Best Places to Live

Money's list of America's best small cities

Cities

Rank	City	Population
	Sacramento, CA	468,237
	Saginaw, MI	55,620
	Salem, OR	153,435
	Salinas, CA	148,706
	Salt Lake City, UT	189,607
	San Angelo, TX	92,208
	San Antonio, TX	1,351,305
	San Bernardino, CA	200,890
	San Buenaventura (Ventura), CA	103,706
	San Clemente, CA	61,465
	San Diego, CA	1,282,605
	San Francisco, CA	808,976
	San Jose, CA	948,279
	San Leandro, CA	77,880
	San Marcos, CA	79,114
	San Marcos, TX	52,927
	San Mateo, CA	93,306
	San Rafael, CA	55,602
	Sandy, UT	98,337
	Sandy Springs, GA	82,674
	Sanford, FL	50,634
	Santa Ana, CA	339,130
	Santa Barbara, CA	90,594
	Santa Clara, CA	110,200
	Santa Clarita, CA	169,500
	Santa Cruz, CA	56,124
	Santa Fe, NM	71,831
	Santa Maria, CA	86,356
	Santa Monica, CA	87,664
	Santa Rosa, CA	155,796
	Santee, CA	53,860
	Sarasota, FL	52,340
	Savannah, GA	132,410
	Schaumburg, IL	73,200
	Schenectady, NY	61,922
71	Scottsdale, AZ	235,000
	Scranton, PA	72,243
	Seattle, WA	598,541
17	Shawnee, KS	61,000
	Shelby, MI	72,329
64	Shoreline, WA	54,000
	Shreveport, LA	199,729
	Silver Spring, MD	76,373
	Simi Valley, CA	120,543
	Sioux City, IA	82,807
77	Sioux Falls, SD	161,000
	Skokie, IL	66,620
	Somerville, MA	77,855
	South Bend, IN	103,807
	South Gate, CA	96,640
18	South Jordan, UT	51,000
	South San Francisco, CA	62,502
	South Whittier, CA	54,920
	Southfield, MI	75,392
	Sparks, NV	88,602
	Spokane, WA	211,444
	Spring, TX	51,508
	Spring Hill, FL	94,995
	Spring Valley, NV	169,497
	Springdale, AR	68,180
	Springfield, IL	117,352
	Springfield, MA	150,640
	Springfield, MO	163,614
	Springfield, OH	62,269
	Springfield, OR	58,287
	St. Charles, MO	64,386
	St. Clair Shores, MI	60,364
	St. Cloud, MN	66,948
80	St. George, UT	78,000
	St. Joseph, MO	76,197
	St. Louis, MO	354,361
	St. Paul, MN	279,815
60	St. Peters, MO	56,000
	St. Petersburg, FL	245,314
78	Stamford, CT	119,000
	Sterling Heights, MI	128,219
67	Stillwater, OK	53,000
	Stockton, CA	287,037
91	Suffolk, VA	82,000
	Sugar Land, TX	80,704
	Sunnyvale, CA	133,876
	Sunrise, FL	89,026
	Sunrise Manor, NV	180,409
	Surprise, AZ	96,059
	Syracuse, NY	138,068

From the August 2010 issue

CNNMoney's Best Places database includes 800-plus U.S. cities with populations 50,000 and up.

Best Places Winners

Top 10 | All 100

Pick a state

State	# of Best Places

	0
	0
	2
	1
	4
	5
	5
	0
	0
	3
	1
	0

	2
	4
	2
	3
	2
	1
	0
	0
	4
	4
	1
	5
	0
	4
	0

	0
	0
	1
	4
	1
	5
	2
	3
	2
	4
	2
	2

	1
	1
	1
	1
	4
	4
	0
	4
	2
	0
	4
	0

Home price trends

Hover over any of the 10 Best Places below to see how real estate prices have changed in the past 2 years.

City	Avg. listing price (June 2010)
1. Eden Prairie, MN	$430,710
2. Columbia-Ellicott City, MD	$487,602
3. Newton, MA	$989,445
4. Bellevue, WA	$801,423
5. McKinney, TX	$267,661
6. Fort Collins, CO	$271,950
7. Overland Park, KS	$308,235
8. Fishers, IN	$282,482
9. Ames, IA	$189,657
10. Rogers, AR	$269,229

Find Homes for sale
- City, state, or zip
- Price range
  to

Property Type
Find a home in:
New York | Atlanta | Chicago | Los Angeles
Washington D.C | Houston | Philadelphia | More options

Find Your Best Places

Video

Why Eden Prairie is No. 1

Residents of the top city on Money's 100 Best Places to Live love the miles of open space, and the 'Minnesota-nice' community. Watch
Work and play by the coast

Residents of Bellevue, Wash., No. 4 on Money's Best Places to Live, enjoy being near the water, mountains, and jobs at Microsoft. Watch
Find charming homes, Texas-sized

McKinney, No. 5 on Money's Best Places to Live, is growing fast, thanks to families who love its historic district and diversity. Watch
Where rich singles play

Newport Beach, Calif., is the best place to find rich singles - if you can afford the lifestyle. Watch
Secrets of a great place to live

What's it like if your hometown is one of Money's Best Places to Live? Some lucky residents share they love most about their city. Watch

How we picked the Best Places

Using statistics from data provider 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

About CNNMoney
Content
Magazines
Site Tools
Stay Connected
- My Account
- Mobile Site & Apps
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- YouTube
- RSS Feeds
- Newsletters
- Tumblr

Market indexes are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer LIBOR Warning: Neither BBA Enterprises Limited, nor the BBA LIBOR Contributor Banks, nor Reuters, can be held liable for any irregularity or inaccuracy of BBA LIBOR. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Disclaimer The Dow Jones Indexes^SM are proprietary to and distributed by Dow Jones & Company, Inc. and have been licensed for use. All content of the Dow Jones Indexes^SM © 2012 is proprietary to Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Chicago Mercantile Association. The market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2012. All rights reserved. Most stock quote data provided by BATS.