Money's list of America's best small cities


Cities
Rank City Population
  Abilene, TX 119,000
45 Abington, PA 55,700
  Akron, OH 207,500
  Alameda, CA 74,800
  Albany, GA 77,000
  Albany, NY 99,300
  Albany, OR 50,600
  Albuquerque, NM 550,300
  Alexandria, VA 143,900
  Alhambra, CA 86,000
13 Allen, TX 83,700
  Allentown, PA 119,700
  Alpharetta, GA 54,200
  Amarillo, TX 192,800
89 Ames, IA 58,000
50 Amherst, NY 122,900
  Anaheim, CA 339,300
  Anchorage, AK 297,000
  Anderson, IN 57,300
99 Ann Arbor, MI 114,400
  Antioch, CA 106,100
  Apple Valley, CA 70,200
  Appleton, WI 74,100
  Arcadia, CA 56,200
  Arden-Arcade, CA 93,900
  Arlington, TX 383,300
44 Arlington, VA 210,000
  Arlington Heights, IL 74,700
  Arvada, CO 107,400
29 Ashburn, VA 59,800
  Asheville, NC 85,000
  Atascocita, TX 68,100
  Athens-Clarke, GA 117,000
  Atlanta, GA 538,000
  Auburn, AL 56,100
  Auburn, WA 68,000
  Augusta-Richmond, GA 197,100
  Aurora, CO 321,600
  Aurora, IL 199,200
  Austin, TX 797,200
  Avondale, AZ 81,300
From the September 2012 issue
Due to erroneous job, cost-of-living, and test score data for a small number of places, two cities were left off this year's top 100 and two were mistakenly included. Other cities moved up or down slightly once all data were corrected. Details.
Best Places Winners
MAPS
Pick a state

1
0
2
1
5
5
4
0
0
3
0
0
1
3
2
3
2
0
0
0
5
4
5
5
0
3
0
1
1
1
4
1
4
2
3
1
4
2
3
0
0
0
2
5
4
0
5
2
0
1
1
Home price trends
Hover over any of the 10 Best Places below to see how real estate prices have changed in the past year.
City Avg. listing price
(July 2012)
1. Carmel, IN $304,340
2. McKinney, TX $245,917
3. Eden Prairie, MN $413,566
4. Newton, MA $850,117
5. Redmond, WA $518,982
6. Irvine, CA $904,753
7. Reston, VA $467,934
8. Columbia/Ellicott City, MD $406,943
9. Overland Park, KS $278,204
10. Chapel Hill, NC $376,660

  • Real estate and homes for sale on Trulia

  • Property Type
  • Find a home in:
  • New York | Atlanta | Chicago | Los Angeles
  • Washington D.C | Houston | Philadelphia | More options
Video
Using statistics from data services company Onboard Informatics, we crunched the numbers in order to zero in on America's best small cities for families. (Last year, we looked at small towns, with populations between 8,500 and 50,000.) More

Comments? E-mail the editors

onboard

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.