Here & There – 2017 Top Ten Best Places to Live
Collaborating with world-renowned urbanist Richard Florida, Livability ranked more than 2,000 cities with populations between 20,000 and 350,000 to come up with their 2017 Best Places to Live.
Cities are evaluated based on more than 40 data points including home values, taxes and cost of living, as well as quality of life criteria like air quality and commutes, and earn their rankings based on how they compare to each other.
Even though Decatur didn’t make the list, we were curious to find out how our city stacked up to the “Best.” You’ll be surprised at the results. On the table below, we took the average of the Top Ten cities to compare Decatur’s data. Decatur comes out on top in almost every category, scoring highest in living well for less, which is based on the cost of living index, median home prices and free or affordable cultural arts offerings. Decatur also has the lowest property taxes and best air quality by a huge margin over any of the Top Ten.
Criteria Top Ten Average Decatur
Cost of Living Index (US average 100) 108.5 83.6
Median Home Price $439,000 $81,300
Average Monthly Rent $1,236 $632
Average Property Tax $4,329 $1,777
Air Quality Index (US average 73) 81.2 55.4
576 Shoreline Drive
Price: $575,000
Square Feet: 7,625
Bedrooms: 5
Baths: 4
Year Built: 1989
Lakefront, dock & hoist, w/o lower level, large yard great for entertaining, master suite.
1633 Yarmouth Ave Unit 3
Price: $585,000
Square Feet: 797
Bedrooms: 1
Baths: 1
Year Built: 1929
Adobe/Spanish style on corner lot, Vardo tiny house on rear of property.
*The Top Ten Best Places to Live are Rochester MN, Bellevue WA, Madison WI, Santa Barbara CA, Boulder CO, Palo Alto CA, Bismarck ND, Ann Arbor MI, Iowa City IA, Sioux Falls SD.
Here & There is sponsored by Vieweg Real Estate in Decatur.
Real estate information provided by Realtor.com.
This article originally appeared in the October/November 2017 issue of Decatur Magazine. It may not be reproduced or redistributed in whole or in part without the publisher’s consent.
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