The main thing that makes a place desirable to live in is good infrastructure: water, climate, education, healthcare, transportation. A place that has all of th

The main thing that makes a place desirable to live in is good infrastructure: water, climate, education, healthcare, transportation. A place that has all of those attracts people; work arises where people want to live; good work pays for the infrastructure and makes it more likely that people want to live there. It's a chicken-and-egg problem, made worse by people who want to not pay for the infrastructure and maintenance.