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Money Magazine is out with its 2010 list of best place to live. For 2010, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, a town of 64,000 that in the Minneapolis area, was named best place to live for small cities. Second and third place went to Columbia City/Ellicott City, Maryland, and Newton, Massachusetts respectively.

Rounding out the top ten list in chronological order were Bellevue, Washington, McKinney, Texas, Fort Collins, Colorado, Overland Park, Kansas, Fishers, Indiana, Ames, Iowa, and Rogers, Arkansas.

Money defines small cities as having populations between 50,000 and 300,00. There are few surprises on the list. In fact, four of the top ten cities on this year’s list, Fishers, Overland Park, Columbia/Ellicott City, and Fort Collins were also on their same top ten list from 2008.

Money’s criteria for making the list is based on factors such as jobs, schools, health care facilities, low crime rates, parks, outdoor and cultural activities. Their list tends to favor predominantly more affluent white suburban areas. Connecticut, Minnesota, and New York led the Top 100 list with five cities each.

The southeast and lightly populated states did not fare as well on the list. States that had no cities on the list included: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. However, Hawaii has no cities with a population between 50,000 and 300,000 and several other of the above states had only one city in the population range.

If you are looking to move to any of these cities or states, please click on our home page to get more information on moving rates and get a free moving quote now!