This Massachusetts city ranked among ‘Best Places to Live for Families’ by Fortune

Posted: Oct 16, 2022 / 06:00 AM EDT

Updated: Oct 17, 2022 / 08:35 AM EDT

BROOKLINE, Mass. (WWLP) – Families searching for the perfect place to settle down face a difficult task. Finding the city with the best school system, low crime rates, quality health care and community support can leave prospective homebuyers feeling flustered.

In a new report by Fortune, researchers scoured the nation to find the 25 Best Places to Live for Families, with one Massachusetts town making the list: Brookline (#16).

As part of the Boston metropolitan area in Norfolk County, Brookline offers residents an urban feel with thriving small businesses and grass-roots arts scene, Fortune said. The town has two branches of the MBTA’s Green Line for workers to commute into the capital city. The median sale price of single-family homes is $930,061.

Brookline

The study analyzed around 2,000 cities and towns across the U.S. and more than 215,000 data points across five categories:

Education
Aging resources
General wellness
Financial health
Livability

Researchers specifically focused on the needs of the “Sandwich Generation,” those who are saddled with “simultaneous responsibilities of raising their children while regularly caring for their own parents.”

Fortune estimates around 45% of Americans are a part of this generation today.

To ensure the winning places were cities where residents could afford to buy homes, Fortune eliminated locations with home sale prices that “were more than twice as high as the state median and/or more than 2.75 times higher than the national median.”

Diversity was also prioritized. The study eliminated any town where “more than 90% of the population is white, non-Hispanic.”

No more than two cities per state and no more than one city per county/metro area were also chosen.

The 25 Best Cities to Live in according to Fortune are: