As a part of Movoto Real Estate’s ongoing goal to uncover our nation’s finest cities, from the best places to buy a home or simply watch a movie, to the best cities in our country in general, we are going state by state and giving it to you honestly.
Which is fitting for today’s state, North Carolina, whose state motto, “Esse quam viederi” means “to be rather than to seem.” North Carolina is nothing if not real, down to earth, and honest to goodness great place to live. So without further ado, here are the 10 best cities in North Carolina:
1. Apex
2. Wake Forest
3. Matthews
4. Morrisville
5. Garner
6. Clemmons
7. Cary
8. Chapel Hill
8. Huntersville
10. Mint Hill
How did we come up with these 10? Did we simply pick Apex for the top because that seemed fitting? Did we “Garner” the names from a list of popular places? Of course not. Keep reading to find out just how we came up with our list and why each city made it to the top.
And pardon the puns—but there are sure to be “Morrisville” where they came from.
Here’s How We Did It
If you’ve been reading our blog, you know the drill. In order to come up with our Top 10 Lists, we rely on certain criteria to objectively rank each city in order from best to worst. But more on that in a moment—here are the six criteria we used for NC.
- Cost of living (percent above or below state’s average)
- Crime rate
- Education
- Median household income
- Home value
- Amenities (including BBQ restaurants & churches)
We started with a list of the 50 most populous municipalities (cities, towns, villages, and Census Designated Places) in North Carolina and ranked them from one to 50 in each of the criteria above, with one being the best. Then we averaged the numbers for each criteria and gave them an overall Big Deal Score—the lower the number, the higher it ranked.
So how did these 10 cities make out list?
10. Mint Hill
Source: www.minthill.com.Rounding out our list at the No. 10 spot is Mint Hill, a town located near Charlotte. Mint Hill placed particularly well in our crime rating. The town of more than 23,000 has a crime rate that is 59 percent lower than the state average. Adding to the charm of the town is its emphasis on education. When compared to the state, Mint Hill’s high school degree attainment rate is 17 percent higher. All this makes Mint Hill a refreshing place to live.
Movoto Real Estate. (2013, November 21). The 10 Best Cities in North Carolina [Blog post]. Author: Natalie Grigson. Excerpt retrieved from http://www.movoto.com/blog/top-ten/the-10-best-cities-in-north-carolina/
