CL, Alg, McH & LITH Make Wallet Hub’s Top 50 Cities List

wallet Hub amall citiesWallet Hub has ranked small cities and three in McHenry County made its list of top 100:

  • 10 – Crystal Lake
  • 25 – Algonquin
  • 45 – McHenry
  • 65 – Lake in the Hills

The list contains many other Illinois cities.

Lowest ranked–at 1,200–is East St. Louis. (The first time I visited–in the 1970’s–I thought it looked like a German city after the WWII bombing.  Bricks from demolished buildings were everywhere. The next time, in the 1990’s, all the bricks from demolished buildings had disappeared.  I guessed they had been re-cycled.)

Below the rankings are various indices.

One I found interesting ranked the “Lowest Mean Hours Worked per Week.”

Carbondale, home of Southern Illinois University, is number two on that list.

All of the other cities mentioned are also college towns.

The rankings were obtained through the following methodology:

To find the best small cities in America, WalletHub’s analysts compared 1,268 cities across four key dimensions: 1) Affordability, 2) Economic Health, 3) Education & Health and 4) Quality of Life. For our sample, we chose cities with a population size between 25,000 and 100,000 residents. Please note that “city” refers to city proper and excludes surrounding metro areas.

Next, we compiled 22 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights.

To obtain the final rankings, we attributed a score between 0 and 100 to each metric. We then calculated the weighted sum of the scores and used the overall result to rank the cities. Together, the points attributed to the four major dimensions add up to 100 points.

Affordability – Total Points: 25

  • Housing Costs ((median annual household income divided by median house price) plus (median annual household income divided by median price of rent): Full Weight (~8.33 Points)
  • Cost of Living: Full Weight (~8.33 Points)
  • Homeownership Rate: Full Weight (~8.33 Points)

Economic Health – Total Points: 25

  • Unemployment Rate: Full Weight (~5 Points)
  • Median Household Income: Full Weight (~5 Points)
  • Percentage of Residents below Poverty Level: Full Weight (~5 Points)
  • Population Growth: Full Weight (~5 Points)
  • Income Growth: Full Weight (~5 Points)

Education & Health – Total Points: 25

  • School-System Quality (WalletHub’s “Best & Worst School Systems” Ranking): Full Weight (~6.25 Points)
  • Percentage of Residents with a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher: Full Weight (~6.25 Points)
  • Percentage of Population with Health-Insurance Coverage: Full Weight (~6.25 Points)
  • Number of Pediatricians per 100,000 Residents: Full Weight (~6.25 Points)

Quality of Life – Total Points: 25

  • Average Commute Time: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Percentage of Residents Who Walk to Work: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Mean Hours Worked per Week: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Number of Restaurants per 100,000 Residents: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Number of Bars per 100,000 Residents: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Number of Coffee Shops per 100,000 Residents: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Number of Museums per 100,000 Residents: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Number of Fitness Centers per 100,000 Residents: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Percentage of Millennial Newcomers: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)
  • Crime Rate: Full Weight (~2.5 Points)

Source: Data used to create these rankings were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Areavibes, Yelp and WalletHub Research.

I don’t see anything on the list that relates to property taxes.


Comments

CL, Alg, McH & LITH Make Wallet Hub’s Top 50 Cities List — 8 Comments

  1. My hometown is second worst on the list.

    Guess all the money those Dem Pols spent over the decades, trying to save the polar bears, went for naught.

  2. Quality of life is not only property taxes.

    That is like saying I am taking my dying child to the hospital but boy did they charge me a lot. Was the child’s life worth it?

    Property taxes are a factor but good schools, parks, community, hospitals, etc mean more.

  3. If you read the linked information, you will find nothing on real estate taxes.

  4. Either I missed it or Cary and FRG weren’t evaluated.

    I suppose if you can’t even buy under ware where you live your quality of life isn’t so great.

  5. Read the linked article and you will find that only cities over 25,000 were evaluated.

  6. Good catch.

    I missed Algonquin the first go round.

    It is ranked 25 this year.

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