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BusinessWeek names Cornelius one of 'Best Affordable Suburbs'
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Published: March 6, 2009
The secret is out, Mayor Jeff Tarte says: Cornelius is one great place to live.
That's not just an official's braggadocio. BusinessWeek magazine has named Cornelius one of the country's 10 "Best Affordable Suburbs."
The magazine's editors weighed such factors as livability, which includes short commutes, low pollution and amount of green space. They looked at crime rates, job growth, median household income ($87,016 in Cornelius), median home price ($206,000 here), education levels and quality of schools.
They weighted "affordability" most heavily and penalized places with high divorce rates, lack of racial diversity, few children and bad weather.
Selected towns have populations of 5,000 to 60,000 (Cornelius has 17,290), median family incomes of $51,000 to $120,000 and lower-than-average crime rates, and they are within 25 miles of one of the nation's most populous cities.
Cornelius was ranked seventh in the nation and No. 1 in North Carolina.
"The fast-growing bedroom community, 30 miles north of Charlotte, has some beautiful homes on Lake Norman, North Carolina's largest lake," the magazine wrote. "About 31 percent of residents are married with children. The average commute is 31 minutes."
The Rev. Mike Bailey, senior minister at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Cornelius, said he has lived across the U.S. and overseas, "and I have to agree with those folks: This is the best place to live."
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