Hmm, a list of the best places to live, and they are all in the US? Not knocking your towns, lots of nice places there, but there is a whole world out here.
Check out the EIU list of most liveable cities (I only have the 2004 and prior studies, nothing for 2005). Realize that this is a study of best places to live as an ex-pat (which assumes that you are moving away from your home-town, so all the home-town sentiment gets factored out).
Melbourne tied with Vancouver and Vienna for first. Following them are Perth, Geneva, Adelaide, Brisbane, Copenhagen, Montreal, Oslo, Sydney, Zurich, Helsinki, Stockholm, Toronto. No, it wasn't an Australian or Canadian study. Top US city was Honolulu at 19. New York was 51, Washington was 57. Clearly, they weren't looking at small towns.
Any Australians out there like to comment?