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America's
Best Places to Raise a Family
 Great schools, low crime and a
desirable cost of living are among the qualities that make these 20
spots fine for folks and their kids. Steve Schwartz and his wife, Lori,
have spent the last 30 years running Schwartz's Bait and Tackle in
Noblesville, Ind. Just 15 miles north of downtown Indianapolis, they
sell fishing equipment and rent canoes to locals like Indianapolis
Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri and former Formula One racer Derek Daly.
They've also discovered something most Americans are still searching
for: the ideal place to raise a family. Their sons, Pete and Eddie, 26
and 22, who still help out at the store, are the products of an idyllic
upbringing in Hamilton County,
"It's the best of the best," says the 47-year-old Schwartz, also a
Hamilton County councilman, referring to the area and its quaint
hamlets, low crime and desirable cost of living. "It's a great place to
raise your family. It's safe, it's fun, it's affordable and it's
growing."
It's qualities like these that landed Hamilton County atop Forbes'
list. Ozaukee County, Wis., and Johnson County, Kan. came in second and
third. Rounding out the top five? Geauga and Delaware Counties in Ohio.
Chester County, Pa., and Hunterdon County, N.J. placed in the top ten.
All earn high marks for their low cost of living, reasonably priced
homes and short commute times. They also offer terrific schools, one of
the most important characteristics to consider when choosing a place to
raise a family.
"What parents need to look for are communities that have the resources
to promote physical, social and cognitive development," says Dr. Margo
Napoletano, a San Diego-based psychologist with 20 years of experience
specializing in children and their families. "This includes a strong
school system that provides after-school programs."
Behind The Numbers
Forbes' rankings are skewed toward counties with good school districts.
Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax
research group based in Washington, D.C., we started with a list of the
nation's counties with populations over 65,000. To eliminate
under-funded school districts, we isolated 97 counties where more than
half of per-pupil spending comes from property taxes.
Next, we knocked off all the counties with average SAT scores under
1,050 (math and verbal combined) or average ACT scores under 22,
leaving us with 51 counties.
Raising a happy family requires more than just a good school system.
With that in mind, we ranked the remaining counties using 10 data
points: cost of living, graduation rate, standardized scores, home
price, property tax rate as a percentage of median home price,
percentage of homes occupied by owner, per-capita income, air quality,
crime rate and commute time.
A long commute "can certainly contribute to stress on a family," says
Napoletano. "If you come home and the kids are already in bed, that
detracts from family life, both psychologically and economically,
especially considering today's gas prices."
Some of the most posh counties in the nation didn't make the cut
because their rankings were tainted by outrageous home prices or
lengthy commutes. Westchester County, N.Y., home to ritzy enclaves like
Chappaqua and Scarsdale, was sunk by a 31-minute average commute time
and a median home price approaching $600,000. Fairfax County, Va.,
suffered a similar fate.
Other swank suburbs made our list. Because of an outstanding school
system and abundant employment opportunities, Marin County, Calif.,
cracked the top 20 despite a whopping median home price of $901,900.
Montgomery County, Pa., famous for its sumptuous Main Line suburbs and
the King of Prussia Mall, made the top 10 with solid scores across the
board and a median home price less than a third of Marin's.
There are, of course, scores of other, more personal factors to
consider: political atmosphere, religious climate, proximity to friends
and family, and community personality, to name a few. But don't forget
the obvious ones.
"Consider parks, consider recreation programs, consider shopping
malls," says Napoletano. "Teenagers love to hang out with their friends
at shopping malls. That can promote social development too."
In Pictures: America’s Best Places To Raise A Family
Source: Forbes
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