Sunday, February 28, 2010

NJ Monthly Ranks Teterboro Best Place to Live in 2010?

NJ Monthly has compiled the list of the best places to live around the state for the past couple of years, and they've announced that Teterboro is the best place to live in Bergen County. (HT: Mrs. Lawhawk)

Teterboro?

Teterboro with a population of 18?! 18 residents. Nearly all of the boro is comprised of Teterboro Airport and the pretty much the rest is made up of businesses related to the airport operations.

Blink and you miss it as you drive up Route 17 from East Rutherford. Teterboro is best known for the airport.

Much more well known locations like Ridgewood, Wyckoff, Paramus, Tenafly and Alpine didn't get ranked nearly as well.

The methodologies leave one's head scratching because by the measures, places like Paramus should be much higher than they were.
The research team selected a prototypical indicator corresponding, respectively, to each of these eight categories: population growth rate since the last census (2008); three-year change in median home prices (2009); median property tax bill (2009) combined with the change in median taxes over the past two years; percentage of land preserved as open space (2009); unemployment rate (2008); total crime rate (2008); student proficiency on state-mandated standardized tests for students in grades 4, 8, and 11 (2008); and number of acute-care hospitals within ten miles.

To level the playing field, household income was not considered, and home values were measured by the rate of increase or decrease over three years rather than by current prices. To compare land development, towns with relatively slower growth and more open space were rated more favorably. Towns with lower unemployment and crime rates also scored higher, as did those close to more hospitals.

A statistical standardization technique was used to rank all 566 municipalities according to the eight indicators; an average of the eight numerical values for each municipality determined its final rank.
Bedminster Township was ranked tops overall in the state. That makes quite a bit of sense given that it is one of the most affluent districts, has good schools and yet Teterboro is tops in Bergen County (and indeed all of northern New Jersey).

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