Top 10 Best Counties to Raise a Family

Low cost of living, reasonably priced homes, and short commute times helps add to excellent schools and is what landed 10 communities at the top of Forbes magazine’s best places to raise a family.

To be considered, the communities had to have populations greater than 65,000 and most of the school funding had to come from property taxes. Average SAT and ACT scores must top 1,050 or 22, respectively. These factors reduced the number of counties under consideration to 51.

After that, the magazine considered cost of living, graduation rate, home prices, property tax rates as a percentage of median home prices, percentage of homes occupied by owners, per-capita income, air quality, crime rate and commute times.

Here are the results:

• Hamilton County, Ind. (near Indianapolis)
• Ozaukee County, Wis. (near Milwaukee)
• Johnson County, Kan. (near Kansas City)
• Geauga County, Ohio (near Cleveland)
• Delaware County, Ohio (near Columbus)
• Morris County, N.J. (northern N.J.)
• Hunterdon County, N.J. (central N.J.)
• Waukesha County, Wis. (near Milwaukee)
• Montgomery County, Pa. (near Philadelphia)
• Chester County, Pa. (near Wilmington, DE)

Source: Forbes, Zack O’Malley Greenburg (06/30/08)