Geneva Named 7th Best Town in Western Suburbs

You have to love these rankings.

Geneva comes in seventh overall in West Suburban Living magazine's list of best places to live in the west suburbans. In a study of 63 towns, Hinsdale is No. 1, followed by Clarendon Hills and Glen Ellyn.

St Charles ranks 14th as "Top Towns in Which to Live," according to a comparison study in the May/June 2012 edition of West Suburban Living, and Batavia is 20th.

Just last year, Family Circle magazine named St. Charles No. 1 as the nation's best place to live for families. It was chosen by the magazine from a list of 2,500 towns with populations between 15,000 and 150,000 people.

The WSL study was based population/diversity, home values, education, library usage, public safety, location, parks and recreation, and several other subjective criteria. From the text, it sounds like "home value" was one of the most important criteria.

According to WSL's study, Geneva is great in a lot of categories. We're way high on the list of park acreage per person, at .033. We're not on the chart for highest home value—which could be good or bad, depending on your point of view. Hinsdale, for example, was tops at a staggering $916,874 average, while Geneva is at $291,566. So you can argue, we're getting a superb quality of life without have to spend nearly as much to live here.

Geneva also has high marks for schools, with a 24.1 ACT.

Where we didn't do so well was in the category that measures the rise or fall of property values. We're down 19 percent between 2005 and 2010. You wouldn't know that by my property tax bill. Homes tended to stay on the market 178, which is more than a lot of towns on tht WSL surveyed.

Our population shrunk by 8.2 percent, according to WSL, and we could do a little better at diversity. According to the chart, we have a 9 percent non-white population.

Our downtown did well in the WSL rankings, coming in third behind Naperville and Oak Park but ahead of Hinsdale and Glen Ellyn.

We all know that Geneva is the best place to live, of course. And I'm sure it will be just a matter of time before one of these rankings figures it out.

The Rankings

1. Hinsdale
2. Clarendon Hills
3. Glen Ellyn
4. Elmhurst
5. Naperville
6. Western Springs
7. Geneva
8. Wheaton
9. River Forest
10. LaGrange
11. Oak Brook
12. Wayne
13. Oak Park
14. St. Charles
15. Downers Grove
16. Riverside
17. Burr Ridge
18. Schaumburg
19. Lisle
20. Batavia

Best Downtowns

1. Naperville
2. Oak Park
3. Geneva
4. Hinsdale
5. Glen Ellyn