NeighborhoodScout
has issued a special report identifying Florida's 10 best towns for families
and children.
The report combines data from the National Center for Education Statistics,
the U. S. Bureau of Census, the FBI, the U. S. Justice Department and the Office
of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
Dr. Andrew Schiller, a specialist in American demographics and the creator of
the NeighborhoodScout search engine for home buyers, used NeighborhoodScout
to analyze government data to identify the communities in Florida that have
the best overall combination of attributes parents and researchers repeatedly
cite as important in defining the best places for families with children.
His work has produced a list of the top choice towns for families in Florida.
Here are NeighborhoodScout's top-choice towns for families with
children in the Sunshine State:
1. Windermere
2. Boca Raton
3. Winter Springs
4. Key Biscayne
5. Longwood
6. Orange Park
7. Fort Lauderdale (west of the Florida Turnpike)
8. Jupiter
9. Oviedo
10. Naples
These top towns range in price, setting and location, from the very expensive
to average price relative to Florida, from smaller suburban towns to densely
populated areas, and from the Jacksonville vicinity to south Florida. The panhandle
was included in the research, but no towns there made the elite list of top
10.
"We were looking for those very select communities that have both top-quality
public schools and an exceptionally family-friendly environment, not towns that
may excel at one or two criteria but are lacking in other ways." Schiller
said.
For this research, the criteria used included quality public schools, safety
from crime, a high proportion of families with children in the community, many
adults with college degrees or even advanced degrees, many families who own
their homes, and homes that are predominantly single-family residences, regardless
of the setting being urban, suburban or rural. Median house values were included
to find the family-friendly towns that qualify as best values for the money
in each metropolitan area.
"Home ownership is important because research has shown that it helps keep
crime lower, and represents an investment in the location by those living there,"
Schiller said. High educational attainment by adults in the community is a good
indicator that the populace places a high degree of importance on education,
and is well equipped to make key decisions about the future of the community.
Many families with children in the town signifies that other families have selected
the town as a good place to raise their children, and helps to promote a family-friendly
environment with good social networks for both children and their parents.