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I am just curious if there is any single statistic out there (other than crime rate) that sort of reveals how desirable, safe and clean a place is. The best one that I could think of is median household income. It's actually very telling of the overall economic condition and quality of the community. However, I think it's flawed.
For example, if we compare a somewhat gritty city such as Norwalk, CT to a pretty nice city such as Plantation, FL, we get unexpected results. The median household income of Norwalk is about $75K. In Plantation, it is about $66K. But I have been to both cities, and honestly, Plantation seems much cleaner, safer and nicer. Norwalk seems to be somewhat run-down and gritty in many areas, yet the income levels are higher.
Property value statistics are meaningless, too. For example, Bridgeport, CT has median home values of about $250K, but it's a major crap-hole. And then, numerous nice towns in Florida or other areas of CT have median home values of like $150K or $200K and they are much nicer.
I agree that median household income is a good way to tell (I also agree that it's flawed in that sense you mentioned and maybe more), but no I don't think there's a better method. It's safe to assume that wealthier places (especially if they're suburban towns near a major city) will be cleaner and nicer than, say, a bigger city, but may not always be the case.
It also depends on the make up of the community and the overall COL. Norwalk is more like a stand alone city versus Plantation, which is standard suburbia. So, even the comparison may not be of similar communities.
Yes. It is a scale based on how much I like a place. Where I use actual statistics, they are weighted according to how important I think they are in my lifestyle. Just ask me if a place is nice or not, and I'll tell you.
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