New Hampshire manages to take it up a step from Nevada, despite not having a thriving gambling and hotel industry to fall back on. We're talking more than $13,500 for housing, and barely a dollar under $8,000 to make sure you have enough food to last the year. The plethora of quarries and granite rocks here have given New Hampshire the nickname of 'The Granite State,' although the people have fairly granite attitudes too; the state's motto is 'live free or die!'
The state doesn't just talk a good game about freedom - it also lived it. Even before the Declaration of Independence was signed, New Hampshire was the very first to declare itself as being independent of England. As the old saying says, 'as New Hampshire goes, so does the nation.' With its history of leadership, it's a wonder the nation's capital isn't here.