America's Best Small Cities

This is not a sales pitch. While I would love to have all my friends and family members move out to Texas to be near us, I totally understand that can never happen (that is why we have airplanes!). These are just the facts as reported by the August 2008 edition of Money Magazine and their annual "America's Best Places To Live" report. Ten of the 100 cities listed are in the Dallas Metroplex area!! McKinney is #14; Carrolton is #15; Richardson is #18; Allen is #20; Euless is #34; Frisco is #38; Denton is #57; Garland is #67; Lewisville is #69; Grand Prairie is #96. That means that 10% of the best cities to live in the nation (according to CNN Money Mag) are right here in the Metroplex! (There were 13 total Texas cities listed, 2 near Houston and one near Austin).

The criteria for making the list was to be a city with a population of 50,000-300,000 (that equals 716 cities in the US). Then they excluded retirement communities, places where income is less than 85% or more than 201% of the state's median and those that are more than 95% white. This left 544 cities to consider. Next they screened out cities with high crime, big population declines, significant unemployment, job shrinkage and long commutes. Now we are down to only 261 towns, but once they factored in job growth, income, cost of living, housing affordability, school quality, arts and leisure options, safety, and medical care they got their 100 best cities in America. Most of the local Texas towns ranked high on education, safety and the cost of living.

The only two California cities on the list were Irvine (#4) and Fountain Valley (#91). I am going to assume that the cost of living is what kept most CA cities off the list. Irvine makes since since it is often ranked the safest city in America. I am a bit surprised that Simi Valley didn't make the list since it also is ranked amongst the safest (and I don't believe it is larger than 300,000).

So far we are extremely happy with our choice to move where we did. But getting a list published like this in a major publication, just makes me feel a little more validated in my decision. Apparently, we are not the only crazy people who find this part of the country appealing!