Cedar Park, Leander Named on 'Best & Worst Small Cities' List

Cedar Park & Leander have been named two of the best small cities in America by the personal finance website WalletHub.

In order to make their list, WalletHub graded cities with populations ranging from 25,000 to 100,000 on affordability, economic health, education and health and quality of life. WalletHub evaluated the cities using a data set of 22 key metrics that ranged from housing costs to school-system quality to the number of restaurants per capita.

Small cities are experiencing a growth rate that is more than twice that of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and roughly 10 percent faster than the national rate since 2000, according to WalletHub.

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Out of 1,268 cities included in the study, Cedar Park and Leander placed at Nos. 119 and 289.

Both Cedar Park and Leander scored high marks for affordability and economic health, but didn’t do as well in education and health or quality of life rankings.

Cedar Park — Overall Score: 51.07/100

• Affordability rank: 192
• Economic health rank: 93
• Education and health rank: 373
• Quality of life rank: 497

Leander — Overall Score: 48.4/100

• Affordability rank: 91
• Economic health rank: 59
• Education and health rank: 811
• Quality of life rank: 887

Many other Texas cities placed on the list — Southlake was the highest rated at 6 and Port Arthur the worst at 1,183.