July 15th, 2010

CNN/Money’s Best Places to Live 2010

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

The results are in for yet another annual collaboration between Onboard Informatics and CNN/Money to cast light on terrific cities with growing job rates, great schools, safe neighborhoods, and plenty of activities for residents. This year’s Best Places to Live feature looks at top small cities (as opposed to 2009′s list of small towns with strong economies).

With over 100 miles of trails and an unemployment rate of just 5.1%, Eden Prairie in Minnesota fit the bill for this year's top small town.

Our data team worked closely with CNN to provide housing, financial, quality of life and other data for the filters they selected to produce the most concise and accurate information possible.

To start, all U.S. cities with populations of 50,000-300,000 were considered. Places with a median family income of over 200% or less than 85% of the state median were excluded, as were towns with a white population of over 95%. From there, the top 100 towns were decided after screening out retirement communities, towns with significant job loss, poor education systems and high crime scores.

We then worked with CNN/Money on the ranking of the top towns based on housing affordability, school quality, arts and leisure, safety, health care, diversity, and other points in our extensive set of quality of life content sets.

CNN/Money also released lists for top earning towns, most affordable homes, quickest commute times, best weather (hottest and coldest cities), and youngest cities. Users can also search for nearby cities to see which nearby towns made the grade. Dive deeper into the heart of the community right on the article, where Gowalla business reviews and comments from Facebook are integrated.

Congratulations to this year’s list of top cities!

Tags: America's best small cities, Best Places, Best Places to Live 2010, CNNMoney.

July 9th, 2010

Family Circle’s 10 Best Towns for Families

By Michael Groysman, Marketing Intern

Family Circle has just released their new list of the 10 Best Towns for Families, 2010 using Onboard Informatics’ community, school, and points of interest expertise. This year they chose towns with affordable homes, quality schools, access to health care, green space, low crime rate, and financial stability.

In first place is Edmond, Oklahoma which has “abundant parks, miles of walking and jogging trails, and a lake teeming with bass and bluegill” and other scenic charms. Family Circle also looked at “Good Deeds” for each of the top 10 places, revealing a list of close-knit American towns.

Family Circle has been working with Onboard to find great towns for families since 2007.

Here are this year’s top towns:

1. Edmond, Oklahoma
2. Hampton Township, Pennsylvania
3. Edwardsville, Illinois
4. Windsor, Colorado
5. La Verne, California
6. Round Rock, Texas
7. Simpsonville, South Carolina
8. Meridian, Idaho
9. Bristol, Rhode Island
10. Bettendorf, Iowa

Check out the article to see what residents have to say about their hometowns.

Tags: Family Circle.

March 5th, 2010

BusinessWeek Names 2010′s Best Affordable Suburbs

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

BusinessWeek and Onboard Informatics teamed up once again to collaborate on BW’s Best Affordable Suburbs in America 2010 story. BusinessWeek evaluated information provided by our content team to determine the best affordable suburb in each state as well as an overall winner with high marks across the board.

The economy in Fishers, Indiana has remained strong, earning them the top spot in this year's Best Affordable Suburbs in America.

All the suburbs on the list are towns within 25 miles of the most populated city in the state, with populations of 5,000 to 60,000, median family incomes of $51,000 to $120,000, and lower-than-average crime rates. We weighted a variety of factors including livability (short commutes, low pollution, green space), education (well-educated residents, high test scores), crime (low personal and property crime), economy (high job growth, low unemployment rate, high family income), and affordability (median household income, cost of expenditures). Affordability was most heavily weighted in the calculations.

As for exclusions, BusinessWeek decided to penalize places with bad weather, a lack of racial diversity, high divorce rates, and few children.

Our content team worked closely with BusinessWeek to create this data-driven story based on their criteria and the filters they selected to produce the most concise and accurate information possible.

Fishers, Indiana was determined to be a fantastic choice for families with its diverse housing market, safety, great schools, and unemployment rates that were almost 4% below Indiana’s average.

It’s no surprise that the extremely accessible Glasgow was named the most affordable suburb in my home state of Delaware. (Not that there were all that many towns to choose from, considering Delaware’s entire population barely edges out that of Lower Manhattan…)

See which town tops your state’s list here.

Tags: affordable towns, Best Affordable Suburbs in America, Best Places, BusinessWeek, most affordable suburbs.

November 17th, 2009

BusinessWeek’s Best Places to Raise Your Kids, 2010

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

Our second annual collaboration with BusinessWeek to find the best cities to raise kids is out today. The 2010 Best Places to Raise Your Kids list selected one town (and occasionally two runners up) from each of the 50 states for parents looking to give their kids a great education and strong community within modest financial means.

The methodology gave the greatest weight to affordability, safety, and school test scores. Towns with populations above 45,000 and median incomes between $40,000 and $125,000 were considered for the top cities list. BusinessWeek also considered the cultural grain of the communities when picking top towns – meaning diverse cities with lots of museums, parks, theaters, and other amenities were given high marks.

Our team created an index based on low crime, high test scores, diversity, population and cost of living thresholds to use as a screening method to help determine the 50 Best Places according to the additional BusinessWeek criteria.

The highest rated score was a town of 600,000 just outside of Chicago. Tinley Park, Illinois was touted by editors and residents alike for its affordability, access to Chicago, connectedness, and top notch schools.

“Most of the towns we chose are new to the list,” said real estate writer Prashant Gopal, noting a few returners to the Best Places list.

The strong reactions from readers last year prompted BusinessWeek to encourage online discussion in the story’s comment section. Have a look at the results and be sure to let us know how your state’s winner stacks up in your mind.

Tags: Best Places, Best Places to Raise Kids, BusinessWeek, community data, media services.

September 29th, 2009

America’s Best Affordable Places to Retire

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

An astounding 93% of the growth in the U.S. labor force through 2016 will be among workers over 55, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. With more Americans delaying retirement, U.S. News & World Report chose to focus on affordable destinations in the third annual Best Places to Retire list.

The 2009 Best Affordable Places to Retire, powered by Onboard Informatics demographic and economic indicators, reflects the shifting expectations of retirees. Rather than focusing on popular (and pricey) retirement hubs, U.S. News selected affordable high-value spots with great amenities. In order to make the cut, cities needed high-quality healthcare and elder-care facilities and outstanding cultural and learning programs.

The analysis didn’t stop there. The U.S. News editorial team conducted interviews with residents in the top towns to get a true picture of each city.

Tucson offers great outdoor activities and affordable housing for retiring seniors.

Realizing that retirement goals are extremely personal, the new U.S. News package also includes an interactive search tool for retirees to find towns that conform to their lifestyle needs and preferences.

The Best Places to Retire search application weighs a user’s criteria against a database of 2,000 places with populations of at least 10,000 and crime equal to or below the national average. Complete methodology is found here.

Listed alphabetically, here are the top 10 places to retire:

• Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Asheville, North Carolina
• Aurora, Colorado
• Columbia, South Carolina
• Columbus, Ohio
• Eugene, Oregon
• Fort Worth, Texas
• Jacksonville, Florida
• Kansas City, Missouri
• Tucson, Arizona

The Best Affordable Places, featured in October’s U.S. News & World Report magazine, hit newsstands today.

Tags: Best Affordable Places to Retire, Best Places, community data, neighborhood data, relocation, US News.

September 18th, 2009

Top Cities for Political Junkies

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

If political involvement ranks high in your value system, you’re likely compelled to live in the company of like-minded peers to engage and organize with. In its latest community feature, U.S. News points its lens at the top 10 Cities for Political Junkies for all those who prefer C-SPAN and Gallup to ESPN and E!.

The list is based primarily on Onboard Informatics data measuring household involvement in current events and political affairs. U.S. News screened the index for cities and towns with populations of more than 50,000 and further filtered the towns using voter registration statistics. The list is hardly a relocation tool for the far ends of the political spectrum; what the editorial team uncovered in their search were patches of purple.

“Although polarization might be ubiquitous on television, in blogs, and on the radio, it does not follow that the most politically active and politically interested people live in polarized communities, interacting only with those who agree with them. When U.S. News looked for the places where residents have the greatest interest in political affairs, it wasn’t the heavily red or blue areas that popped up. Sure, there are plenty of political junkies in very liberal places like Portland, Ore., or very conservative places like small towns in Texas, but the places on our list are in more purple regions: Orange County, Calif., an area that is red relative to its deep-blue home state, or Fairfax County, Va., a county that traditionally elects Republicans but went heavily for Obama in the last presidential election.”

The slideshow feature details why places like San Ramon, CA and Brookline, MA are perfect for political gurus.

Tags: community data, relocation, US News.

September 16th, 2009

U.S. News’ Best Places for Tech Jobs

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

Using Onboard Informatics data, U.S. News & World Report introduced another set of its influential Best Places lists. The newest edition offers the Best Places for Tech Jobs for all the engineers and IT experts out there looking for a new gig.

“It’s a recession, so few things are booming and no city is exactly thriving. But within the tech industry, some cities clearly have more job opportunities than others. Although tech employment overall has suffered along with the rest of the economy, there’s been variance: High-tech manufacturing jobs have been shed more rapidly, while IT service jobs—in engineering and in software services, for instance—have fared better. And one future bright spot: Over the next three years, the federal government is projected to make 11,500 new hires in information technology jobs, according to a report by the Partnership for Public Service.”

Check out which cities made the list and how U.S. News narrowed down the initial list of 2000 cities.

Tags: Best Places, Best Places to Live, relocation, technology, technology jobs, US News.

August 28th, 2009

America’s Best Places to Find a Job 2009

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

Is the American economy rebounding or not? The most trusted media outlets are constantly debating the answer to the question on everyone’s mind in some capacity. At Onboard Informatics, we understand the key to success in analyzing the economic climate is to do so at the most granular level.

Our client U.S. News & World Report also values the evidence of comparing local economies, and has done so in their list of America’s Best Places to Find a Job 2009. Onboard’s data and algorithm powered this expansion of U.S. News’ “Best Places” series.

U.S. News & World Report's 10 Best Places to Find a Job.

U.S. News evaluated unemployment rates, job growth, and career opportunity data in over 2,000 cities before editors chose the top cities, listed alphabetically:

• Anchorage, AK
• Arlington, VA
• Columbus, OH
• Honolulu, HI
• Houston, TX
• Oklahoma City, OK
• Salt Lake City, UT
• Shreveport, LA
• Tallahassee, FL
• Wichita, KS

Be sure to read the article for the reasons why each city is a promising place to start a career. Additionally, seasoned professionals and fresh graduates alike can find the best place to work for their lifestyle and quality-of-life preferences with U.S. News’s online search tool.

Tags: Best Places, US News.

July 24th, 2009

USA Weekend’s Top Places to Retire

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

USA Weekend Magazine, in collaboration with Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation, released its Top Places to Retire based on Onboard Informatics data in its July 26 issue. The top cities list, aimed at young retirees, is based on recreation, weather, health resources, crime, and cost of living data provided by Onboard.

The article is based on an April Coldwell Banker study noting home purchase increases among retirees under 60 taking advantage of low home prices. The national study revealed a trend of 50-somethings leasing retirement homes early “until they are prepared to move permanently.”

USA Weekend’s top 5 markets to buy now, retire later are:

1) Helena, Montana (pop. 28,726)
2) Pensacola, Florida (pop. 54,283)
3) Creve Coeur, Missouri (pop. 16,933)
4) Traverse City, Michigan (pop. 14,339)
5) Butte-Silver Bow, Montana (pop. 31,967)

Be sure to pick up a copy of USA Weekend on newsstands this weekend.

Tags: community data, relocation, USA Weekend.

July 14th, 2009

CNN Money, Best Places to Live 2009, powered by Onboard

By Jackie Berg, Marketing Specialist

Which small towns in America have weathered the economic storm and continued to provide residents with affordable living, great educations, low crime and more? CNN Money has outlined the top 100 in the 2009 Best Places to Live list powered by Onboard Informatics data.

The top 100 list accompanies a set of interactive community features to show readers the best places to find rich singles, six-figure towns, the most affordable towns and more. Onboard’s employment-related data powered special content for financially-minded readers, a special focus of this year’s Best Places list.

World class trails, weekly street fairs, and great weather helped Louisville, CO claim this year's #1 spot.

Our data team worked closely with CNN to provide housing, financial, quality of life and other data for the filters they selected to produce the most concise and accurate information possible. The piece also included data from our exclusive partner GreatSchools, the leading provider of school information and reviews.

Be sure to check out some of the other additions to the basic functions of the features and top 100 list for 2009:

• Expanded interactivity beyond the typical comment section with an integrated Facebook application for residents to share thoughts and become fans of their favorite towns.
• The “Find Your Best Places” applications, allowing users to factor in lifestyle preferences into a customized list of suitable small towns to consider packing up to. Even if relocation is not in your near future, it can’t hurt to take a look at which towns fit the bill. (I just may be headed to Cambridge, MA for a long weekend!)

Onboard works closely with each of our media clients to develop custom solutions that drive readership. For more information on our media solutions, please contact us at 646.747.4273 or info@onboardinformatics.com.

Tags: Best Places to Live, CNN Money, community data, relocation.