In the past year, Movoto Real Estate has ranked cities of all sizes across a variety of criteria—some serious and some decidedly not. Recently, we took a look at the 10 best suburbs in the country, but these were mostly larger cities centered around the 25 biggest metro areas in the nation. For our latest ranking, we’re going smaller in scale and shedding some light on the 10 best small cities in America to move to.
Based on our survey of various criteria and crunching of data, we’ve concluded that Rowlett, TX is the best small city in the U.S. for those looking to make a move. This suburb of Dallas, TX tops a list of 10 cities with populations under 60,000 that includes:
1. Rowlett, TX
2. Idaho Falls, ID
3. Cedar Park, TX
4. Noblesville, IN
5. Hendersonville, TN
6. Mansfield, TX
7. North Port, FL
8. Bartlett, TN
9. Tinley Park, IL
10. Moore, OK
What Makes a Superior Small City
We created this list based on demographic and other data we collected about 100 cities with populations under 60,000. Six criteria in total were surveyed:
- Cost of living
- Crime
- Median household income
- Unemployment rate
- Median home price
- Homes for sale per capita
Nashville, TN suburb Hendersonville has a population of 53,080 residents who make 18 percent more than the rest of the country in terms of median household income at $62,627. The cost of living there is eight points below the national average. Crime is considerably lower at 37 percent below average.
In terms of housing, Hendersonville’s median home price is 25 percent above the national average at $249,900 and there is one available home on the market for every 101 residents.
As for unemployment, it is currently at 6.5 percent, which is 9.7 percent below the national average.