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By: Hellen Zaboulani
The third annual list of 50 Best Places to live for families, was recently released by Fortune Well, a subsidiary of Fortune Magazine.
The 2024 list included Morristown, New Jersey as one of the Top 10 places to live in the USA. The analysis weighed some 2,000 cities and towns throughout the country, judging the best places for families caring for both children and aging parents, with a strong job market and high rankings in “assets like health care, education, affordability, and resources for seniors”, per the report. The cities, towns and suburbs weighed in the analysis all had a minimum population of 20,000 residents, and the search was on for the best locations for multigenerational families to thrive. The #1 pick was Silver Springs, Maryland, followed by Upper Merion, Pennsylvania and in third place Chantilly, Virginia.
Morristown, NJ was the 9th pick. Per APP, the NJ town was selected as it has been growing steadily over the past dozen years, and residents can easily commute to New York City within an hour train ride. The town itself is far enough to evade the hustle and bustle of the city, but still close enough to pop in for a hybrid-remote work schedule or for special events. It has a modest population of close to 20,600 people as of 2023. It is notably one of the wealthiest towns in the Garden State, with median household income of over $180,000, and where the median sale price for single family homes is over $700,000, as of 2022. Morristown is part of Morris County, which boasts good job opportunities and a healthy economy. Over 800 corporate headquarters are housed in the town, in a myriad of industries including aerospace, financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals and agriculture, per the report.
The Morristown’s community well-being received 75 out of 100 and its financial well-being received 66 out of 100 from Sharecare data. Morristown High School has a 90% district graduate rate and ranks 112th within in the state. The town boasts 22 above-average nursing homes within 50 miles, per 100,000 households.
Other cities and towns listed as part of the top 10 included: Ann Arbor, Michigan (4th place), Mason, Ohio (5th), Franklin, Tennessee (6th), Lafayette, Colorado (7th), Overland Park, Kansas (8th) and Portsmouth, New Hampshire (10th). “The winners are communities that are sustainable for their youngest and oldest residents—including many fast-growing suburbs and edge cities that find creative ways to improve people’s well-being,” says the Fortune article. The East Coast and the North fared particularly well in the ranking, with less than a dozen spots from the West Coast making the Top 50 list.
Notably, New York’s North Hempstead was ranked #15 on the Fortune list. The article notes that North Hempstead boasts “the highest Sharecare community well-being ranking on the list, at 88 out of 100”. It also has “some of the best school districts in New York and has the highest number of recommended hospitals in the area (50) on the list”, per the report. Located in Nassau County, North Hempstead has a population of about 236,238 people, and boasts a median household income of $144,003, per Fortune.
“What people are looking for is that balance of, ‘I can afford to live here, so I don’t have to work all the time,” said Jon Jon Wesolowski, an urbanist and housing advocate.
