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Scottsdale named a top place to live
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One of Scottsdale biggest boosters doesn’t need a magazine’s survey to affirm what he already knows: This is a great place.
According to Money magazine’s “Best Places to Live” study, released Monday, Scottsdale ranks seventh among the nation’s small cities.
“I’m just amazed there are six communities ahead of us,” said Rick Kidder, president of the Scottsdale Area Chamber of Commerce. “Scottsdale, obviously, belongs on this list.”
The survey takes into account local economies, crime rates, housing costs and other categories. Scottsdale received its high mark due to its outstanding schools and abundant opportunities for recreation, one of the survey’s creators said.
Also cracking the honor roll of 100 was Gilbert, ranked 16th.
Meanwhile, Mesa was listed as the third-best big city in which to live. Only Colorado Springs, Colo. and Austin, Texas, ranked higher.
Tara Kalwarski, special projects editor for Money, said the magazine began its study with 745 cities with populations exceeding 50,000, then screened out those larger than 300,000 people. After eliminating retirement havens (40 percent of the populace 50 years old and above) and cities with undesirable factors (high crime, low incomes), that left 201 candidates.
The cities were ranked in seven categories: Ease of living, health, education, crime, arts, recreation and jobs/ economy. Each category had several subgroups; for example, under ease of living were divorce rates, average length of commute and population density.
What lifted Scottsdale to its lofty status was education (”excellent school scores in comparison to the state average,” Kalwarski said) and recreation (134 golf courses within 30 miles, compared to the survey average of 72).
Weather also was ranked. On a day when the temperature at Scottsdale Airport reached a muggy 103 degrees, Kalwarski joked that the magazine’s livability survey was released “at a time when when most people are asking themselves why they live there.” But where Scottsdale really fell short was in housing costs.
“That probably did factor in the rankings,” Kidder acknowledged. The median price of resale homes in Scottsdale reached $640,000, according to the most recent figures available.
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