East Grand Rapids One of Best Places to Raise Kids

We have been hearing quite a bit lately about this area of ours.  How it's one of the best in the country to raise a family; it's one of the up-and-coming areas for job growth;  etc.

Now, the web site Kiplinger.com has ranked East Grand Rapids fifth in a list of "10 Great Cities to Raise Your Kids."

Kiplinger says the public school is noted for “its high exam scores and focus on advanced classes.” The average family income is much higher than the national norm. And there are opportunities for family fun, both in town and around the area."

This all comes one month after Forbes named the entire Grand Rapids metropolitan area the Number 1 place to raise a family!

Kiplinger whittled the country down to 10 metro areas with low crime, lots of kids under age 18 and household incomes high in relation to cost of living – “not the cheapest places to live, but rather places where earnings potential is more than adequate to cover a family’s expenses.”

Kiplinger.com then targeted specific cities in each metro area based on education, including public spending per student and school performance, and “fun factors” such as the availability of public parks, playgrounds and libraries. Kiplinger “also looked at each city’s average income for families - as opposed to median income for all households - to give a realistic sense of how much it can cost a family to live in a place with so many kid-centric benefits.”

The finding: “Great schools are a big draw in East Grand Rapids.” And “Grand Rapids’ upscale neighbor isn’t a bad place to make a living, either.

Kiplinger.com ranked Omaha, Neb. first, followed by Richland, Wash., Suwanee, Ga. and Thousand Oaks, Calif. Rounding out the top 10 behind East Grand Rapids are Appleton, Wisc., Sunnyvale, Calif., Middletown, N.Y., Corona, Calif. and Stamford, Conn. Omaha also made the Forbes list, as did the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. metro area that includes Middletown.

Congrats EAST!