Money's list of America's best small cities


Affordable homes
Residents who buy real estate in these cities from the Best Places database see their incomes go the furthest.
Rank City Median home sale price 2011
1 Spring, TX $98,214
2 North Port, FL $86,000
3 Missouri City, TX $145,690
4 Cedar Rapids, IA $113,000
5 Bellevue, NE $124,000
6 Rochester, MN $136,500
7 Warner Robins, GA $115,000
8 Enid, OK $92,950
9 Casas Adobes, AZ $135,000
10 Sioux Falls, SD $129,950
11 St. Charles, MO $144,000
12 Idaho Falls, ID $118,176
13 Bossier City, LA $127,000
14 Tallahassee, FL $122,400
15 Murfreesboro, TN $139,267
16 Conway, AR $139,000
17 Rock Hill, SC $119,000
18 Jonesboro, AR $125,000
19 Fargo, ND $150,000
20 Dale City, VA $200,000
21 Iowa City, IA $168,750
22 Rio Rancho, NM $165,128
23 Johnson City, TN $126,800
24 Raleigh, NC $174,000
25 Bismarck, ND $164,400
From the September 2012 issue
Source: Onboard Informatics, actual sales collected from county and municipal assessors' offices. Only includes sales within city boundaries. Only cities where there were more than 100 home sales in 2011, and that were experiencing job and population growth, were considered. No more than 2 places within a state, and no more than 1 place within a county could qualify.
Best Places Winners
MAPS
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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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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