Small cities are the guts and soul of our nation — and because the price of dwelling continues to skyrocket in massive city areas, extra individuals are shifting to less-populated communities. And whereas there are literally thousands of small cities to think about, in the case of a high quality public training system and a wholesome lifestyle, Lexington, Massachusetts, leads the best way.
This charming suburb, positioned about 13 miles northwest of Boston, just isn’t solely one of many biggest locations to stay within the Bay State, nevertheless it’s one of many nicest within the U.S. Based on WalletHub’s annual rankings of the perfect small cities (which concerned evaluating 1,300 locations for affordability, financial well being, high quality of life, security, in addition to training and well being), Lexington is the third finest small city in America, simply after Brookfield, Wisconsin, and Carmel, Indiana.
However in the case of training particularly, the web site ranked Lexington as the primary within the nation. “Lexington advantages from being in Massachusetts, the state with the perfect college programs within the nation,” WalletHub reported. Based on Area of interest, a evaluate website for faculties, Lexington has the fourth-best college district within the state — a mean of 97 % of scholars graduate.
The city additionally ranked first in well being. It has the second-highest share of individuals with medical health insurance within the nation and in addition has the Twenty second-most health facilities per capita.
Moreover, WalletHub’s report highlighted how secure Lexington is. It has the fourth-lowest property crime price and Thirty seventh-lowest violent crime price amongst small cities. Automobile crash deaths and drunk driving fatalities are additionally across the lowest within the nation.
Based on knowledge from america Census Bureau, the city is residence to a bit of underneath 35,000 individuals, has a median age of 47, and has one of many highest median annual family incomes (clocking in at $206,323) in not solely the state however the nation. Simply 4.2 % of Lexington residents are experiencing poverty.
“Residents even have the Tenth-highest median credit score rating, at 783, exhibiting that folks within the metropolis are doing very properly financially,” WalletHub reported.
Nevertheless, the mixture of low crime charges, glorious public faculties, and proximity to Boston has resulted in Lexington changing into one in every of Massachusetts’s most costly ZIP codes. Based on a latest evaluation by the Boston Enterprise Journal, Lexington is the 18th wealthiest ZIP code within the state, and Zillow stories the median residence worth as a bit of over $1.5 million. Consequently, WalletHub ranked it at 518th for affordability.
However, if Lexington is not fairly what you are on the lookout for, and you are still hoping to settle someplace in Massachusetts — WalletHub ranks it the perfect state to stay in due to its extremely regarded training system and well being care infrastructure — think about different Bay State small cities on the record together with Milton, Arlington, and Newton.