Money's list of America's best small cities


Cities
Rank City Population
  La Crosse, WI 52,000
  La Habra, CA 61,100
  La Mesa, CA 58,400
  Lafayette, IN 68,900
  Lafayette, LA 124,400
  Laguna Niguel, CA 64,500
  Lake Charles, LA 72,700
  Lake Elsinore, CA 51,800
  Lake Forest, CA 77,500
  Lake Havasu City, AZ 56,600
  Lakeland, FL 98,000
19 Lakeville, MN 56,700
  Lakewood, CA 79,100
  Lakewood, CO 144,700
  Lakewood, OH 52,200
  Lakewood, WA 57,300
  Lancaster, CA 157,200
  Lancaster, PA 60,800
  Lansing, MI 114,600
  Laredo, TX 241,500
  Largo, FL 78,000
  Las Cruces, NM 98,700
  Las Vegas, NV 581,800
  Lauderhill, FL 67,100
  Lawrence, IN 119,200
  Lawrence, KS 90,500
  Lawrence, MA 76,500
  Lawton, OK 97,900
  Layton, UT 69,200
  League City, TX 84,700
  Lee's Summit, MO 90,000
  Lehigh Acres, FL 88,600
  Levittown, NY 51,200
  Levittown, PA 52,700
  Lewisville, TX 96,500
  Lexington-Fayette, KY 299,500
  Lincoln, NE 259,100
  Little Rock, AR 194,700
  Livermore, CA 81,800
  Livonia, MI 92,800
  Lodi, CA 62,900
  Long Beach, CA 464,300
  Longmont, CO 86,100
  Longview, TX 81,800
  Lorain, OH 70,200
  Los Angeles, CA 3,834,000
  Louisville, KY 608,700
  Loveland, CO 67,400
  Lowell, MA 107,400
  Lower Merion, PA 58,600
  Lubbock, TX 235,000
  Lynchburg, VA 77,500
  Lynn, MA 90,600
  Lynwood, CA 70,300
From the September 2012 issue
Due to erroneous job, cost-of-living, and test score data for a small number of places, two cities were left off this year's top 100 and two were mistakenly included. Other cities moved up or down slightly once all data were corrected. Details.
Best Places Winners
MAPS
Pick a state

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

  • Real estate and homes for sale on Trulia

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