Is This America’s Best Small City Today? An Eye-Opening Look at How Little Homebuyers Here Would Pay
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If living in a big city would feel overwhelming but a rural setting would bore you to tears, then your best bet might be to settle down in the middle ground: a small city.
But which one?
To help you narrow down your options, WalletHub has just released its 2022 Best Small Cities in America report, analyzing more than 1,300 locations with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 based on 43 key indicators of livability. They include housing affordability, school quality, commute times, as well as even smaller perks such as the prevalence of shopping plazas and coffee shops.
And it turns out that people craving a balance of urban excitement and pastoral peace will feel right at home in Lancaster, PA! Located about 60 miles from both Baltimore and Philadelphia, this petite metropolis in the heart of Amish country is surrounded by rolling farmland but also features a rich history and surprisingly edgy art scene.
What makes Lancaster, PA, a great place to live
According to Jill Gonzalez, an analyst at WalletHub, Lancaster has seen “an almost 40% jump in income growth over the past five years.” And with this rising income comes plenty of other amenities.
“The city has a large number of museums and department stores per capita as well as low crime, which makes it ideal for families,” adds Gonzalez.
Plus, with home affordability on the minds of home shoppers these days, Lancaster can boast a median home price of just $292,450—well below the national median home price of $427,000.
While Lancaster got the highest score, Carmel, IN, and Fair Lawn, NJ, were not far behind, rounding out the top three. Curious about the rest? Take a look.
Top 10 small cities in the U.S. 2022
- Lancaster, PA
- Carmel, IN
- Fair Lawn, NJ
- Lexington, MA
- Brentwood, TN
- Melrose, MA
- Zionsville, IN
- Needham, MA
- Portland, ME
- Westfield, IN
Indiana is living large (Go, Hoosiers!), with three of its cities in the top 10. But Massachusetts takes the proverbial cake with eight small cities in the top 20.
Several of these Bay State cities sport quality education and healthcare systems, along with low crime rates. Plus, according to Gonzalez, residents here have “high credit scores, a lack of bankruptcies registered in the last 12 months, plus almost all the residents have health insurance coverage.”
Sounds like a bunch of nice neighbors, right?
Many of these locations on the list are actually suburbs, or “luxury enclaves near larger cities,” points out Damian Hall, a real estate agent with the eponymous firm in Greenville. SC.
“Places like Newport Beach, CA, Jupiter, FL, and Brentwood, TN, have enough cultural amenities, restaurants, and parks while also being closer to the larger metro areas for work,” he adds. “So they really offer the best of both worlds.”
And smaller cities usually don’t have the traffic and crime associated with larger urban centers.
Hall points out that small cities “tend to be hot spots for emerging local eateries, yoga and wellness [centers], and boutique hotels.” In fact, Portland, ME, at No. 9 on this list, is the perfect example.
But if you’re loving the idea of a luxe locale, you may have to dig deep in your pockets, depending on where that city is located.
“While the cost of living is reflected in the data, the home prices of the highest ranked California city, Los Altos, are very high—$4.6 million on average right now,” says Tony Mariotti, a real estate agent and founder of RubyHome in Los Angeles.
Los Altos homes are much more expensive than other places in the study, he adds. So “if you’re looking for a quaint, bucolic setting, you’ll pay dearly for it in this case.”
Yet many other cities on WalletHub’s list are well within many Americans’ financial reach, which just goes to show that even highly desirable places don’t have to cost an arm and leg—and might be hiding in some surprising locations.
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