September 15th, 2011
By Stacey Ret, Director of Marketing
Communities that are small, affordable and family-friendly with good public schools, make the list for Best Places to Raise a Family
If you have children, you want the best house in the best neighborhood that your family can afford, and it’s not always about the number of baths in the home – although 2+ bathrooms can certainly help bring peace to your household during teeth-brushing time! You evaluate the schools, the safety of the town, the recreation available to all of you – heck, some of you may even want to know where the closest Trader Joe’s is (or is that just me?). Luckily, BusinessWeek has evaluated over 5,400 communities nationwide utilizing Onboard’s comprehensive community data and demographics to bring us a list of the best places to raise a family.
This year, they shifted their focus from large urbanized cities to smaller towns with populations of 50,000 or less.
Considerations included: town’s median income relative to their particular state’s median income, school performance, number of schools, crime statistics, cost of living, as well as job growth, air quality, ethnic diversity and access to recreational amenities – all of the qualities you would want in a community for your family.
The cities are listed in alphabetical order, by state, and in the CT/NJ/NY tri-state area (where we are located), the following cities top the list:
Best place to raise kids in Connecticut: Kensington
Nearby city: Hartford
Population: 8,479
Median family income: $90,189
Runner-up: Portland
Best place to raise kids in New Jersey: Ridgefield Park
Nearby city: New York
Population: 10,675
Median family income: $84,544
Runner-up: Bergenfield
Best place to raise kids in New York: West Seneca
Nearby city: Buffalo
Population: 43,575
Median family income: $69,188
Runner-up: Lancaster
To read the full list, click here: http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20101214/the-best-places-to-raise-your-kids-2011/slides/33
Tags: Best Places, Clients, community information, data, lifestyle search, neighborhood data, real estate data.