Morrisville, Cary Named State’s Best Suburbs
Cary, NC – Both Cary and Morrisville have been lauded for recent economic growth but part of that development comes down to who wants to live here. And a recent study shows that these are the top two best suburbs in the state to live.
High Grades
In a study by Niche, Morrisville and Cary ranked as the number one and number two suburbs to live in North Carolina. The study took into account factors such as cost of living, education and public schools, real estate, crime rates, availability of jobs and more.
Different factors were given more weight in the study and among the most important – cost of living and education – Cary and Morrisville scored the same, both earning a B- for cost of living and an A+ for education.
But among two other highly weighted categories – real estate and diversity – Morrisville scored higher than Cary. For the study, real estate was defined as “the overall strength of an area’s real estate market by incorporating statistics that measure trends in housing prices, affordability, and homeownership rates” and diversity looked at “a location’s socioeconomic and demographic composition.”
However, on less heavily weighed categories, Cary scored higher than Morrisville. Cary had more family amenities and outdoor activities, as well as a better score for crime and safety and shorter commutes.
In the study, Morrisville was also ranked number 100 out of the top 100 suburbs in the United States, although it scored much higher in cost of living than the top five suburbs.
Similar Accolades
While this study by Niche has Cary ranked relatively low nationwide, a variety of studies last year put Cary near or at the top in a variety of important categories.
In terms of safety, for which the Niche safety gave Cary a B+, Cary stood out as the safest city in the United States according to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report as well as the top town for driver safety according to a NerdWallet study. This was also not the first year Cary ranked as the safest city.
The Niche study also gave Cary an A- for family amenities and a B for outdoor activities, although in October 2016, Cary’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources won the Gold Award. This is the top award for a parks department out of the entire country.
And to synthesize all of the praises Cary has gotten with economic development and the influx of new people, Cary was ranked as the number one “boomtown” nationwide. This ranking took into account unemployment rate, GDP growth rate, housing growth rate and net migration rate.
Story by staff reports. Photos by Hal Goodtree.
