Cedar Park Among 'Best Cities For Families' In Study Of 500 Municipalities

CEDAR PARK, TX — Cedar Park is one of the top four Texas cities in the “2017 Best Cities for Families” list compiled by the apartment hunting site ApartmentList.com.

According to the site's reckoning, the city was ranked No. 6 on the list rating more than 500 cities throughout the U.S. Among the metrics examined to achieve the rankings were child friendliness, education quality, housing affordability and safety. Other Texas cities making the list were Flower Mound and Frisco, ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, and Pearland in the tenth slot.

Round Rock was rated 26th while Austin was way down the list at 209. But Austin did get some props: "Large cities tended to underperform on this measure, with 14 of nation’s 25 largest cities receiving education grades of C or lower," researchers wrote. "The best performing large cities were San Antonio, Austin, and San Diego, which all scored A- or better."

The study's authors also gave Texas in general a positive shout-out: “With a strong mix of safety, affordability, and good public schools, Texas has some of the best choices for families trying to decide where to settle.”

In terms of its methodology, the index was calculated based on a weighting of four factors of particular importance to families:

• Safety (35%): We used FBI data to rank cities by the total number of violent crimes and property crimes per 100,000 residents.

• Housing Affordability (30%): We used Census data on median gross rent as a percentage of household income as an indicator of housing affordability in each city. This measure takes into account not only how expensive rents are, but how well they are balanced with earnings.

• Education Quality (25%): Comparing schools across different states can be challenging due to differing education requirements. We have chosen to use data on high school graduation rates, collected by the Department of Education, as a proxy for overall school quality. Cities were ranked by the graduation rates of their respective public school districts.

• Child Friendliness (10%): Communities with a greater percentage of children tend to be more family friendly, so we used Census data to score cities based on the percentage of the population under age 18.

The family-friendliness index is calculated using the factor weights listed above, and cities are ranked and graded based on that overall score. To view the study, click here.

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