Families looking for the perfect place to settle face a difficult task. Finding the city with the best school system, low crime rate, quality health care, and community support can confuse potential buyers.
In a new report from Fortune, researchers scoured the country to find the 25 Best Places to Live for Families, one California city on the winners list – Tustin.
Nestled in the heart of Orange County, Tustin offers residents an excellent range of job, school and entertainment opportunities while offering world-class shopping and dining options, Fortune said. The city has a balanced offering of historic architecture and modern development, according to the study.
With easy access to Los Angeles, the coastline, and the San Gabriel Mountains, Tustin ranked 12th among the top 25 cities for family living.
The study analyzed approximately 2,000 cities and towns across the United States and more than 215,000 data points in five categories:
- Education
- Aging Resources
- General well-being
- Financial health
- Habitability
The researchers specifically focused on the needs of the “sandwich generation”, those who struggle with “the simultaneous responsibilities of raising their children while regularly caring for their own parents”.
Fortune estimates that about 45% of Americans are of this generation today.
To ensure the winning locations were towns where residents could afford to buy homes, Fortune eliminated locations where home sales prices “were more than twice as high as the state median.” and/or more than 2.75 times higher than the national median”.
Diversity was also privileged. The study eliminated any city where “more than 90% of the population is white, non-Hispanic.”
No more than two cities per state and no more than one city per county/metropolitan area were also chosen.
The Top 12 of the 25 best cities to live according to Fortune are:
- Ann Arbor, MI
- Wylie, TX
- Olathe, Kansas
- Mason, Ohio
- Morrisville, North Carolina
- Clearfield, UT
- Gaithersburg, Maryland
- Leesburg, Virginia
- West of Chicago, Illinois
- Novi, MI
- West Windsor, New Jersey
- Tustin, California
Check out Fortune’s full study of the best cities for families in the United States