Money's list of America's best small cities


Fastest job growth
Here are the counties with the highest percentage job growth (2000-2011).
Rank County Towns include Job growth % 2000-2011
1 Loudoun, VA Ashburn 83.59%
2 Fort Bend, TX Sugar Land, Missouri City 78.07%
3 Williamson, TX Cedar Park, Georgetown, Round Rock 73.75%
4 Montgomery, TX The Woodlands 63.49%
5 Douglas, CO Highlands Ranch, Castle Rock 58.60%
6 Collin, TX Frisco, Allen, Plano, McKinney 55.88%
7 Denton, TX Flower Mound, Lewisville, Denton 53.37%
8 Prince William, VA Dale City 48.60%
9 Suffolk, VA Suffolk 42.97%
10 Williamson, TN Franklin 40.28%
11 Sarpy, NE Bellevue 39.36%
12 Wake, NC Cary, Raleigh 36.51%
13 Faulkner, AR Conway 34.96%
14 Houston, GA Warner Robins 29.92%
15 Bonneville, ID Idaho Falls 28.06%
16 Cass, ND Fargo 27.66%
17 Lafayette, LA Lafayette 27.15%
18 Burleigh, ND Bismarck 22.93%
19 Leon, FL Tallahassee 19.14%
20 Johnson, IA Iowa City 19.01%
21 Anchorage, AK Anchorage 18.17%
22 Pennington, SD Rapid City 16.02%
23 Minnehaha, SD Sioux Falls 10.79%
24 Washington, TN Johnson City 10.49%
25 Garfield, OK Enid 10.20%
From the September 2012 issue
Source: Census data, Onboard Informatics projection. Only counties where each Best Place within it was also experiencing job and population growth, and where unemployment was below the national average, were considered. No more than 2 places within a state could qualify.
Best Places Winners
MAPS
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

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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

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