Starting a family? Recent list ranks Folsom, Elk Grove among top West Coast cities
In a list dominated by Bay Area cities, two cities in Sacramento County made the top 15 in one finance website’s recent ranking of the best places to raise a family on the West Coast.
Folsom came in at No. 2 and Elk Grove tied for No. 14 among 150 cities considered by SmartAsset for 2019 in a list published last week.
The list ranked cities based on 10 factors, including housing costs (relative to average household income), childcare costs, high school graduation rates, poverty rates, rates of violent and property crimes.
By those metrics, Folsom scored high in housing cost (19.3 percent of income, good for No. 2 of the 150 cities), poverty rate (3.9 percent, fourth lowest) and graduation rate (89.5 percent, No. 8).
Elk Grove benefited from a high percentage of residents under age 19, but had among the highest unemployment (5.5 percent) and poverty rates (7.7 percent) among Top 25 cities.
San Ramon came in at No. 1, with low marks across the board for unemployment, crime, poverty and housing costs.
The top nine spots on the list are all California cities – Folsom, Yorba Linda and seven in the Bay Area – while Hillsboro, west of Portland, Oregon, took the tenth spot.
Suburban cities in the greater Sacramento area have fared well in these kinds of studies before. In a California-only list by SmartAsset in 2017, Roseville was crowned the most family-friendly city in the Golden State due its strong local economy and a stellar high school graduation rate of 93 percent.
Rocklin and Davis also ranked in the Top 10 at No. 7 and No. 9, respectively, in the 2017 list. However, none of those three cities earned a spot in SmartAsset’s most recent study, which used different data methodology.
This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 2:00 AM.
