Many apartment hunters are tied to a particular city because of a job, or they just prefer to stay in a certain area to be close to family and friends. But if you're someone who's looking for an apartment without any geographical requirements, where should you live?
Two new rankings may help you decide:
- "Best Places to Live 2010." In its August 2010 issue, Money released its "Best Places to Live 2010," featuring a list of America's top 100 small cities that offer "plenty of jobs, great schools, safe streets, low crime, lots to do, charm, and other features that make a town great for raising a family." This year's top honor goes to Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which boasts a low unemployment rate, healthy residents, and beautiful parks, among other attractive features.
Want to know which ones have the highest median family income or the quickest commute? Just click on the tabs to vew Top 25 lists in the following categories: Affordable Homes, Pricey Homes, Top-Earning Towns, Job Growth, Fast Commutes, Slow Commutes, Hottest, Coldest, Rich and Single, Youngest, and Clean Air.
Money devised its lists by filtering statistics provided by Onboard Informatics, factoring in additional data, and visiting candidate cities to interview residents, according to a note on its Web site.
- "Top Ten Cities for Renters in 2010." Rental property experts at Software Advice looked at the 50 most populous U.S. cities to determine which ones are the most friendly to tenants.
Chicago earned the top spot based on several criteria, including cost per square foot of a two-bedroom apartment, change in rent prices from 2009 to 2010, residential vacancy rate, rental cost as a percentage of median income, tenant councils, tenant-friendly foreclosure laws, and rent control laws.
Access the full rankings and learn more about the methodology in Monday's post on Software Advice's The Property Management Blog.
(Photo © Diamond Sky Images / Getty Images)
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