Tuesday, July 14, 2009, 2:31pm CDT
Lake Saint Louis among ‘best places to live’
Lake Saint Louis, Mo., came in No. 9 in Money magazine’s list of the 100 best places to live, the only Missouri city to appear in the top 10. The publication released Monday its annual rankings of the top 100 places to live in the United States. The study, in the magazine’s August issue, takes into account factors such as unemployment, restaurants, student test scores and crime rates. It only examined cities with a population between 8,500 and 50,000. Lake Saint Louis, with a population of 13,900 according to the publication, was touted by Money for its recreation areas but cited for requiring membership in the Community Association to use some of the planned-town’s perks. The magazine also noted that Lake Saint Louis has a 7.6 percent unemployment rate, but is near General Motors and its pending layoffs. Ellisville (No. 25), Liberty (No. 29) and Jackson (No. 59) were the other Missouri cities making the top 100. In Metro East, Glen Carbon was ranked No. 91 this year. Nationwide, Louisville, Colo. was the top-ranked place to live in the survey. In 2008, the magazine examined cities with a population between 50,000 and 300,000. Last year, St. Peters ranked No. 60; O’Fallon, Mo., was No. 68; Lee’s Summit, 79; and St. Charles, 82. No Metro East cities made the 2008 top 100.