Jacksonville ranks #2 on the top cities where people want to live

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-cities-to-live-2017-6/#2-jacksonville-florida-9

Jacksonville is the largest metro area by land mass in the continental U.S., and it offers a range of culturally and aesthetically diverse neighborhoods surrounding downtown.

Sitting near the Atlantic shore in northeast Florida, Jacksonville is tied together by bridges, crossing rivers to unite residents in the downtown area with the nearby beaches. Restaurants, shops and entertainment options fill all of Greater Jacksonville's neighborhoods. There are nature trails to hike and marshes to kayak. There is history to see and there is business to develop. The metro area is big enough to find something for everyone to enjoy.

Jacksonville is growing. The region witnessed an ignition of the art and music scene, stimulating business development that has led to demand for a higher standard of living. As a result, Jacksonville is undergoing an economic boom.

To figure out which cities Americans are flocking to, realtor.com looked at three data sources:

• Census Bureau migration data from 2010 to 2014. The "migration ratio" is the ratio of people moving into a metro (from another metro) versus people leaving the metro (to another metro).
• Search traffic on realtor.com. The "views ratio" is the ratio of Realtor.com views to a metro versus views from that metro elsewhere between April 2016 and April 2017.
• Population growth estimates from 2015 to 2017. The "growth rate" is the percentage Nielsen estimates the population in a metro has grown based on census data.

 2. Jacksonville, Florida

Shutterstock / Sean Pavone

Migration ratio: 1.15
Views ratio: 2.11
Growth ratio: 5%