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.

June 19th, 2009

Most troubled states: where will they be in 2013?

By John Paul Murphy, Content Services Manager

Today on CNNMoney.com an article was released which identified the five states with the highest unemployment rates in the month of May.  Those hardest hit states were Michigan, Oregon, South Carolina, Rhode Island, and California. 

So long as you haven’t been residing in a cave or under a rock somewhere, you know the country is struggling with joblessness; more importantly looking forward, will these states be in shambles in the future? With this thought in mind and out of sheer curiosity, investigating the employment situation in those states seemed like a good idea.

The following data points were cherry picked from the Onboard databases to help paint a picture of the employment situation in 2013:

• 2013 State  Employment projections, highest and lowest within the state
• 2013 County  Employment projections, highest and lowest within the state
• 2013 Place Employment projections, highest and lowest within the state

All projection data is proprietary information from Onboard Informatics.

Michigan

• State 2013 Employment Projection: 4,731,843
• County with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Keweenaw County, 828
• County with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Wayne County, 803,976
• Place with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Vandalia, Mi (Cass County), 24
• Place with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Detroit, Mi (Wayne County), 294,230

Oregon

• State 2013 Employment Projection: 1,950,118
• County with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Wheeler County, 522
• County with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Wayne County, 364,400
• Place with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Greenhorn, Or (Baker County), 24
• Place with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Portland, Or (Clackamas County), 294,230

South Carolina

• State 2013 Employment Projection: 2,148,003
• County with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Allendale County, 3,180
• County with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Greenville County, 221,147
• Place with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Lockhart, SC (Union County), 13
• Place with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Charleston, SC (Berkeley County), 52,164

Rhode Island

• State 2013 Employment Projection: 545,575
• County with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Bristol County, 28,166
• County with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Providence County, 311,167
• Place with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Melville, RI (Newport County), 624
• Place with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Providence, RI (Providence County), 76,423

California

• State 2013 Employment Projection: 18,419,297
• County with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Alpine County, 606
• County with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Los Angeles County, 4,905,858
• Place with the Lowest 2013 Employment Projection: Storrie, Ca (Plumas County), 2
• Place with the Highest 2013 Employment Projection: Los Angeles, Ca (Los Angeles County), 1,866,663

The employment numbers represent the projected number of people working within a specified geography level (state/county/place). It does not reflect the number of people that live and work within the specified geography level (i.e. people living and working in different counties).  If you have any questions, please contact us.

Tags: CNNMoney, community data, community information, content, data, employment, news, onboard, Onboard Informatics, unemployment rate.

March 11th, 2009

All the Best Places to Live, Work, Eat, Procreate, and Kiss Life Goodbye

By Megan Murphy, Marketing Manager

I’m a huge believer in quality of life and the idea of ‘work to live’ not ‘live to work’ which is hard to believe considering I live in the roughest city in the U.S. but I guess that would fall under work hard, play hard. 

Anways, I know this is not a new way of thinking and I understand in times like these many don’t have the luxury or time to focus on maintaining a high quality of  life…. but life goes on.  Regardless of the economy people are still having  kids, getting married, relocating for work, moving closer to their elderly parents, etc. and all of them want to find a home that fits their needs and lifestyle. 

Lifestyle, whether you’re a young professional, a mother with three kids, or a retiree, it’s important to find that perfect place to fit that phase and time in your life. 

I don’t know anyone that doesn’t enjoy a “Best Places to…” story, so I’ve taken some of my favorites from this year and last to share a variety of places that one can fulfill a person’s lifestyle and hopefully get us all thinking more about how and where we want to live and not merely survive.

Best Places to Live

CNNMoney.com, Best Places to Live 2008

And the winners are…

Plentiful jobs, excellent schools, affordable housing – America’s best small cities have all that and more. See the top 100 best places to live – including detailed city profiles, homes for sale and million-dollar homes. More

1. Plymouth, MN

2. Fort Collins, CO

3. Naperville, IL

4. Irvine, CA

5. Franklin Township, NJ

• See the top 100

6. Norman, OK

7. Round Rock, TX

8. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD

9. Overland Park, KS

10. Fishers, IN

Best Places to Work

FORTUNE, 100 Best Companies to Work For 2009

And the winners are…

Even in this economy, some companies are going out of their way to please employees. This year, there’s a new no. 1, as Google slips to no. 4. See detailed profiles of the top 100 employers, including interactive maps, key perks, contact information, and more.

• See the top 100

 

Best Places to Eat

Gayot.com, The Restaurant Issue, TOP 40 Restaurants in the U.S.

These restaurants have influenced the dining scene in big cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco with daring, elegant, exciting and soothe-the-soul concepts. Smaller towns, too, whether on secluded Atlantic shores or California’s golden hills, have benefited by having one of these top-rated restaurants in their midst. The top restaurants not only share their spirit, but ignite our intelligence, imagination, and desire for more truly exceptional dining experiences.

Best Places to Have Kids

BusinessWeek, The Best Place to Raise your Kids 2009

Kid-Friendly and Cost-Friendly

A Chicago suburb beats out thousands of other communities around the U.S. as the best, most affordable place to raise kids

Mount Prospect, Ill., is a quiet Chicago suburb with a population of just over 56,000. It is a tight-knit town where over the past eight years Prospect High School’s football team won three state championships, its Marching Knights picked up their 26th straight grand champion title at the annual state marching band festival, and just last month the school itself ranked 12th among all state high schools. Now the town is also the winner of Businessweek‘s second annual roundup of the Best Places in America to Raise Kids.

Best Places to Retire

CNNMoney.com, Best Places to Retire

Beaufort, SC is by far my favorite of this bunch.  I am partial due to my entire upbringing being in South Carolina, from beautiful horse country of Aiken, to the home of the Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia, and my favorite, the beaches of Charleston.  Now living in New York (which I love and while I am mentally ready to retire, I am no where near financially) I can appreciate the slow pace and beauty of the coastline and quaint towns.

 6 Terrific towns, all on the water

Many baby boomers dream of retiring somewhere by the water. These half-dozen places are on a lake, a river or an ocean – yet won’t sink your retirement budget. More

• Dunedin, FL
• Sequim, WA
• St. Joseph, MI
• Beaufort, SC
• Durango, CO
• Marble Falls, TX

Onboard Informatics had the pleasure of working with many media companies to produce data-driven stories such as the ones above.  Of these, Onboard provided the data for CNNMoney’s Best Places to Liveand BusinessWeeks’s Best Places to Raise Kids.

Check out some of our other media client’s lifestyle stories… BusinessWeek’s  Best Affordable Suburbs in the U.S. 2009, Progressive Farmer, Five Safest Places to Live in Rural America and  Best Places to Raise Farm Kids.

For more information on how we partner with media and publishing companies please contact us at 646.747.4273 or info@onboardinformatics.com.

Tags: Best Places to Live, Business Week, CNNMoney, Fortune, Gayot, Lifestyle, Onboard Informatics, Real Estate.