Good god… how does anyone rate on such nebulous criteria? I would like this to be a ‘helpful’ answer, but what do you mean by these things? Food? Should it be grown in one’s own back yard, available for picking off trees in public places, exceptionally diverse or served in five-star restaurants? I take tasty, plentiful, safe as a given, but what do you consider ‘tasty’, and ‘plentiful’? Or is “cheap and plenty” all you need?
And that was just “food”. “Raising children” is a whole supermarket of choices.
What are the criteria (and what is the weighting you assign) to all of these things?
Connecticut suits me just fine on all of the criteria that I find important, and some that you didn’t mention, such as climate, access to water, transportation hubs, etc.
“Real estate values”? Are you kidding? What do you want there? Cheap housing, or housing that’s astronomically expensive and getting more so?