These Are The Best Places For Young Families In Rhode Island

KINGSTON, RI — Finding a home for a growing family is never easy. From school districts to home prices, it can be hard to tell where is the best place to raise children, especially in a diverse and colorful state like Rhode Island, where each city, town and village is unique from the next.

According to a new ranking from Lending Tree, Kingston is the best place for young families in the state. The University of Rhode Island college town boasts high median income, low average commute time and high rate of home ownership in households with children.

To compile the ranking, Lending Tree compared several factors to determine a final, average score. Kingston, at the top of the list, scored 76.1, well above the runner-up, Westerly, which earned 58.1 points. The organization compared the following factors:

• Median family income
• Median monthly housing costs for all households
• Homeownership rate of families with children
• Unemployment rate of 25 to 44-year-olds
• 16 to 19-year-olds not enrolled or graduated from high school
• Average commute time

According to the data, the median household income in Kingston is $109,115, the highest on the list by a margin of approximately $5,000. Housing costs, however, are equally high, at an average monthly rate of $1,329 and second only to Greenville. It also had the shortest commute time of the enitre list, with the average resident driving just 18.8 minutes to get to work.

The rest of the top ten are as follows:

1. Kingston
2. Westerly
3. Cumberland Hill
4. Warwick
5. Greenville
6. Valley Falls (Cumberland)
7. Cranston
8. Newport
9. East Providence
10. Central Falls

Read the full report on Lending Tree's website.