Real Estate Company Rates Framingham 4th Best Community in New England

A real estate blog (Movoto Real Estate Blog) determined the 10 best places to live in New England and Framingham tied for fourth place on the list with Brookline. Lexington took the top spot. Eighth of the top 10 spost went to Massachusetts communities, with the other two to Connecticut.

Movoto wrote in naming Framingham the fourth best community: “If you want a pretty place to call home, this town is definitely what you’re looking for. There are a ton of parks, some historic and elegant buildings, and the downtown is downright picturesque. There are also plenty of amenities, and the weather here scored quite well in our rankings.”

Movoto also wrote: “Other than that, Framingham had a lot going for it. The place was pretty safe, due to the ninth lowest crime, and the unemployment ranked the 10th lowest. Even the taxes here were quite low.”

Finally, Movoto wrote “Another great place for students, Framingham had a student-teacher ratio of 12 to 1, and was also home to Framingham State University. That student population also probably has something to do with the good nightlife in these parts, featuring places like Tavern Framingham and Railroad Six Sports Grill & Entertainment.”

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Do You agree with Movoto’s assessment of Framingham? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

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Movoto said it was determined to find out where those places were, and we turned to the power of mathematics to do it.

In order to create this List, Movoto said it turned to sources including the 2012 U.S. Census, business listings, and National Weather Service data.

To start, Movoto made a list of all the places in New England over 30,000 people in size. Any place that Movoto could not get data for was omitted from the list. That left Movoto with 79 places, and they researched those in seven important criteria:

• Amenities per capita
• Quality of life (cost of living, median home price, median rent, median household income, and student-to-teacher ratio)
• Total crimes
• Tax rates (sales tax and income tax)
• Unemployment
• Commute time
• Weather (temperature and air quality)

Movoto ranked each place in each of these criteria from one to 79, with scores closer to one being better. Movoto then averaged all of each place’s rankings into one score. The place with the lowest number for that score became the best spot in New England.

Click here to read the complete list.