Take heart, South Floridians, as you bask in your snow-free winters and year-round trips to the beach. More than one in four Americans wish they could join you.

A Pew Research Center survey released Thursday found that 28 percent of Americans would like to live in the Miami metropolitan area, ranking it above New York City (24 percent), Las Vegas (23 percent) and Los Angeles (21 percent).

Miami ranked in the top half of the 30-city survey and tied for 11th place with Boston.

At the bottom sat Detroit.

Asked what made those 28 percent favor Miami, Pew project director Paul Taylor and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Alvarez gave the same answer -- the weather.

''When it's January and you can go outside in a pair of shorts and flip flops and go to the beach and go to an outdoor café and enjoy a cup of coffee or a drink, that means a lot,'' Alvarez said. ``Especially to folks in New York and Chicago when they are freezing.''

Here is how the survey worked: Pew representatives contacted 2,260 people across the country, gave each a list of 10 cities and asked whether they would like to live in each one.

The results were combined for the final rankings, which measured the nation's 30 largest metropolitan areas.