Community Corner

You won't guess what town came out No. 1 on new "Best Places To Live" List for Florida.

Niche.com released the 2022 rankings of "Best Places to Live in Florida." Where does your town or neighborhood fall on the list?

FLORIDA — Lifestyle website Niche.com regularly focuses on top school districts and most liveable towns, and has just published its 2022 ratings for Florida municipalities.

The top community led the list a year ago, and the top 25 towns and neighborhoods are drawn from the suburbs of Tampa and Orlando.

Niche.com uses data from dozens of public sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, FBI's Uniformed Crime Report, and Census Bureau's American Community Survey, to compile a comprehensive assessment of the overall livability of an area.

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Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Environment Atlas and other sources, as well as thousands of resident reviews, are also used to compile Niche's data.

Here are the website's top 25 Best Places to Live in Florida in 2022:

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  1. Hyde Park - Spanishtown Creek
  2. Harbour Island
  3. Park Lake/Highland
  4. Historic Hyde Park
  5. Downtown Orlando
  6. Uptown Orlando
  7. Palma Ceia West
  8. Thornton Park
  9. Courier City/Oscawana
  10. Carver City/Lincoln Gardens
  11. Audubon Park
  12. Davis Islands
  13. Delaney Park
  14. Rowena Gardens
  15. Lake Davis/Greenwood
  16. Beach Park
  17. Culbreath
  18. Palma Ceia
  19. Bayshore Gardens
  20. Hyde Park
  21. Lawsona/Fern Creek
  22. Virginia Park
  23. Channel District
  24. Colonialtown North
  25. Coytown

Niche graded all the top 25 towns with an "A+," but individual category ratings varied.

Rankings are based on a number of factors, including the cost of living, higher education, housing, public schools, diversity, and nightlife. Each community is then assigned a grade, on an A+-to-D- scale.

The most heavily weighted categories were cost of living and the percentage of residents who have received a bachelor's degree or higher.

Niche based its housing grade on home values, property taxes, housing costs, local schools, and other factors. It accounted for 10 percent of the overall score as did the public school grade, which was based on Niche's own rankings. A town's diversity weighed in as the next most important factor contributing to its final grade, above crime, family friendliness, residents' health, nightlife, walkability, outdoor activities and the job market.

The length of commute factored into the final score, but it was weighted the least.

See the full list here.

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