One of the top 25 places to live in the entire country is located here in the Shawnee Mission area, according to Money magazine.
The publication released its annual “Best Places to Live in America” list this month, and the city of Shawnee came in at number 25.
Calling the town a “quaint family-friendly suburb,” the magazine gave Shawnee high marks for home prices as well as access to recreation. Shawnee Mission Park’s outdoor amenities as well as the proximity to Kansas City, Mo., give residents plenty of opportunities for recreation, says Money.
The only other metro area municipality to crack the top 100 was Blue Springs, Mo, which came in at 96.
To be considered for the rankings, cities had to have populations of greater than 50,000. The rankers eliminated cities that had relatively high crime rates, high poverty and low ethnic diversity from consideration. They used a variety of factors including the job market, cost of living, local schools and housing affordability to rank the nearly 1,800 places that met the minimum criteria.
The magazine’s rankings do show considerable variability from year to year. Overland Park, which came in at number 15 last year, didn’t make the top 100 this year. And Lee’s Summit, Mo., which was 41st in 2018 was absent from this year’s list as well.
