Why, according to Apartment List, is Rio Rancho so much more family-friendly than Albuquerque? Find out why Rio Rancho, came in 37th out of 474 cities!
Which city is most family friendly — Albuquerque or Rio Rancho?
Albuquerque is home to some great hospitals, a growing food and beer scene and an emerging digital presence. But when it comes to family-friendliness, particularly for young families, where does the city stack up?
A new study released by Apartment List, ranked 474 U.S. cities for young family-friendliness. Both Albuquerque and Rio Rancho landed on the list, although at very opposite ends of the spectrum. Albuquerque fell in at No. 426, while Rio Rancho, a stone’s throw away, landed on the list at No. 37.
Apartment List, a national apartment locator company, took into account four main factors that it said are important to families. Those factors were: safety, weighted at 35 percent, housing cost, (30 percent) school quality, (25 percent) and child friendliness, (10 percent). Apartment List gathered information from the FBI, U.S. Census Bureau, and used high school graduation rates for the ranking.
Albuquerque received scores (the higher the number the better) of 6.8 for crime, 47.1 for child friendliness, 12.2 for education and 44.3 for housing cost. The city ended with a total score of 23.4 and a “D” letter grade. Rio Rancho received a score of 80.3 for crime, 80.4 for child friendliness, 57.8 for education and 92 for housing cost, or an “A-” grade.
Santa Fe and Las Cruces also made the list at 401 and 402, respectively.
Five of the top 10 best cities for young families were in Texas, with Allen, Texas, coming in first. St. Louis was named the worst city for young families.