Money's list of America's best small cities


Big cities
City Population
New York, NY 8,363,710
Los Angeles, CA 3,833,995
Chicago, IL 2,853,114
Houston, TX 2,242,193
Phoenix, AZ 1,567,924
Philadelphia, PA 1,522,648
San Antonio, TX 1,365,256
San Diego, CA 1,319,558
Dallas, TX 1,279,910
San Jose, CA 956,368
Detroit, MI 912,062
Indianapolis, IN 831,943
Jacksonville, FL 829,555
San Francisco, CA 808,976
Austin, TX 797,215
Columbus, OH 796,520
Charlotte, NC 745,596
Fort Worth, TX 730,019
Memphis, TN 669,651
El Paso, TX 667,868
Baltimore, MD 636,919
Seattle, WA 624,070
Boston, MA 615,462
Louisville, KY 608,696
Washington, DC 607,731
Milwaukee, WI 604,477
Nashville-Davidson, TN 603,394
Denver, CO 598,707
Portland, OR 598,205
Oklahoma City, OK 588,053
Las Vegas, NV 581,804
Albuquerque, NM 550,287
Tucson, AZ 541,811
Atlanta, GA 537,958
Fresno, CA 504,425
Sacramento, CA 466,722
Long Beach, CA 464,278
Mesa, AZ 463,552
Kansas City, MO 458,064
Omaha, NE 438,646
Virginia Beach, VA 438,243
Cleveland, OH 433,748
Colorado Springs, CO 421,350
Miami, FL 413,201
Raleigh, NC 405,462
Oakland, CA 404,155
Tulsa, OK 395,176
Minneapolis, MN 388,229
Wichita, KS 386,241
Arlington, TX 383,300
St. Louis, MO 354,361
Bakersfield, CA 351,869
New Orleans, LA 349,773
Honolulu, HI 343,721
Tampa, FL 340,882
Anaheim, CA 339,280
Santa Ana, CA 339,130
Cincinnati, OH 333,336
Aurora, CO 321,562
Corpus Christi, TX 313,319
Riverside, CA 311,694
Pittsburgh, PA 310,037
From the September 2012 issue
Best Places Winners
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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
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

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