Community Corner
South Brunswick Named One of CNNMoney Magazine's Best Places to Live
South Brunswick Township finishes 22nd out of 100 in annual Best Places to Live in America list by Money Magazine
On the heels of list, another national publication is now recognizing South Brunswick Township. South Brunswick finished 22nd on CNNMoney Magazine's annual list of the top 100 Best Places to Live in America.
"It's a really nice rating to have, when you're picked that high in the country on a list of the best places to live, we're all really pleased," said Mayor Frank Gambatese. "When you look at the criteria we all share this honor, not just the township, but the police department, the schools, when you look at the criteria we're just really pleased."
Finishing tops on the list is Louisville, Colo., with a population of 18,400.
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CNNMoney used statistics from the data services company Onboard Informatics to "zero in on America's best small towns for families."
The magazine used the following criteria:
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3,570
Start with all U.S. towns that have a population of 8,500 to 50,000.
1,548
Screen out places with median family income more than 200% or less than 85% of the state median; those more than 95% white; and those with poor education and crime scores.
749
Exclude retirement communities and towns with major job losses. Rank the rest based on job growth, home affordability, safety, school quality, health care, arts and leisure, diversity, and several ease-of-living criteria.
100
Factor in more data on the economy (including fiscal strength of state and local governments), jobs, housing, and schools. Weight economic data most heavily.
35
Visit towns and interview residents, assess traffic, parks, and gathering places, and consider intangibles like community spirit.
The list examined a database of 1,850-plus U.S. communities and included towns with populations between 8,500 and 50,000 people, in addition to cities with populations of 100,000 and up.
"To me this is an affirmation of what we have tried to do here, with quality of life, police protection, and the parks system," Gambatese said. "It boils down to the people we have working here, and I'm really pleased with the criteria they used to select these towns. It points out that the quality of life in South Brunswick is top notch for people looking for a place to live."
From the magazine's profile of South Brunswick:
People tend to move to this diverse town in Middlesex County (it has a large Asian-American community) for the great public school system and wide range of housing, from $100,000 one-bedroom condos to million-dollar homes. Another draw: lots of good jobs nearby. Bloomberg Finance and L’Oreal both have offices in South Brunswick. New York City and Philadelphia are each about an hour’s drive from here.
South Brunswick stats
FinancialCity statsBest places avg. Median family income(per year) $113,875 $99,975 Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted) $94,659 $95,706 State sales tax 7.00% 5.75% State income tax rate
(highest bracket) 8.97%I 7.37% State income tax rate
(lowest bracket) 1.40%I 3.13% Auto insurance premiums
(Average price quotes, for the state) $2,617 $1,687 Job growth %
(2000-2010)* 8.29% 24.63%
Housing Median home price N.A. $265,929 Average property taxes N.A. $4,083 See South Brunswick homes for sale Education Colleges, universities and
professional schools (within 30 miles) 45 28 Test scores reading
(% above/below state average) 24.4% 25.1% Test scores math
(% above/below average) 23.9% 24.7% % students attending public/private
schools (located within town limits) 93.8/6.2 92.1/7.9 Quality of life Air quality index*
(% of days AQI ranked as good) 71.0% 78.5% Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 1 1 Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 10 16 Median commute time (in minutes) 28.2 23.3 % population with commute
45 mins. or longer 27.8% 15.4% % population walk or bike to work 1.4% 2.6% Leisure and culture Movie theaters
(within 15 miles) 25 30 Restaurants
(within 15 miles) 3,622 2,758 Bars
(within 15 miles) 217 208 Public golf courses
(within 30 miles) 252 165 Libraries
(within 15 miles) 102 74 Museums (accredited by AAM;
within 30 miles) 11 10 Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 27 16 Arts funding (Dollars per person of state funds spent on arts) 2.0 1.2 Weather Annual rainfall
(inches) 45.77 39.07 % clear days in the area 26 27 High temp in July ° F 73.3° 84.1° Low temp in Jan ° F 27.6° 20.9° Meet the neighbors Median age 35.2 36.35 Completed at least some college
(% of residents) 74.0% 74.5% Married % 63.7% 61.5% Divorced % 7.1% 7.6% Racial diversity index
(100 is national average; higher numbers indicate greater diversity) 186.4 71.0
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