CONTENDER
Charter Oak, CA
Top 100 rank: N/A
Population: 10,000
Compare Charter Oak to Top 10 Best Places
Financial
  City stats Best places avg.
Median family income
(per year)
$61,403 $90,316
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)
$50,372 $82,867
Sales tax 8.30%* 6.74%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)
9.30%I 6.38%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)
1.00%I 2.74%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average for the state)
$2,076 $2,121
Job growth %
(2000-2006)
14.09% 13.41%
Housing
  City stats Best places average
Average home price $459,127 $359,352
Average property taxes
(2006)
$2,820 $3,585
See homes for sale
See million-dollar homes
Education
  City stats Best places average
Colleges, universities and
professional schools (within 30 miles)
44 29
Junior colleges and
technical institutes (within 30 miles)
48 18
Test scores reading
(% above/below state average)
-0.5% 20.1%
Test scores math
(% above/below average)
-47.0% 24.8%
% students attending public/private
schools (located within town limits)
87.3/12.7 91.1/8.9
Quality of life
  City stats Best places average
Air quality index*
(% of days AQI ranked as good)
32.1% 77.3%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 53 1.3
Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 383 20.6
Median commute time
(in minutes)
29.5 23.1
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer
30.7% 15.6%
% population walk or bike to work 1.9% 2.7%
Leisure and culture
  City stats Best places average
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)
23 30
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)
4,672 2,899
Bars
(within 15 miles)
210 287
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)
172 125
Libraries
(within 15 miles)
64 71
Museums (accredited by AAM;
within 30 miles)
16 11
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 7 17
Arts funding (Dollars per person of state funds spent on arts) 0 1
Weather
  City stats Best places average
Annual rainfall
(inches)
16.96 40.18
% clear days in the area 40 28
High temp in July ° F 88.7° 86.1°
Low temp in Jan ° F 41.5° 24.0°
Health*
  City stats Best places average
Has health plan
(% of residents)
83.2% 90.5%
Body mass index (avg. for residents) 27 27
Diabetes rates
(% of residents diagnosed)
7.3% 9.3%
Hypertension rates
(% of residents diagnosed)
28.4% 30.6%
Elder-care facilities** 219 107
Meet the neighbors
  City stats Best places average
Median age 33.5 36.8
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)
56.3% 72.4%
Married 48.8% 60.8%
Divorced 12.9% 8.0%
Racial diversity index
(100 is national average; higher numbers indicate greater diversity)
160.2 59.2
Amount spent on vacations
(domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)
$7,522 $8,250
*County data
**Elder-care services refer to skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. Data from Total Living Choices.
(3) Crime incidences are estimates based on FBI 2005 Universal Crime and incidence reports, OnBoard Analysis.

(I) Income tax notes:
17 states have statutory provision for automatic adjustment of tax brackets, personal exemption or standard deductions to the rate of inflation. Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska and Ohio indexes the personal exemption amounts only.
For joint returns, the taxes are twice the tax imposed on half the income.
Tax credits.
An additional 1% tax is imposed on taxable income over $1 million.
Data: OnBoard, FORTUNE. Details
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California companies
FORTUNE 500
CompanyF500 rank
Chevron4
Hewlett-Packard14
McKesson18
See the rest
FORTUNE: Best to work for
CompanyBest Companies
2008 Rank
Google1
Genentech5
Cisco Systems6
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On Board LLC
Information powered by OnBoard LLC
Some data may be provided courtesy of its partners.
Sperling's Best Places
Additional data and consulting services provided by Bert Sperling's bestplaces.net.
Homes For Sale
Homes for sale provided by Trulia Real Estate Search.
Criteria Not
important
    Very
important
Affordable housing
Plentiful leisure activities
Plentiful cultural options
Job growth
Sunny weather
Short commute time
Good health care access
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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.

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.