Money's list of America's best small cities


6 of 100
BACK NEXT
6. Irvine, CA
Vote for this town as fan favorite:

Living in a great place is even better when you've got your financial house in order. Like MONEY magazine on Facebook for tips on saving more, investing better and spending wisely.

Irvine
The Ferris wheel at the Irvine Spectrum Center.
WINNER
Top 100 rank: 6
Population: 213,600
Compare Irvine to Top 10 Best Places
Irvine has all the surf, sand, and sun Southern California is known for, with 44 miles of bike trails, 20,000 acres of parks and preserves, and a beach 10 miles away.

Thanks to smart planning, this big city can feel surprisingly small. The 40-year-old community is divided into 40 "villages," and a minimum of five acres of park space is added for every 1,000 newcomers. Home prices are high, but new development is creating more affordable options - along with new schools, bike paths, and green spaces.

Subscribe to Money Magazine
Fan Favorite Towns

It's your turn to choose. Which city should be No. 1?

Best Places to Drive

Contest: Where's your favorite place to take a weekend drive?

Is Irvine a great town, or what?
Irvine stats
  City stats Best places avg.
Median family income
(per year)		 $116,232 $96,825
Job growth %
(2000-2011)*		 41.58% 25.01%
See jobs near Irvine
Median home price $522,500 $269,768
See Irvine homes for sale
Test scores reading
(% above/below state average)		 57.1% 28.2%
Test scores math
(% above/below average)		 36.6% 29.2%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 1 2
Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 13 20
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)		 7,044 3,134
High temp in July ° F 82.8° 86.8°
Low temp in Jan ° F 42.9° 18.4°
Median age 35.5 35.2
Financial City stats Best places avg.
Median family income
(per year)		 $116,232 $96,825
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)		 $88,727 $93,218
State sales tax 7.25% 5.57%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)		 9.30%I 7.31%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)		 1.00%I 3.08%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average price quotes, for the state)		 $1,991 $1,596
Job growth %
(2000-2011)*		 41.58% 25.01%
See jobs near Irvine
Housing
Median home price $522,500 $269,768
Average property taxes N.A. $6,517
See Irvine homes for sale
Education
Colleges, universities and
professional schools (within 30 miles)		 40 8
Test scores reading
(% above/below state average)		 57.1% 28.2%
Test scores math
(% above/below average)		 36.6% 29.2%
% students attending public/private
schools (located within town limits)		 96.3/3.7 91.5/8.5
Quality of life
Air quality index*
(% of days AQI ranked as good)		 69.5% 77.3%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 1 2
Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 13 20
Median commute time (in minutes) 18.5 22.2
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer		 11.5% 14.9%
% population walk or bike to work 6.2% 3.2%
Leisure and culture
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)		 71 33
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)		 7,044 3,134
Bars
(within 15 miles)		 251 199
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)		 233 169
Libraries
(within 15 miles)		 72 70
Museums (accredited by AAM;
within 30 miles)		 6 10
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 4 6
Arts funding (Dollars per person of state funds spent on arts) 0.2 1.4
Weather
Annual rainfall
(inches)		 13.54 34.21
% clear days in the area 44 32
High temp in July ° F 82.8° 86.8°
Low temp in Jan ° F 42.9° 18.4°
Median age 35.5 35.2
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)		 84.2% 72.6%
Married % 50.0% 57.9%
Divorced % 9.2% 8.0%
Racial diversity index
(100 is national average; higher numbers indicate greater diversity)		 303.9 118.4
From the September 2012 issue
Notes: *County data

Due to an error by our data provider, an earlier version listed incorrect stats for this city's number of colleges.

(I) Income tax notes:
17 states have statutory provision for automatically adjusting to the rate of inflation the dollar values of the income tax brackets, standard deductions, and/or personal exemptions. Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nebraska index the personal exemption only. Oregon does not index the income brackets for $125,000 and over. Because the inflation adjustments for 2012 are not yet available in some cases, the table may report the 2011 amounts.
For joint returns, taxes are twice the tax on half the couple’s income.
The personal exemption takes the form of a tax credit instead of a deduction.
California imposes an additional 1% tax on taxable income over $1 million, making the maximum rate 10.3% over $1 million.

(II) Sales tax notes:
California (1%) and Virginia (1%) levy mandatory, statewide add-on sales taxes at the local level; these are included in their state sales tax rates.
Galleries and more
  • Homes for sale
  • Irvine real estate
  • Real estate and homes for sale on Trulia
Fan Favorite Towns

Money picked the top 100. Now it's your turn: Which town will be our fan favorite? 'Like' your town and it might just make it to No. 1.

Town # of Likes
See the rest
Video
How we picked the Best Places
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
Contact Us Closed Captioning Manage Cookies+ Site Map

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.