50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family

This book describes optimal places to live and retire. The author describes the quality of life, local economy/jobs , entertainment and a plethora of other concerns. Fountain Hills, Arizona is listed for its jobs, no state income tax and quality of lifestyle. Gainesville Florida is listed as the most livable city in the USA. Huntington, NY is listed as a preferred suburb with good schools, beaches and vacation spots. Charlottesville, VA. is praised for its scenary, affordable housing, schools and educational centers. This book is a solid value if you are researching an area unfamiliar to you. Before you move anywhere, visit the locality, speak to residents and make up your own mind independent of what any book conveys.

This is an outstanding book! As a valuable companion to Places Rated Almanac, it presents a good picture of some of the best places to live in the United States. Use this book to help find a good place for your family to live.The harsh comments from the reader in Minneapolis need to be taken in perspective. That reader said that some of the numerical data are incorrectly listed. But all books heavy in numerical data have those PRINTING errors. I can't tell you how many college texts I've seen with numerical printing errors. But just because a math problem number in a math book is printed wrong, it doesn't mean that the mathematical truths are no longer true. Condemning information that is obviously excellent due to printing errors is unfair. The information in this book is valuable.For example, my wife and I spent two years deciding on which community in the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, area to live in. We studied school districts, recreation, crime, and many intangibles. Living in Minnesota made it possible to learn first-hand - much more than the general statistical summaries listed in a publication like Places Rates Almanac.We decided on Eden Prairie. The schools have won numerous awards and have among the top-5 test scores in the state. The city was carefully planned to integrate recreation, nature, and family living. Our home is walking distance of two supurb parks, near a regional bike trail, within a short bike ride of a great recreational lake, and a longer bike ride from half-a-dozen other excellent parks and lakes, including a regional preserve. (There are miles of paved trails to bike, walk, jog, or roller-blade.) There is more to offer, too.To our surprise, we later discovered that Eden Prairie is one of the 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family. The book got it right. We were very impressed that the book listed the things that took us months to research. 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family details many important facts that you cannot find in most other publications.And by the way, the Minneapolis school district has the second-lowest test scores and the worst crime rate in the state. Minneapolis still ranks among the best in the U.S. when compared to other large U.S. cities, but nowhere near the best Minnesota suburban schools districts: Eden Prairie, Plymouth, Wayzata, West Bloomington, Apple Valley, Minnetonka, Hopkins, Edina, etc. Reading a general publication, such as Places Rated Almanac, groups the whole Twin Cities area together. 50 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family reaches deeper into specific suburbs around the country.I have only one complaint about this book. It should be expanded to 100 Fabulous Places to Raise Your Family. There are too many good places - some neighboring suburbs to the ones already included - to leave out.

Having been part of the research team for this non-fiction project, I was eager to read the finished work. Having known how much work and fact checking was put into the book, I was impressed with how wonderful all the facts were tied in to the finished work. A life long Long Islander who always says "I'll never leave New York!" the book has opened my mind to the possibilities of the wonderful places in our country to live. Not only factual information, the book gives you a taste of local color and entices the reader into thinking "this sounds like the kind of place I'd love to rasie my children." Bravo Lee and Sara Lee Rosenberg - your professionalism and dedication to your work shines through!

All aspects that might affect the happiness of a family are listed for each of the 50 locations. Great schools, medical care, neighbohoods, sports, family fun, economic outlook, climate, taxes, home prices, communitiy activities, etc. More importantly, author captured the differences in culture and overall feeling one might have while in each city/town. I was raised in Reston, Va. and read this book before relocating to Plano, TX (both towns listed in this book). Both are everything the author said they would be. To be closer to family, I am choosing the research triangle area of NC for our next home. As described in this book, I'm sure it will live up to my expectations.