Employment Spot

America’s Best and Worst Cities to Live In

 CNNMoney recently released lists of America’s best and worst cities, using a variety of criteria and facts. For example, America’s safest city (of at least 75,000 people) was Brick Township, NJ. This small city had a very low incidence of violent crime. Many of Brick Township’s residents commute to and from their jobs in New York. Closely following Brick Township was Greece, NY. Also on the top five safest cities list were: Orem, UT, Irvine, CA and Troy, MI.

Also evaluated by CNNMoney were America’s "smartest" cities. The criterion was how many residents had graduated with an undergraduate degree. In first place was Seattle, WA, where over half of the city?s residents have undergraduate degrees. The most popular degrees in this computer software industry enclave include engineering and computer science. Following Seattle was San Francisco, CA, where exactly 50 percent of the citizens have an undergraduate degree. Also on the list of the top five smartest cities were: Raleigh, NC, Washington, D.C. and Austin, TX.

America’s fastest growing city might be a surprise. The honors went to Elk Grove, CA. With an annual growth of 11.6 percent it led the nation in annual percentage of growth. Many of the cities on the fast-growing list were small suburbs of larger cities. Based purely on growth numbers, Phoenix, AZ topped the list with a growth of 44,000 residents in one year. Behind Elk Grove were four other cities: North Las Vegas, NV, Port St. Lucie, FL, Gilbert, AZ and Cape Coral, FL.

The most affordable cities in America have several things in common. They have lower housing prices and costs and high incomes. In Indianapolis, IN, America?s most affordable city, almost 86 percent of area homes are affordable to residents who earn at least the city?s median income - $65,100. The Midwest took four of the top five, with the other cities on the list: Youngstown, OH, Detroit, MI, Buffalo, NY and Grand Rapids, MI.

Homeowners or prospective homeowners will be interested in the list of America?s fastest-appreciating housing market. Salem, OR led the pack with a 24.7 percent increase in home value in a year. Also on the list: Elmira, NY, Salt Lake City, UT, Virginia Beach, VA and Gainesville, FL. Most of these cities were a bit below the national median housing cost of $225,000.

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