Alexandria Named One of 'America's 50 Best Cities to Live'

PHOTO: The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will move its headquarters in 2017 to the Victory Center in Alexandria. Photo courtesy of Alexandria Economic Development Partnership.

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A new study out Thursday names Alexandria as one of “America’s 50 Best Cities to Live.” The only other locality in the DC metro area on the list was Gaithersburg, Md.

The study was conducted by 24/7 Wall St., LLC, a Delaware corporation which runs a financial news and opinion company.

To determine America’s best cities to live in, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on the 550 U.S. cities with populations of 65,000 or more as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau. Based on a range of variables, including crime rates, employment growth, access to restaurants and attractions, educational attainment, and housing affordability, 24/7 Wall St. identified America’s 50 Best Cities to Live.

Alexandria comes in on the top 50 list at #28. Alexandria’s housing costs made it the least affordable city on the list.

Here’s what the folks at 24/7 had to say about Alexandria:

• Population: 150,575
• Median home value: $520,300
• Poverty rate: 9.8%
• Percent with at least a bachelor’s degree: 62.8%
• Amenities per 100,000 residents: 257.7

“Alexandria is one of two high-income suburbs in the Washington D.C. metro area that are among America’s best places to live. The typical household in Alexandria makes $86,809 annually, over $30,000 more than the national median income. While income is certainly high, real estate prices are higher. A typical U.S. home costs about 3.4 times more than the national median household income. In Alexandria, the typical home costs $520,300, or six times higher than the area’s median household income — making it the least affordable city on this list.

The city’s proximity to the nation’s capital — about eight miles — shapes its workforce . The U.S. Department of Commerce, headquartered in D.C., is one of Alexandria’s largest employers. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is also one of the area’s largest employers, and nearly one-fourth of workers commute using public transit. The southeastern city is highly educated. Almost 63% of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, more than double the country’s comparable educational attainment rate.”

Here’s how Alexandria scored in several categories, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

Overall Scores

• Economy: 96.4
• Crime: 99.4
• Education: 49.1
• Housing: 95.4
• Environment: 73.5
• Leisure: 38.8
• Infrastructure: 34.0
• Health: 62.9

#1 on the list was Meridian, Idaho.