Charlotte County, 941-639-3111 --For more information: 941-639-2222; www.charlotte-florida.com

Pull into the parking lot of the Charlotte Regional Medical Center in Punta Gorda, and you'll likely see an unusual sight: volunteers in golf carts giving visitors lifts from their cars to the hospital entrance. Ah, it's easy to love a place where neighbors--35% of whom are over 64--go the extra yard to look out for one another.

But Punta Gorda (the metro area includes all of Charlotte County) offers far more than just the little things that make life pleasant. This neighborly city in southwest Florida boasts some of the very best big things too--like plentiful jobs, low crime and inexpensive living along placid Charlotte Harbor.

The word is getting around. While Charlotte is no longer the fastest-growing county in the nation, as it was in the '80s, newcomers pour in at a rate of about 3,000 a year. Many are nurses and physical therapists, coming to work in nursing homes, hospitals and assisted-living facilities. Roughly 12% of the work force is employed in the growing health-care field. Indeed, NPA Data Services, an economic forecasting firm, projects that Charlotte County will lead the nation with 13.8% job growth over the next three years, more than three times the 4.4% average for our 300 places. But you need only to look around here a little to figure that out: Two of the three local hospitals are adding new floors, and the county is building a new elementary school.

Though the sun shines two out of every three days, if you move to Punta Gorda you might want to take a long summer vacation somewhere else--or at least work at a place with reliable air conditioning. During July and August, the temperature climbs past 90 [degrees] F.

Crime, however, is low all year round. Because most offenses are committed by people under 30, Punta Gorda's demographics work to its advantage. Violent crime here is 60% below the U.S. average. Patio screens protect against the only frequent intruders--mosquitoes.

Maybe the best part about living here is how easily you can afford a house and a motorboat and still go out to dinner regularly. The average price of a three-bedroom home is just $85,000, though some physicians and other affluent professionals live in exclusive neighborhoods like Punta Gorda Isles or Grassy Point, where four-bedrooms with 130 feet of waterfront cost $350,000 to $750,000.

For most here, however, Punta Gorda is a bargain. Robert Freda, 47, moved his family's 78-year-old labelmaking company, United Seal & Tag Label, from Oceanside, N.Y. to Port Charlotte last July. He couldn't be more pleased. "I'm saving 55% in the fixed cost of running my business and paying less for property and taxes for a much better lifestyle than I had in New York," he says. He and his wife Kathleen, 44, can get home by 5 p.m. and be on their 31-foot powerboat in the harbor at 5:15 p.m. When they want to eat out, they sometimes dock their boat at Harpoon Harry's, where you can buy a fried-seafood dinner for only $11 (breathtaking sunset over the harbor and live music included). --J.K.

5 PORTSMOUTH, N.H.

--Area population: 221,900 --Unemployment rate: 3.4% --Four-bedroom house: $122,000 --Property tax: $3,080 Sales tax: None --Top state and local income tax: None --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 224 --Annual sunny days: 205 --Biggest employers: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, 207-438-1000; Cabletron Systems, 603-332-9400; Liberty Mutual Insurance, 603-431-8400 --For more information: 603-436-3988; www.seacoastnh.com

Something is definitely here. And we're not talking about the scrumptious seafood in this picturesque coastal region that runs along New Hampshire's 18 miles of Atlantic shoreline into the Maine communities of Kittery and York.

It just doesn't seem fair that the 221,900 residents of the 31 towns in the Seacoast metro area--anchored by Portsmouth, Rochester and Dover--get to live amid New England charm dating to the 1600s while working in an economy built to excel into the 21st century. But that's the way it is in the Portsmouth metro area, the best-kept secret in New England.

In fact, when we asked a local what the area lacks, he noted dryly: "Well, we don't have any crime." Portsmouth's violent-crime rate is about two-thirds below the national average (the violent-crime rate noted above is just for the city of Portsmouth). Health care is also arrestingly good; the Seacoast ranks in the top 10% for health care in our survey, thanks in large part to its proximity to the medical facilities in Boston, a 50-mile drive south.

A diversified employment base keeps the economy percolating, with a strikingly low 3.4% unemployment rate. You can find jobs from a wide range of employers, including Cabletron Systems, the rapidly growing $1.4 billion computer networking company in Rochester, Liberty Mutual Insurance in Portsmouth, and the 2,340-employee University of New Hampshire in Durham. "If I had to pick one area in New Hampshire to bet the store on, it would be the Seacoast," says Russ Thibeault, president of Applied Economic Research in Laconia, N.H.

No one was betting on the Seacoast back in '91, when Pease Air Force base was closed and 4,550 jobs vaporized. But faster than you can say lift-off, Pease took flight as a commercial and industrial center. Today about 60 businesses with 1,700-plus employees are up and running there.

The housing market is as diversified as the economy. The 1990s version of landed gentry own $400,000 restored 18th-century colonials. Century-old Victorians go for $200,000 or so, but you can spend roughly $100,000 for a modest Cape or ranch house. Average prices in nearby Rochester and Dover are in the $100,000 range too. While Portsmouth property values sank in the early '90s recession, real estate agent Carolyn McGee says that the market is now as buoyant as boats in Portsmouth harbor and appreciating at a 5% annual rate.

For fun, residents and tourists gravitate to Portsmouth's historic downtown Market Square, where stores and galleries range from chic to funky and restaurants offer cuisines from Japanese to French. Local quaffs: latte at the Caffe Kilim and pale ale at the 275-seat Portsmouth Brewery. Prescott Park, on the bank of the Piscataqua River, hosts more than five dozen free music and arts shows in the summer. When you just need a break from it all, you can retreat to one of the coastal beaches lining Route 1A or drive up to Lake Winnipesaukee and the White Mountains to boat, float, hike or ski. --C.F.

6 MANCHESTER, N.H.

--Area population: 177,500 --Unemployment rate: 3.4% --Four-bedroom house: $150,000 --Property tax: $4,625 Sales tax: None --Top state and local income tax: None --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 153 --Annual sunny days: 205 --Biggest employers: Optima Healthcare, 603-626-8900; Citizens Bank, 603-634-7142; New Hampshire College, 603-668-2211 --For more information: 603-666-6600; www.manchester-chamber.org

Assuming you've already read about our No. 1 and 5 spots, you know plenty about Granite State metro areas that serve up a fabulous quality of life. Among the attractions: rebounding economies, low taxes, topnotch health care, and crime rates that would leave FBI director Louis Freeh with time on his hands. Well, we can't refrain from playing this song one more time. The nine-city Manchester metro area, 16 miles north of Nashua, is the last of the New Hampshire triumvirate that snagged top slots in this year's Best Places survey.

Though Manchester is the largest city in New Hampshire, the community doesn't suffer big-city ills. "The only reason you have a car alarm is because the car came with it," says Steve Tetrault, 32, a lifetime resident and real estate agent with DeWolfe New England. Foolhardy? Hardly. Manchester's violent-crime rate is 78% below the U.S. average, and cars are snatched at less than half the national pace.

Manchester also boasts terrific medical care. Optima Healthcare, the state's largest medical-care network and the area's No. 1 employer, combines the talents of Catholic Medical Center and Elliot Hospital, home to the New England Heart Institute--where 75% of the state's open-heart surgeries are performed. The Lahey Hitchcock Clinic also operates two centers in Manchester and one in nearby Bedford. And Boston's renowned medical facilities are just 60 miles down the road.

Like Nashua, Manchester needed some economic CPR when the decade began. But the culprit was a cash crisis, not a tech tumble as in Nashua. As the state's financial center, Manchester faltered when the federal government stepped in one fall night in 1991 and took control of four troubled banks laden with bad loans. Only two survived. Employment downtown shrank from an estimated 13,000 to 7,000 today. "I've been through some recessions in my life but nothing as severe as that," says Jay Taylor, head of the Economic Development Office. "There were some mighty sour faces around here."

Today the smiles are back. Unemployment is now 3.4%, and some 2,800 jobs, mostly in the service sector, sprang up last year. In sharp contrast to Manchester's history as a one-company (Amoskeag) mill town till the 1930s, smaller firms are now the local economy's main drivers. "We're a hell of a lot better off now," says Phil Ryan, executive vice president at Optima Healthcare and a 30-year Manchesterite. This is also the top-rated small metro area for telecommuters, according to our April '97 MONEY/PC World survey.

In addition to the recreation spots mentioned in our descriptions of nearby Nashua and Portsmouth, there's Lake Massabesic, just four miles from downtown. It's a sporting heaven for boaters and bikers alike. After a water outing, locals sometimes mix in some oils by visiting the Currier Gallery of Art, home to more than 12,000 works, including pieces by Matisse, Monet and Picasso. And for culture of a slightly different sort, kids love the yogurt-making tour at Stonyfield Farm in nearby Londonderry. --C.F.

7 MADISON, WIS.

--Area population: 390,300 --Unemployment rate: 1.7% --Four-bedroom house: $192,700 --Property tax: $4,666 Sales tax: 5.5% --Top state and local income tax: 6.93% --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 259 --Annual sunny days: 190 --Biggest employers: State of Wisconsin, 608-266-1731; federal government; Madison Metropolitan School District, 608-266-6270 --For more information: 608-256-8348; www.ci.madison.wi.us/

Welcome to a place where the average winter temperature is a teeth-chattering 20 [degrees] F, yet bicycles outnumber cars by a ratio of 3 to 2. Where a public exchange of ideas is so cherished that the city built a pulpit at the end of a busy downtown street for speeches and rallies. Where it's so safe that the governor's residence in this sophisticated state capital isn't up on a hill behind a forbidding fence but is just another house on a lovely block.

Welcome to Madison.

If the description sounds a bit familiar, maybe you remember Madison as our 1996 Best Place to Live in America. This year, while only 10 metro areas in our survey feature economies with a buzz that equals Mad City's, three are in New Hampshire, which helped knock Madison (technically, all of Dane County) down a few pegs. So did flat 1996 housing-permit figures. Still, among our top 10 places, only Columbia, Mo. beats Madison's 1.7% unemployment rate. The chief reason: steady employers like the state of Wisconsin, which provides jobs for about 48,000 locals, or 18% of the work force. Over half of them work at the 40,000-student University of Wisconsin.

High-tech companies keep the economy bubbling too. The number of such firms has jumped 28% to 345 since 1991. "People come here from Silicon Valley because the university produces super employees and we have wonderful public schools," says Jan Eddy, who runs software developer Wingra Technologies.

Eddy has a point about the schools. The low 12-to-1 student/teacher ratio helps turn out high school grads who score 21% higher than the U.S. average on SATs. In addition, Madison is the only district in America with elementary, middle and high schools designated National Schools of Excellence by the U.S. Department of Education.

The area's topnotch health care is nothing to sneeze at either. The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is renowned for doctors in its cancer, cardiology and gynecology departments. Most people speak highly about their managed-care plans too.

Madison's best trait, though, may be its healthy mix of people and diversions. Walk along State Street's pedestrian mall and you'll see retirees, college kids and boomers in business suits winding their way among the street vendors, coffee shops and New Age stores. You can also find 24 kinds of ethnic restaurants scattered throughout this surprisingly diverse city.

In warm weather, you'll see locals strolling in the area's 220 parks, sailing on one of five lakes or pedaling along 150 miles of bike paths. Hardy cross-country skiers mush along 100 miles of trails in winter months. As for spectator sports, UW Badgers football games typically sell out and it's utterly sane in Dane to head 80 miles west for a Brewers game.

Housing costs are relatively high, particularly property taxes that can easily run $2,500 to $5,000 a year. But many Madisonians concede that's a price worth paying for the great schools and parks. --A.W.

8 SAN JOSE

--Area population: 1,557,200 --Unemployment rate: 3.7% --Four-bedroom house: $498,400 --Property tax: $5,400 Sales tax: 7.75% --Top state and local income tax: 9.3% --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 615 --Annual sunny days: 257 --Biggest employers: Hewlett-Packard, 408-435-7400; County of Santa Clara, 408-299-2341; Lockheed Martin, 408-943-9710 --For more information: 408-291-5250; www.sanjose.org/nsapi

You may think of San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley as the home of America's sharpest computer wonks. The most populous metro area in our top 10 does boast the headquarters of Apple Computer, Intel, and the biggest local employer, Hewlett-Packard. But San Jose, an hour's drive south of San Francisco, rose from No. 19 last year largely because of the things locals do when they log off. There are so many diversions here, you can understand why First Kid Chelsea Clinton decided to call the county's Stanford University her home for the next four years.

Blessed with an average summer temperature of 74[degrees] F, Santa Clara County has more than 100,000 acres of parkland perfect for biking, rollerblading and picnics. San Jose's SoFA (South of First Street) district offers coffeehouses, comfortable clubs and pool halls. And for cultural outings, you could visit the Tech Museum of Innovation, which lets kids "fly" over the surface of Mars. When you want to dine out well, you can hit Les Saisons for fresh California fare or head to San Francisco to taste the chow of recent James Beard award winners at Aqua, Fleur de Lys or Rose Pistola. Although sports enthusiasts gladly make the trek to see football's 49ers, plenty of folks are loyal to the hometown teams. So what if the Sharks haven't had a winning hockey season in their seven-year history? They've still sold out 138 of their past 142 games. The minor league San Jose Giants, on the other hand, have a better record over the past nine years than their San Francisco namesakes.

The area has rebounded nicely from the defense cutbacks and computer industry slowdown of the early '90s. Local firms added 38,000 jobs last year alone, with computer network supplier Cisco Systems signing on over 3,000. If you don't know a RAM from a CD-ROM, not to worry: More than 20% of the work force is employed in the retail, health, finance, insurance and real estate fields.

While San Jose was tops in our survey for housing-permit growth last year (up 84%), the cost of buying a home can be daunting. According to Runzheimer International, the average four-bedroom for a $60,000-income household costs $498,400. But young couples and families can spend closer to $250,000 for a home in nearby Milpitas.

Some folks are willing to pay the high price for homes near downtown, however, to avoid an hour-long commute. When Todd Schmidt moved here last year from Seattle for a job as an engineer with Intel, "I drew a six-mile radius around Intel's headquarters and said this is where we'll live." One solution for residents: telecommuting. San Jose ranked as the second best place in the U.S. for telecommuters in the April '97 MONEY/PC World ranking. --A.W.

9 JACKSONVILLE

--Area population: 1,008,000 --Unemployment rate: 3.7% --Four-bedroom house: $107,600 --Property tax: $1,794 Sales tax: 6.5% --Top state and local income tax: None --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 1,169 --Annual sunny days: 226 --Biggest employers: Naval Air Station Jacksonville, 904-772-2326; Mayport Naval Station, 904-270-5226; Duval County Public Schools, 904-390-2182 --For more information: 904-366-6600; www.jaxchamber.com

Like so many others in the Navy, Peter Miller, 44, requested his last tour be in the Jacksonville area. He knew that this booming northeast Florida metropolis has much to offer: great jobs, fun along the St. John's River, nearly 100 golf courses, 40 miles of Atlantic beaches and four mild seasons. But when Peter and his wife Cindy, 42, got down to it, they were drawn most by how warmly the community embraces newcomers. "When people make you feel welcome, you want to stick around," he says.

The Millers aren't the only ones who've lately moved or planned to move to Jax, as locals call it. Many would credit the young, motivated work force--the area's average age is 33--for attracting some of the biggest names in regional and national business. In mid-1995, for instance, America Online began hiring 1,200 people for its technical support center. Merrill Lynch is planning to expand from 1,700 locally to 2,200 in the next two years, mostly for its back-office operations: "The work force has the sophistication needed to handle our financial products," says William Bridy, first vice president for Merrill Lynch. The community is eager to celebrate the opening of the 400-acre World Golf Village, including the International Golf Hall of Fame, in 1998. And, of course, the expansion NFL Jaguars made their debut in 1995; last season they made the playoffs with an 11-8 record. Better yet, they enrich the local economy by an estimated $131 million a year.

The job market is really perking. Unemployment in the Jacksonville area, which includes Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties, is a mere 3.7%; that's a third lower than the U.S. average and among the best in the country for a city of a million or more inhabitants.

Jacksonville's location at the intersection of I-95 and I-10, as well as its busy seaport, bodes well for future job growth too. Barbara Strickland, chairman of the Port Authority, projects double-digit growth in domestic and international trade over the next decade. Knowing Spanish and Portuguese is a plus here since trade with South America grew 25% last year in the deepwater Port of Jacksonville. "Because that part of the world is growing so fast, its demand for products has increased," adds Strickland. "Some countries there have also reduced import duties, which is good for our business."

Jacksonville is one of the most affordable places in the Southeast, especially for home buyers. Nassau and southern Clay counties, where land values are the cheapest, offer contemporary three-bedroom ranches in the $90,000s. Although you can spend more than $1 million to live on the beaches in affluent Ponte Vedra, you can pay as little as $250,000 for a house on a golf course--if you don't mind driving five minutes to the ocean.

Jacksonville is among the most racially diverse of our top 10 places. More than 20% of the population is African American, for example. And although Jax--like many U.S. communities--confesses to its share of racial disharmony over the years, residents give the city credit for facing its problems. Says Glenda Washington, an assistant vice president for First Union Bank: "Lots of towns will turn their backs on their troubles, but this one's looking straight at them." The area is working to reduce crime too. While violent crime is 71% higher than the U.S. average, it's been falling for seven years straight, partly because the city implemented an "intensive care" program by adding more police and afterschool programs for kids. --J.K.

10 FORT WALTON BEACH, FLA.

--Area population: 160,800 --Unemployment rate: 3.8% --Four-bedroom house: $114,900 --Property tax: $1,618 Sales tax: 7% --Top state and local income tax: None --Violent crimes per 100,000 people: 335 --Annual sunny days: 220 --Biggest employers: Eglin Air Force Base, 904-882-3931; Hurlburt (Air Force) Field, 904-884-6199; Okaloosa County schools, 904-833-3100 --For more information: 904-651-7374,www.owcc.cc.fl.us/resource.html

In 1950, Fort Walton Beach, located on Florida's northern Panhandle, was a fishing village with about 2,400 residents. My, how times have changed!

The city now has roughly 22,000 people, and last year new-housing permits in what locals call the Redneck Riviera (all of Okaloosa County) grew a stunning 48%, second in the U.S. only to No. 8 San Jose. Destin, a nearby sliver of a town along pristine white-sand beaches, is the locus for most of the development--$250,000-plus properties that are often second homes for Alabamans, Georgians and Tennesseans. But in inland towns like Fort Walton Beach, Niceville (we're not kidding!) and Valparaiso, where most of the year-round population lives, you can find three-bedroom houses for as little as $85,000.

Inland doesn't mean landlocked, though. This is a fisherman's paradise; Wisconsin may have its Cheeseheads, but here the locals call themselves Fishheads. The impossibly beautiful blue-green waters of the Gulf brim with grouper, cobia and bluefish, while sparkling lakes, rivers, bays and bayous conceal bass, trout and catfish. Niceville's three-day Boggy Bayou Mullet Festival is a perennial favorite for Panhandle residents (who like their mullet fried, by the way).

The year-round warm--but not too hot--weather draws raves too. There are actually four seasons here, as evidenced by the pine trees, magnolias and oaks gracing the area. But the January temperature rarely dips below 40 [degrees] F. One warning: Summer humidity hovers around 74%, so prepare for some really bad hair days.

Despite the lure of the great outdoors, people here take work seriously. Unlike some other Florida spots, a mere 10% of residents are over 64. Few places can brag about stronger job growth--the 10th highest of our 300 places. Jobs are expected to grow 74% faster than the average metro area over the next three years, according to NPA Data Services.

Eglin Air Force Base is the main economic engine. The 724-square-mile installation employs 9,500 military personnel and 4,300 civilians (about 12 times more than defense contractor Vitro, the largest private employer in the county). Many of the highly skilled workers stay here after their hitch, finding work at high-tech engineering and consulting firms. "Small and mid-size technology companies, attracted by the talented work force, are helping to drive our economic development," says Eddie E. Phillips, a local technical management consultant.

Since the nearest pro sports teams are four to five hours away in Atlanta, high school sports are a major event. "People come two hours in advance to get a seat on the bleachers, even if they don't have kids playing," says Kellie Jo Kilberg, a director of the county's Economic Development Council. Little wonder that everyone here couldn't be more proud that current Heisman Trophy winner Danny Wuerffel is a native son. --J.K.

Reporter associates: Ann Knol, Kevin Peraino, Sarah Rose and Mary Schaefer