HOW DID MONEY MAGAZINE CHOOSE ITS FINALISTS?
 To choose its top 100 finalists, and eventually the ten winners, in
their 'Best Places to Live' in 2005, Money magazine used a variety of
sources and statistics in order to get a comprehensive view of some of
America's best towns. Money magazine worked with researchers at
OnBoard in order to carefully review each city's features. By
eliminating any places with populations under 14,000 and only looking
at places with above-average median household incomes, population
growth, and real estate appreciation, the list was brought down to a
mere 1,100 places from the original 40,000. Any places not within 60
miles of a major airport, lacked a major teaching hospital within 30
miles, or fell below the 25th percentile in two of unemployment,
income growth, crime, or arts resources were also eliminated. The
resulting 850 towns were scrutinized and ranked, leaving 100
finalists. The top ten were picked based on their income, crime
rates, and education systems.
Data for this list was culled from a variety of sources, including: -US Census Bureau |
