West Hartford Ranked in Top 10 of Best Places to Live in New England

West Hartford was ranked as the ninth best place to live in New England by the Movoto Real Estate Blog.

To create the list, Movoto used sources including the 2012 U.S. Census, business listings, and National Weather Service data.

According to its website, Movoto got started by making a list of all the places in New England with more than 30,000 residents and omitted towns they couldn’t get data on. From there, Movoto researched and ranked the remaining 79 places on the following criteria: Amenities per capita, Quality of life (cost of living, median home price, median rent, median household income, and student-to-teacher ratio), Total crimes, Tax rates (sales tax and income tax), Unemployment, Commute time, and Weather (temperature and air quality).

Movoto ranked the cities and towns from 1 to 79 based on score, and the place with the lowest number for that score was noted as the best spot in New England.

Here is their Top 10 Places to Live in New England:

1. Town of Lexington, MA

2. City of Waltham, MA

3. City of Watertown, MA

4. Town of Framingham, MA (Tie)

4. Town of Brookline, MA (Tie)

6. City of Cambridge, MA

7. City of Stamford, CT

8. City of Woburn, MA

9. Town of West Hartford, CT

10. Marlborough, MA

Movoto wrote the following about West Hartford:

Coming in at No. 9 was West Hartford, a place that’s not at all new to top rankings. In fact, in 2010, CNN Money ranked West Hartford as the 55th best small city in America, which makes them a shoo-in for our best places in New England ranking.

Of course, we did everything by the numbers, and the numbers here had a lot to say about how great this place was. There were plenty of amenities per capita, a high quality of life, decently low crime, and decently low unemployment. This place also had the eighth lowest commute and the ninth best weather, thanks to some great average temperatures.

It’s also worth mentioning that the housing prices, cost of living, and median rent were generally lower here than other places in our top 10. Still, the median income here was a high $78,530, so this is likely one of the most affordable place in our top 10 for all you bargain hunters out there.

Read the complete report here.

(Pictured: Blue Back Square in West Hartford, image via Wikimedia Commons)