JoelCarry

Forbes’ rankings are skewed toward counties with good school districts. Using research provided by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., we started with a list of the nation’s counties with populations over 65,000. To eliminate under-funded school districts, we isolated 97 counties where more than half of per-pupil spending comes from property taxes.

There are, of course, scores of other, more personal factors to consider: political atmosphere, religious climate, proximity to friends and family, and community personality, to name a few. But don’t forget the obvious ones.