This NC town ranks among nation’s best small cities. What makes it ‘outshine the rest’?
North Carolina is home to one of the nation’s best places to call home — again, a new report finds.
The Raleigh suburb of Apex ranks among the “Best Small Cities to Live in America,” according to results published Tuesday, Oct. 1.
“To find out which small cities outshine the rest, WalletHub compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 based on 45 key indicators of livability,” the personal finance website wrote in its report. “They range from housing costs to school-system quality to the number of restaurants per capita.”
WalletHub said it studied data from the U.S. government, Yelp, Tripadvisor and other sources. It focused on five categories: economic health, affordability, safety, quality of life, and education and health.
Why did Apex rank among nation’s best towns?
Apex landed in the 99th percentile after it received the sixth best score in the country. The town got a boost when it ranked in the top 10 in the economic health category, a measure of job growth, population growth, unemployment rates and related metrics.
The town also made its mark in the affordability category, where it stood at No. 30 among the towns considered. For that category, WalletHub studied factors such as costs of living and home ownership rates.
Apex didn’t fare as well when it came to safety and education and health. The town also ranked closer to average for quality of life, landing in the 542nd spot out of 1,318 towns, results show.
Apex, southwest from Raleigh, says it has about 75,000 residents. It received the honor from WalletHub almost three months after it was named one of the “Most Livable Small Cities” in the United States. Compared to other cities in that report, SmartAsset said Apex had a lower poverty rate and lower housing costs as a portion of residents’ income, McClatchy News reported.
On the latest list, Apex was one of 19 cities to rank in the 99th percentile. Here are the other North Carolina towns that earned high spots in the rankings:
- Wake Forest in the 97th percentile
- Mooresville in the 93rd percentile
- Holly Springs in the 92nd percentile
WalletHub said the nation’s top-scoring town was Carmel, Indiana, a roughly 15-mile drive north from Indianapolis.
This story was originally published October 1, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
