Finding a good area to raise children is important for any young family.
Parents want good schools, safety and affordable housing, among other things.
That's why, according to Apartment List, Atlanta is one of the worst places in the country for young families.
The online rental marketplace scored nearly 300 cities in the categories of safety, housing cost, child friendliness and school quality, then "weighted these factors ... , and used this index to assign grades and rankings."
Apartment List weighted the categories as follows:
- Safety (35 percent): FBI data used to rank cities by the number of violent crimes and property crimes per 100,000 residents. It's unclear how recent any of the data is, however.
«These are the safest cities in Georgia»
- Housing cost (30 percent): Census data used to calculate the percentage of the median renter income required to rent a 2-bedroom apartment.
- School quality (25 percent): Cities were ranked on high school graduation rate for public school districts based in that city.
- Child friendliness (10 percent): Census data used to score cities based on the percentage of the population under 18.
Of the 274 cities on the list, Atlanta ranks 269 and earns a grade of F.
The only cities to score lower were Columbia, S.C.; Detroit, Mich.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cleveland, Ohio; and St. Louis.
So, where does Apartment List think young families should live? Apparently, in Texas.
Of the top 10 cities in the rankings, five are in Texas: No. 1 Allen, No. 4 Frisco, No. 6 McKinney, No. 8 Flower Mound and No. 10 Pearland.
And the worst, according to Apartment List? St. Louis earns that title.
