A new Rocket Mortgage report found that the best places to raise a family in the U.S. are midsize cities with a moderate cost of living and good schools.
The five cities in the report are located near big metropolitan areas. And the average price of a home across all five places is under $850,000, while the average household income is $111,414.
We’ve ranked the cities in order of least to most expensive based on the listing prices of homes in each one.
No. 1 best U.S. city to raise a family: Columbia, Maryland
Median home listing price: $415,000
Median household income: $111,278
School ranking: Top district in the state
Columbia, Maryland, is located outside the Baltimore area and is about a 45-minute drive from Washington, D.C.
The city is part of the Howard County school district, which is ranked as the top district in the state of Maryland, according to Niche.
The Rocket Mortgage report states that the cost of living in Columbia is 21.6% higher than the U.S. average.
5 best U.S. cities to raise a family if you make over $100,000/year
- Columbia, Maryland
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- The Woodlands, Texas
- Naperville, Illinois
- Arlington, Virginia
The second city on the list is Ann Arbor, Michigan.
The Rocket Mortgage report stated the median cost of a home in Ann Arbor is $384,611, and the cost of living is 17.5% higher than the U.S. average.
The median household income in the city is $69,456.
Ann Arbor is also home to the University of Michigan, one of the colleges with the wealthiest alumni in the U.S. The university is also one of the largest employers in the area.
The Woodlands, Texas, rounded out the top three best cities to raise a family. It is about 30 minutes north of Houston.
According to Rocket Mortgage, the cost of living in The Woodlands is 12.9% higher than the U.S. average, and the median home price is $457,498.
The median household income is $126,087, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
And when it comes to schools, most of the public elementary schools in The Woodlands are ranked within the top 10% of Texas’s education system.
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Source: CNBC