Four Mass. communities ranked among the top places to live in US
Which other New England towns made the list?
In Money’s annual Best Places to Live list, no big Mass. cities made the cut. Sorry, Boston. What you will see are suburbs.
According to Money: “For this year’s Best Places to Live list, we chose to focus on towns with a population of 10,000 to 100,000, to avoid the biggest cities while shining a light on smaller towns and affordable suburbs.”
Though no New England towns ranked in the top 10, four Massachusetts communities made the top 100 list: Waltham (13), Newton (26), Weymouth (73), and Norwood (78).
Other New England places also made Money’s list: Nashua (57), Salem, N.H. (82), Colchester, Vt. (86), and South Portland, Maine (100). No communities in Rhode Island or Connecticut made the cut.
How did Money decide on these communities? The methodology looked at eight categories: cost of living, economy, education, housing, crime, convenience, cultural and recreational amenities, and overall sense of pleasantness.
Money also noted that it eliminated any community that had double the national crime risk, less than 85 percent of the median income in its state, or lacked in ethnic diversity. It also limited it to no more than four places per state and two per county. It allowed only one place per state in the top 15.
The top 10 places on the list were:
1. Fishers, Ind.;
2. Allen, Texas;
3. Monterey Park, Calif.;
4. Franklin, Tenn,;
5. Olive Branch, Miss.;
6. Dickinson, N.D.;
7. Lone Tree, Colo.;
8. North Arlington, N.J.;
9. Schaumburg, Ill.;
10. Bozeman, Mont.
Read more about the rankings here.
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