Best City In Michigan: Smart People Make This 'Burb Above Others

ROCHESTER HILLS, MI – In this city, life is good. You'll find lots of smart, college-educated people, a low crime rate, and home values going up. Editors at the financial news web site 24/7 Wall St have taken notice.

The web site picked one city in every state as the best place to live. In Michigan, that honor goes to Rochester Hills.

"One of the best indicators of quality of life is education," wrote the editors of 24/7. "High school students in Rochester Hills test better than students in any city in Michigan other than Troy and Ann Arbor, and 57.3 percent of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree — far more than the 31.3 percent of adults nationwide."

Rochester Hills has a median home value of $294,200 – an increase of $15,000 from 10 years ago and nearly $90,000 more than the U.S. median home value, the 24/7 editors note. Meanwhile, in Detroit, the editors say economic decline has crushed the value of a typical home from $91,700 in 2006 to $43,500 today.

Through its analysis, 24/7 Wall Street found that the majority of cities that made the list are home to a large share of college-educated adults than the share of college-educated adults nationwide (31.3 percent). Educated populations, 24/7 Wall Street writes, are more resilient to economic downturns.

Another trend noted by 24/7 Wall Street is that the violent crime rate for almost every city on the list is lower than the U.S. rate. The presence of cultural amenities and entertainment venues was another common factor for the cities.

"Rochester Hills is also largely free of the violent crime that plagues much of the Detroit metro area," 24/7 editors wrote. "There were 72 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents in 2016, a fraction of the national violent crime rate of 386 incidents reported per 100,000 Americans. "

To determine the best city to live in every state, 24/7 Wall Street considered the 550 cities with populations of 65,000 or more. If a state had no cities with a population of at least 65,000, all cities in the state with a population of 40,000 or more were considered.

Data was collected in nine categories:

1. Crime
2. Demography
3. Economy
4. Education
5. Environment
6. Health
7. Housing
8. Infrastructure
9. Leisure

24/7 Wall Street used data from Census Bureau’s 2016 American Community Service, the FBI’s 2016 Uniform Crime Report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and ATTOM Data Solutions. For each category, specific measures contributed to a city’s overall score.

See the full list from 24/7 Wall Street here.

File photo by PAUL SANCYA/Associated Press