Louisville, CO Named Money Magazine's Best Place to Live

When I saw Louisville, I was a little surprised, until I realized that the #1 place in Money magazine's Best Places to Live 2009 was Louisville, CO, a small city northwest of Denver. Best Places to Live is an annual "event" done by Money magazine.

The full list is available in the July 13th issue of Money Magazine. However, you can also find it online here.

One thing different about this year's survey: Money magazine wanted to focus on smaller towns, and you can see that in the Best Places to Live 2009 results.

Naturally, the question always arises on "how did Money magazine pick the Best Places to Live?" Last year, they looked at small cities, with populations between 50,000 and 300,000. This year, populations of 8,500 to 50,000.

Then Money magazine pared the listed down to their final 100 list of Best Places to Live as follows:

2,466: Start with U.S. towns that have a population of 8,500 to 50,000.

1,559: Exclude places where income is more than 200% or less than 85% of the state median; those more than 95% white; those with poor education and crime scores.

580: Screen out retirement communities, towns with significant job or population loss or extreme growth, and those with no major airport within 60 miles. Rank remaining places based on job growth, income increases, cost of living, housing affordability, school quality, arts and leisure, safety, health care, diversity, and several ease-of-living criteria.

100: Factor in more data on the economy, jobs, housing, schools, taxes. Weigh economic factors most highly.

And still further:

24: Visit and interview residents, assessing intangibles like sense of community.

1: Select the winner based on the data and our findings.

The top 10 Best Places to Live:

1. Louisville, CO
2. Chanhassen, MN
3. Papillion, NE
4. Middleton, WI
5. Milton, MA
6. Warren, NJ
7. Keller, TX
8. Peachtree City, GA
9. Lake St. Louis, MO
10. Mukilteo, WA