24/7 Wall St., a publication for global equity investors constructed America’s Top 50 Best Cities To Live In. Fortunately three of the cities from the Washington D.C., Maryland, & Virginia area had made the list at relatively high rankings! To think about it, some states weren’t even mentioned on this list, so to have three cities from the same area, and even some from the same state, you’d think that the DMV is an obvious leader in America’s communities.
18. Waldorf, Maryland
> Population: 75,448
> Median home value: $276,900
> Poverty rate: 8.2% (bottom 25%)
> Pct. with at least a bachelor’s degree: 27.8%
Waldorf, Maryland is one of several Washington D.C. suburbs to rank among the best cities to live in. Not only do area residents have easy access to entertainment venues and cultural amenities in the nation’s capital, but also Waldorf itself has a greater concentration of restaurants and cafes than is typical nationwide.
Relatively few Waldorf residents are struggling financially. The typical area household earns about $96,900 a year. Additionally, only 8.2% of the local population lives below the poverty line, below the state and national poverty rates of 9.7% and 14.0%, respectively. High income areas like Waldorf are the reason Maryland is the wealthiest state in the country.
15. Arlington, Virginia
> Population: 230,050
> Median home value: $678,100 (top 10%)
> Poverty rate: 8.1% (bottom 10%)
> Pct. with at least a bachelor’s degree: 74.3% (top 10%)
The Washington D.C. suburb of Arlington is one of the wealthiest and best educated neighborhoods in the United States. The typical area household earns about $110,400 a year, more than enough to compensate for the area’s relatively high cost of living. Arlington is also one of the most educated cities in the country. High schoolers in Arlington test better than students in any city in Virginia other than Chesapeake and Centreville, and 74.3% of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree. By comparison, 31.3% of U.S. adults have completed four years of college.
The area’s hospitals also report some of the best outcomes in the United States. Combined, Arlington County’s two hospitals have lower mortality and readmission rates than the U.S. as a whole. Preventable hospitalizations in the area are about half as common as they are nationwide.
9. Columbia, Maryland
> Population: 107,308
> Median home value: $371,400 (top 25%)
> Poverty rate: 6.5% (bottom 10%)
> Pct. with at least a bachelor’s degree: 63.2% (top 10%)
Cities like Columbia are largely the reason Maryland is the wealthiest state in the country. The typical Columbia household earns $107,164 a year — well above the median income nationwide of $57,617. As is the case in many of the best cities in the country, goods and services are considerably more expensive in Columbia than they are on average nationwide. Still, the area’s high incomes are more than enough to offset the high costs.
Columbia residents have access to plenty of cultural amenities and entertainment venues. The city has a higher concentration of restaurants, theatre companies, and movie theatres than is typical nationwide. Like many cities on this list, Columbia’s population is growing rapidly. The city’s population climbed by about 15% in the last 10 years, more than double the U.S. population growth over the same period.
Which DMV Cities Made The “America’s Top 50 Best Cities To Live In” List was originally published on kysdc.com
