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I think the list used things like tax rates and costs of homes to factor into it's rating as well as school test scores, so I guess Camden may have done better on some of those than the other towns.
i'm sure that's true, but man. when it comes to camden, the criteria that boosted it up needs to have very little weight.
Yeah, as someone who grew up in Somerset county, seeing Somerville and Manville below Camden gave me a good laugh. If you truly believe in the accuracy of this list I've got a bridge to sell you (and then collect tolls on).
It really doesn't make much sense. So this town Manchester, right below Camden, has way lower crime rate, way higher test scores, lower tax rate than Camden. What is it about this town that ranks it so low? I am guessing access to hospitals and restaurants?
This is the NJ monthly explanation of methodology:
In compiling New Jersey Monthly’s 2013 Top 100 Towns list, researchers at Leflein Associates, an independent research firm based in Ringwood, considered five categories to represent the quality of life in New Jersey’s 566 municipalities: home values, property taxes, crime rate, school performance and a lifestyle factor (explained below).
Due to a lack of statistically significant data, towns with a population under 1,500 were dropped from the survey. The research team ranked each of the remaining 514 towns based on the following indicators: average residential tax bill (2012); change in average property tax bill (2010-2012); effective property tax rate for 2012; median home sales price (2012); change in median home sales price (2010-2012); total crime rate (2011) combined with a score for violent crime rate (2011); student proficiency on state-mandated standardized tests for students in grades 4, 8 and 11 (2012); and a lifestyle factor that considers the number of acute-care hospitals and live performing-arts theaters within 10 miles of the municipality’s main zip code, number of full-service restaurants within two miles of the municipality’s main zip code, and average commute time for those working away from home. The final rankings were based on each municipality’s combined rankings for 10 indicators across the five categories. Extra weighting was given to the following indicators: change in average tax bill; change in median home sales price; and results on standardized tests for students in grades 4 and 8.
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