Living in a great place is even better when you've got your financial house in order. Like MONEY magazine on Facebook for tips on saving more, investing better and spending wisely.
Want affordable housing? Head to Florissant. With median home prices lower than $80,000, the city has the most reasonable housing costs on our Best Places list. In addition to good public elementary and high schools, this diverse city is home to a Christian private school, two theological colleges, and a branch of Lindenwood University, the fastest-growing university in the Midwest. All that's missing: a real downtown. -- L.M.
Notes:
*County data
Due to erroneous job, cost-of-living, and test score stats for a small number of places, this city's rank changed slightly from an earlier version.
Details.
Due to an error by our data provider, an earlier version listed incorrect stats for this city's number of colleges.
(I) Income tax notes:
The deduction for federal income tax is limited to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for joint returns in Missouri and Montana, and to $5,950 for all filers in Oregon.
(II) Sales tax notes:
Most of Kansas City is located within Jackson County and is subject to a 7.85 percent sales tax. However, part of the city lies in Clay County and is subject to a total rate of 7.6 percent.
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
