Presentation
A "winter garden" in the Sunshine State? It's true - and it's where 54,371 residents of the Orlando metropolitan area call home.
But don't let the name confuse you: like the rest of Florida, Winter Garden has a warm subtropical climate and an average of 236 sunny days a year. And yet the weather is far from the only reason to live here.
The county has seen job growth of 28.2% in the last decade and Winter Garden has a thriving business community. The median household income is $76,269, almost $24,000 higher than the average reported for Florida in 2017.
Looking for something to do in your spare time? Historic Downtown Winter Garden is filled with restaurants, stores, cafés and two museums. Once a defunct cinema, the Garden Theatre has been revitalized by the Winter Garden Heritage Foundation into a performing arts venue that hosts plays, concerts and films. If you want even more entertainment, Walt Disney World and Universal Studios are less than 25 minutes away by car. - Olivia Raimonde
Winter Garden data
- Population - 54,371
- Average Family Income - $76,269
- Average Property Price - $310,402
- Projected Employment Growth - 10.1%
- Average travel time - 29 min
- Sunny Days per Year - 236
Methodology
To create the ranking of the best places to live, we analyzed [Money.com] only places with populations of 50,000 or more. Places with 300,000 or more people were divided into neighborhoods and, from there, we only considered neighborhoods with an estimated population between 5,000 and 200,000 people. We eliminated any place that has more than twice the national risk of crime, less than 85% of the state's median household income or lacks ethnic diversity. This gave us 1,796 places.
We then collected almost 160,000 different data points to narrow down the list. We considered data on the economic health of each location, cost of living, ethnic and economic diversity, public education, income, health and safety, ease of living and amenities, all provided by research partner Witlytic. We place greater importance on economic factors, housing, health and safety, diversity and cost of living. Quality of life, education and local amenities were also critical components.
Finally, the reporters researched each location, interviewing residents and looking for the kinds of intangible factors that aren't revealed by statistics. To ensure a geographically diverse set, we limited the list of best places to live to no more than four locations per state and one per municipality. States were represented only once every 25 places. Places that made the list last year [2028] were not included in this year's ranking.
The classifications were derived from more than 80 separate types of data, in the following categories:
Economy - based on the local unemployment rate, historical job growth, projected job growth and the level of job opportunities available, among other factors.
Cost of living - based on tax burden, insurance costs, commuting costs, medical expenses and income adjusted for the cost of living.
Diversity - based on racial composition, racial integration and economic diversity in a place's population.
Education - based on math and reading test results and high school completion rates at local and municipal level.
Housing - based on measures that indicate affordability, supply and distress, including average home sale price in 2018, number of homes sold in 2018, utility cost indices (water, electricity, etc.) and household cost of living, rate of properties in foreclosure, among other factors.
Health and safety - based on the number of hospitals and clinics, the number of mental health professionals, dentists, doctors and general practitioners, property risk and violent crime, and homicide and drug overdose rates.
Amenities - based on the number of leisure activities in and around the city, including bars, restaurants, museums, sports complexes and green spaces.
Ease of living - based on commuting times, climate and other factors.
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This post is our free translation of the original article published by Money.com, which you can check out at the link below.