Ellicott City Named One Of The Best Places To Live In The USA

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — Money magazine has released its annual list of the 100 best places to live in the United States, and Ellicott City has earned a spot.

Ellicott City was ranked 63rd best place to live in the country. It was one of just two Maryland towns to make the list. The other was Rockville, a suburb that came in at No. 39.

Money releases its “best places to live” list annually, but it rotates the types of communities that are on it; the magazine ranks large cities during even-numbered years and small towns in odd-numbered years. In 2016, Columbia topped the list among best places to live as far as American cities.

Ellicott City has a population of 71,603, while Columbia has more than 102,000 residents.

Columbia Is Best Place To Live In America For 2016: Money

"For this year’s Best Places to Live list, we chose to focus on towns with a population of 10,000 to 100,000, to avoid the biggest cities while shining a light on smaller towns and affordable suburbs," Money's 2017 report states. "From that starting point, Money sifted through data at a granular level. We examined dozens of different variables that speak to the good life, including growing jobs, quality schools, cultural and recreational resources, and affordable homes. To help hone our search, Money teamed up with realtor.com to leverage its knowledge of housing markets throughout the country."

Money eliminated any place that had more than double the national crime risk, less than 85 percent of its state’s median household income or a lack of ethnic diversity. "This gave us 2,400 places," the magazine said.

See the list of best places to live from MONEY.

Fishers, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, ranked first place in this year’s list, while runners up include Allen, Texas; Monterey Park, California; Franklin, Tennessee; and Olive Branch, Mississippi.

While this is Money’s 30th annual ranking, it’s the first time the magazine has worked with realtor.com to create the list, using even more data and insights to determine the best living places.

“These are [small] cities and towns that have a really strong community life," says realtor.com's chief economist, Danielle Hale. "When you’re buying a home, you’re not just buying the kitchen and master bathroom. You’re buying the community.”

Do you think Ellicott City is one of the best places to live? Tell us in the comments!

This isn't the first time Ellicott City has made Money's list — Columbia and Ellicott City as a unit were ranked No. 6 in 2014, No. 8 in 2012, No. 2 in 2010; No. 8 in 2008; and No. 4 in 2006.

This article includes reporting from Patch editors Dan Taylor and Deb Belt.

File photo.