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These ten places are each special in their own way. The only downside may be that it's hard to keep a secret, so most of them have seen considerable increases in home prices over the last couple of years.

• Charlottesville, VA

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, most areas of this idyllic city are accessible by foot or bicycle. Charlottesville enjoys clean air and water, and pleasant weather year-round, highlighted by especially beautiful fall foliage. Nearby Shenandoah National Park offers a wealth of recreation opportunities. Charlottesville is home to the University of Virginia, which strengthens the area's healthy economy by providing steady jobs and a wealth of amenities and entertainment. Homes are not cheap (median home price $225,000), but the cost of living is manageable. The city's low unemployment rate and significant recent job growth promise continued prosperity. As more and more people learn about this year's best city, Charlottesville may find staying affordable and sprawl-free is its greatest challenge!

• Santa Fe, NM

Home to over 250 art galleries and the new Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe has long been a haven for artists. Perched high in the desert mountains, Santa Fe's air is crisp and clean. Daytime temperatures are mild, though the nights are often cold. The city is surrounded by over 1.5 million acres of national forest, offering excellent hiking, camping, and downhill skiing. Recently, Santa Fe has seen its population skyrocket as the city has become a relocation hotspot for affluent Americans. Despite its recent growth, Santa Fe remains relatively affordable, with a median home price of $365,000.

• San Luis Obispo- Atascadero- Paso Robles, CA

This quiet group of towns on the central California coast could easily qualify as paradise. The climate is among the country's most pleasant, with 285 mostly sunny days per year and temperatures rarely above 90 degrees, or below freezing. The presence of academic heavyweight Cal Poly helps anchor the local economy- the unemployment rate is well below the national average. It's fortunate that local jobs are plentiful, since it's too far to commute to Los Angeles or the Bay Area. Considering further its low crime and unemployment rates, the San Luis Obispo area seems to have it all. But home prices here have risen steadily in the last few years, so that the median is now $536,300. While this isn't unreasonable by California standards, it can be out of reach for many of us thinking of moving from other parts of the country.

• Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA

A few miles north of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara has long been a #1 relocation choice for those who can afford it. This area is famous for lavish estates that carry a price tag in the millions of dollars. Indeed, the median home price for the county is $590,000, and your average house in the city itself is over $1.2 million. No matter how appealing, the Santa Barbara area's cost of living and home prices will prove prohibitive for many Americans. In addition, recent job growth has dipped lately, so it might not be the best place to look for a new job. Nevertheless, for those that are retired or financially secure, the Santa Barbara area remains one of unmatched beauty and comfort.

• Honolulu, HI

Everyone knows that Honolulu is a great place to vacation, but what about putting down roots in Hawaii's capital city? After a slow start, home appreciation is taking off like a rocket as well-to-do mainlanders are looking for a place to invest, and enjoy. The laid-back and easy-going attitude of the islands is infectious and helps explain the low violent crime rate. Restaurants, eager to please the international tourist clientele, are excellent and numerous. For the same reason, entertainment options are various and exciting. Even Honolulu's economy is remarkable\x97the unemployment rate is low and recent job growth is well above the national average. There are some downsides to consider. Nearly all consumer items must be shipped from the mainland, and this translates to a high cost of living. Other drawbacks are the high median home price ($550,100) and the possible claustrophobia of living on a small island. But if you don't mind the cost and isolation of living far off the mainland, then Honolulu is a safe and beautiful place to live.

• Ann Arbor, MI

The University of Michigan is the foundation of the city's economy, providing stable employment to many residents and keeping the unemployment rate well below the national average. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the residents of Ann Arbor are well educated-- more than 20% have college degrees. Not only are there enough jobs to go around, but they also pay well -- Ann Arbor's per capita income is nearly 25% greater than the national average. The city's value makes it even more attractive-- its median home price is $220,000. Just be prepared for long winters -- the temperature dips below freezing 139 days a year. In addition, political conservatives might want to think twice about Ann Arbor, however, as its residents and city government are vigorously liberal.

• Atlanta, GA

Atlanta is the largest city in our Top 10 Best Places to Live, having recently experienced a huge population boom. The crossroads of the South has become especially popular with young people looking for a sunny and exciting urban center that is easy on the checkbook, with its reasonable cost of living. Indeed, the city's affordable homes (median home price $164,100) and robust economy (high per-capita income) make Atlanta an excellent choice for young people concerned with value. The South has a reputation for oppressive heat and humidity, but statistically Atlanta has a warm and pleasant climate. Throw in four pro sports teams, great restaurants, and a diverse arts scene and Atlanta emerges a sizzling city on the move.

• Asheville, NC

Asheville is situated at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains, the highest part of the Appalachian Range. A low cost of living and affordable housing (median home price $202,100) offset the area's low measure of diversity and unremarkable economy. This mountain getaway was settled in the 1850's as a slow-paced health retreat, and it continues to be appealing to both families and retirees. Since the median age of Asheville residents is above the national average, retirees moving here will find themselves happily surrounded by their peers.

• Reno, NV

Reno is another one of the Top 10 cities that has recently experienced significant population growth. New residents are attracted by the area's lack of crowding and absence of income tax. Reno boasts ample options for outdoor recreation, including skiing the Sierra Nevada's and exploring Lake Tahoe and its surrounding national forest. The days are sunny and the air is especially clean, but nights are cold and sub-freezing temperatures occur 189 days a year. The crime rate is a bit higher than the national average, but the Reno area is affordable (median home price $292,300), which makes it a smart choice for young people looking to move into a California-like climate on a budget.

• Corvallis, OR

Corvallis is home to Oregon State University and hence many young singles. Technology stalwart Hewlett-Packard has a major presence here, which helps explain the city's low unemployment rate and impressive recent job growth. The presence of OSU and HP has created something of an intellectual center-- over 20% of its residents have earned a graduate or professional degree. The fertile Willamette Valley was the destination of 19th-century settlers from the Midwest, and since then has retained a peaceful agrarian feel. Summers are sublime and the winters are mild, if a bit wet. For recreation, the rugged Oregon coast is a 90 minutes to the west, the nearby Cascade range offers great skiing, and Portland is about 100 miles to the North. Considering it's affordability ($194,800 median home price), Corvallis presents an attractive mix of youth, intellectualism, and natural beauty. For a complete profiles of all 331 metropolitan areas, get a copy of "Cities Ranked and Rated." online or at your local bookstore or library. The book also includes maps, climate charts, comparison tables, plus additional profiles of the 45 new fast-growing mini-metro areas and 27 Canadian metro areas.

By The Numbers: Best Countries For Women

Female empowerment is embraced more today than any other time in world history. And in the global push for gender equality in everything from business to politics, education to health, it's Europe that has made the greatest strides to close the so-called gender gap.

Norway, Finland and Sweden are ranked the best countries for gender equality, according to a recent study from the World Economic Forum, the nonprofit organization known for its annual economic summit in Davos, Switzerland, for global leaders. Those Nordic countries and their Western European neighbors account for 16 of the top 30 countries with the greatest gender parity in the world.

Meanwhile, the U.S. ranked surprisingly low at No. 27, behind Lesotho (No. 16), Mozambique (No. 18) and Moldova (No. 20). Not surprisingly, the worst-ranked countries were sprinkled throughout the Middle East and Asia. Garden spots like Chad (129th), Saudi Arabia (128th) and Pakistan (127th) populated the bottom of the list. Yemen ranked absolutely worst at No. 130.

The Global Gender Gap Report measures the size of the gender gap--the disparity in opportunities available for men and women--for 130 countries in four critical areas: economic participation and opportunity, health and survival, educational attainment, and political empowerment. A country's rank is based on the overall score, which is expressed in a percent. The score represents how much of the gender gap the country has been able to close. A score of 100% would represent perfect equality. The majority of the data come from various non-government organizations, such as the International Labor Organization, United Nations Development Program and the World Health Organization.

Norway, ranked No. 1, scored 82%. Finland came in second place with an estimated 82%, while Sweden posted a score of 81.4%. The U.S. has closed 72% of its gender gap, according to the study, while Yemen has closed 47%.

In Depth: 2008's Best- Performing Cars

In Depth: 2008's Worst-Performing Cars

The recent news that Chrysler may merge with General Motors didn't come as a surprise to many, as Chrysler has been struggling for years. It can't negotiate a deal with GM fast enough to save it from going under, in large part because its poor-performing vehicles are a drag on overall sales.

It therefore shouldn't come as any surprise that when the performance of cars is examined according to their predicted reliability, recalls and rate of depreciation, Chrysler vehicles dominate the list of the poorest performers, with seven of the 10 models on our list. All the vehicles have multiple recalls, ranging from airbags to door latches, along with mediocre resale values and bottom-level reliability scores for market-research groups.

In Depth: Best-Performing Cars

In Depth: Worst-Performing Cars

Owners of the current-model-year Dodge Avenger, for example, have had to deal with six recalls. The depreciation and true market value of Avenger only ranks at two stars (out of a possible five) in the Automotive Leasing Guide, which provides depreciation estimates for use in the automotive financing industry.

And experts see no signs of Chrysler making quality improvements across the board, because the company currently lacks the financial resources to do so. It also remains unclear if the company has the means to hang on until auto sales revive.

"I'm not sure Chrysler can weather the storm as an individual company," says Dan Edmunds, director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com.

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It's an entirely different story, however, for the two Japanese auto giants, Toyota (nyse: TM - news - people ) and Honda (nyse: HMC - news - people ). The best-performing cars, according to our rankings, are all made by these two carmakers, with Toyota claiming six spots and Honda four in the top 10.

In the sixth spot is the immensely popular Honda Accord. It earned the highest Insurance Institute Highway Safety crash test ratings, its predicted reliability is high and there are no recalls so far this year.

"Honda's manufacturing quality is strong, and the consumer's perception of quality is also strong," says Jonathan Banks, senior director of consulting services for Automotive Leasing Guide.

Behind the Numbers
To compile our list of 2008 best- and worst-performing cars, we looked at five factors, all pertaining to 2008 model-year vehicles: the number of recalls to date, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) database; reliability ratings from Consumer Reports; depreciation, in the form of Automotive Leasing Guide's (ALG) star ratings; safety from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash test ratings; and fuel economy and annual fuel costs from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Fuel costs were based on AAA's national regular gas price of $2.42 and unleaded at $2.60.

Aside from a standout number of recalls, we looked specifically for below-average reliability, high depreciation and IIHS results of "marginal" or "poor" for worst performers. Of the vehicles that met at least two of these qualifications, we also looked at other factors, such as fuel efficiency and fuel cost per year of ownership, assuming 15,000 miles driven per year.

Leading the Pack
Just as Chrysler dominates the bottom of the list, Toyota reigns at the top, with six vehicles that have among the highest resale values and best reliability scores. And all of the top 10 are among the most fuel-efficient cars and SUVs on the road.

The fuel-efficient Toyota Prius hybrid tops the list with an "excellent" reliability rating, no recalls and a five-star-rated resale value. It has the highest fuel economy (46 mpg) and the lowest annual fuel cost of any car on the list ($789).

Another top performer is Toyota's Scion xD , a hatchback introduced in the 2008 model year as a replacement to the xA hatchback. The xD has an "excellent" reliability rating, no recalls and good fuel economy (28 mpg).

While the Scion is a solid performer, however, it isn't perfect. It earned an "acceptable" (second-highest) frontal crash-test rating but did score a "good" rating (highest) in side- and rear-impact crash tests. Also, its resale value is an average three stars.

Which is more attractive in buying a car: a better price or better predicted reliability? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.

While there are no similar cars from U.S. automakers on the top half of the list, there are bright spots for 2009 and beyond, as GM and Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ) both plan to bring more fuel-efficient, nicely equipped small cars like the Chevrolet Cruze and Ford Festiva to the U.S. from other countries.

"There are things in the pipeline," says Edmunds, at least for those two companies. "I just don't know if Chrysler will be around to do it."

Trailing the Pack
Chrysler has carved out for itself a big space on our list of poor-performing cars, but the automaker has plenty of company.

When gas prices topped $4 a gallon this summer, consumers dropped gas-guzzling SUVs like the Nissan Xterra (17 mpg), as sales plummeted 29.1% from January to October, compared with same period in 2007. The Xterra falls to sixth place among the worst-performing vehicles, as there have been three recalls on the car so far this year, not to mention its below-average performance in crash ratings in side (marginal) and rear (poor) tests, as well as its mediocre three-star resale value.

The Xterra's sales drop can't be chalked up to a general anti-SUV sentiment either, as the smaller Toyota Rav-4 rated fourth among best-performing cars and the Honda CR-V came in fifth. Unlike the Xterra, both cars deliver on fuel economy and resale value.

With the 2009 model year now in full swing (it kicked off Oct. 1), the 2008 model-year cars still sitting on dealer lots are loaded with incentives to make them more appealing to consumers. Chances are, says Banks, many poor-performing vehicles are among the ones with the highest incentives. But while you may save with a lower transaction price now, on a year-end deal, you're likely to be paying for it later.

"If it has a one- or two-star resale value, then it's not a great quality car," says Banks. "If it has a lot of recalls, then you may spend a lot of time in the repair shop. And when the vehicle warranty ends, you may face high repair costs."

Conventional wisdom would have investors flee small-cap stocks when the economy takes a tumble. Big companies are safer bets, the thinking goes.

Maybe not right now. With meltdowns at AIG (nyse: AIG - news - people ), Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ) and Wachovia (nyse: WB - news - people ), the S&P 500 dropped 28% over the past 12 months while gross domestic product growth slowed to a crawl. The Russell 2000, made up of smaller fish, is down 18% over the same period.

With that in mind, we identified the strongest small public outfits in a very tough time for our list of the 200 Best Small Companies in America. To qualify, companies must have sales between $5 million and $750 million and a stock price of $5 as of Sept. 29. The ranking is based on return on equity, sales growth and profit growth over the past 12 months and also over five years. We also compare a company's stock performance with that of its industry peers. The shares of the companies on our 2007 list fell 15% on average over the past year, slightly outperforming the Russell 2000.

We axed companies with fishy accounting or serious legal entanglements. One of those is ArthroCare (nasdaq: ARTC - news - people ), a company in Austin, Texas, that makes minimally invasive surgical products. The company announced it was restating results from 2006, 2007 and the first quarter of this year. There's a shareholder lawsuit over that and the timing of $12 million in stock sales by ArthroCare insiders.

Eighty-three of last year's members didn't make the cut this year. Nineteen of those companies grew too large, among them Hansen Natural (nasdaq: HANS - news - people ), the maker of Monster Energy drinks (sales in the last 12 months: $988 million). Hansen was our top-ranked company in 2007.

Eight more of last year's companies fell off the list after being acquired, including software maker Ansoft (nasdaq: ANST - news - people ) and work-site child-care provider Bright Horizons Family Solutions (nasdaq: BFAM - news - people ).

The spike in energy prices has added more than a few oil and gas companies to the list, including this year's top company, GeoResources (nasdaq: GEOI - news - people ). Headquartered in Houston, Texas, it merged last year with Southern Oil & Gas and bought a subsidiary of Chandler Energy that boosted oil reserves sixfold and natural gas reserves sevenfold. Analysts expect sales to hit $100 million in 2008, up from $40 million last year.

We welcomed a total of 37 companies this year that have never appeared on previous lists of our best small companies. Among the newcomers is Omega Protein (nyse: OME - news - people ), ranked No. 154. The company has been around for more than 100 years, mostly selling fish meal that finds it way into animal feed. More recently the company has caught fire thanks to the supposedly magical health benefits of Omega-3 fish oil--of which Omega Protein is the country's largest producer. Sales were up 27% in the second quarter and are expected to hit $190 million this year. (For more newcomers, click here).

Our list includes many traditional small technology companies, like Pros Holdings (nyse: PRO - news - people ), ranked No. 30, which develops pricing analytics software. Yet there are also many other companies utilizing technology affecting our everyday lives. Take Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (nasdaq: GMCR - news - people ). Its Keurig Single-Cup Brewer has revolutionized coffee making for those not interested in making a whole pot. The single-cup market rose 59% last year to $176 million, according to research firm NPD. Single-cup penetration is still only 5% of U.S. households, leaving lots of room for growth. (For more, see "Everyday Tech Stars.")