Highland Heights Ranked 30th by CNNMoney's Best Places

was ranked 30th in CNNMoney's Best Places 2011 list of top small towns. Other Ohio cities that made the list were Solon (3rd), Mason (24th), Twinsburg (32nd) and Springboro (42nd).

CNNMoney's Best Place ranks small towns and small cities (populations of 50,000 to 300,000) on a rotating basis. On the last small towns list in 2009, Highland Heights ranked 18th. The only Ohio cited that was higher that year was Westerville at 15.

The list was created using statistics from Onboard Informatics and considering small towns with populations between 8,500 and 50,000. The survey then excluded towns that had median family incomes of more than 200 percent or less than 85 percent of the state median, those with poor education and crime scores and those with a populations that was more than 95 percent white.

Factors that supported Highland Heights included safety, income and job growth. Personal crime incidents per 1,000 residents was zero and property crime incidents per 1,000 residents was eight. A median family income of $106,675 – above the Best Places average of $99,975 - and job growth of 11.43 percent (1.38 percent was the Best Place average) were also stats favoring Highland Heights.