Everyone wants to live well in the years ahead, but that may simply boil down to where you choose to live.

The best places are likely the ones where you can find a job, earn a good salary and buy a nice home. In a 2016 report, job-hunting site Glassdoor calculated the top spots where your pay will go furthest, based on salaries and home values. The jobs site came up with a cost of living ratio — a city's median base salary divided by its median home value. (A higher ratio number is better.)

Noticeably missing are some of America's biggest cities. While you can certainly earn more in hubs like New York and San Francisco, fewer people can afford to buy a house or an apartment there.

"Though there are certainly other financial factors to consider when taking into account the total cost of living, this data reinforces that pay typically goes further in mid-sized cities versus big metropolitan areas where there is often tighter competition for housing," said Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor's chief economist.



Here are the top 12 places where an average paycheck goes a very long way and the quality of life is great (even without a view of the Golden Gate).