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Palm Coast lands on national ’50 best cities’ list published on USA Today website

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PALM COAST
TUESDAY, OCT. 17, 2017 2 days ago Palm Coast lands on national ’50 best cities’ list published on USA Today website
SHARE COMMENTS 1 The city also made it onto a time.com/money list of the ‘7 best places to retire.’
by: Jonathan Simmons News Editor

Is Palm Coast one of the nation’s 50 most livable cities and one of its seven best places to retire? The creators of a top 50 “best cities to live in” list published on usatoday.com and a “7 Best Places to Retire” list published on time.com/money believe so.

Palm Coast was listed as No. 39 on the most livable cities list published on usatoday.com Oct. 13. The list was compiled by USA Today partner 24/7 Wall Street, which analyzed a list of approximately 590 cities that were listed in U.S. Census Bureau records as having populations of more than 65,000 in 2016.

On the time.com list of best places to retire, published Oct. 16, Palm Coast was listed as “best for water-lovers.”

“It demonstrates why we make continual investments in our quality of life to improve opportunities and offerings for our residents to enjoy Palm Coast each and every day,” Palm Coast Mayor Milissa Holland said after an Oct. 17 City Council meeting. “I’m very proud of being recognized as one of the top cities, and we’re going to continue to follow through on our vision that we established many years ago, and keep up the momentum.”

The 24/7 Wall Street profile of Palm Coast cited the city’s low poverty rate, low cost of housing and low crime rate as reasons for its inclusion.

“Though incomes are lower on average in Palm Coast, a large share of the population appears to live relatively comfortably as comparatively few residents face serious financial hardship,” the 24/7 Wall Street profile states. “Only 11.7% of Palm Coast residents live in poverty, below the statewide and nationwide poverty rates of 14.7% and 14.0%, respectively.” (See the rest on the website of USA Today, HERE, or on 24/7 Wall Street’s website, HERE.)

Palm Coast was one of three cities in Florida to make the top 50 list. The other two were Weston and The Villages. The No. 1 city on the list is Carmel, Indiana.

A city’s overall ranking on the top 50 was based on ratings in nine categories: economy, crime, education, demography, environment, housing, leisure, health and infrastructure, according to 24/7 Wall Street’s explanation of its methodology. Those were compiled with numeric data such as housing prices, pulled from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report and area schools’ standardized test scores.

Palm Coast’s profile on the list of seven best places to retire also mentions the city’s low housing cost, but focuses on its amenities.

“Located on the Sunshine State’s east coast between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach, Palm Coast delivers everything water-seeking retirees could want,” the time.com/money story states. The profile goes on to mention the city’s fresh and saltwater canal network, proximity to the Intracoastal, and boating and fishing opportunities.

The time.com/money story’s rankings used calculations from 70 forms of data in categories ranging from weather to crime to housing cost, plus data from reporters who researched locations and interviewed residents.