Beaverton and Portland Make 2016 Money Magazine List of Best Places to Live

Money Magazine has released its annual list of Best Places to Live, with four California cities making the Top 50 list.

The coveted list is carefully compiled, with 60 factors analyzed, including taxes, education, jobs, home affordability and health care.

Topping the list this year is Columbia, Maryland, a planned community with home prices just over $300,000. Rounding out the top five are Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Plano, Texas; West Des Moines, Iowa and Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey.

From Oregon, Beaverton and Portland made the list.

Beaverton was ranked ninth. Money Magazine described it "a melting pot in Nike's backyard" as the reason they love it.

"It’s fitting that Nike, Beaverton’s most famous resident, took its name from a Greek goddess. One in five Beaverton residents was born outside the U.S., and nearly 100 languages are spoken in the public schools—which, incidentally, rank among the best in the state.

"But one of Beaverton’s prime selling points—value—translates easily into any language. The median home price is $320,000, up about 11% from the year before. Property taxes are about 85% of what you’d pay in Portland."

As for Portland, it made the magazine's list of best big cities, coming in as "Best in the West."

"Portland is the place where Portlandia seems more documentary than satire," according to the magazine. "Farm-to-table restaurants, stretched earlobe rings, craft-beer-swilling hipsters, and cries of “Bicycle right!” are common in this burgeoning Pacific Northwest city. But that quirky spirit, coupled with a vibrant tech culture, is precisely why people are moving here—or moving back."

See the complete Top 50 List here

Photo Colin Miner