Today, RealtyTrac released its’ list of the “Top Housing Markets for Health and Wealth” with metro areas in the U.S. that scored the best in the health and wealth areas addressed by the report. The report examined lifestyle (including fast food restaurants per capita, adult activity rate and smoking rate), disease (including diabetes and obesity rate), environment (clean air days), economy (unemployment) and real estate (3 year appreciation rate). At the top of the list is Austin Texas with an 81 percent activity rate, 10 percent smoking rate, 5,8 percent unemployment and 27 percent real estate appreiciation in the past 3 years.
The complete list is below and St Louis did not make the list. Therefore, I have compiled similar data for St Louis to see how we stack up. In my research I examined the 5 top counties in the St Louis area (on the Missouri side of the river) to see how they compare with each other. As you can see in the table below, all 5 St Louis counties fall quite short of the top areas on RealtyTrac’s list in terms of health and wealth, particularly when we compare St Louis to Austin. Of the five counties examined, I would say St Charles County ranks best overall, being the only one with a positive appreciation rate on real estate, the lowest unemployment rate, lowest smoking rate (tied with St Louis County) and the 3rd lowest number of fast food restaurants per capita.
St Louis Area Counties “Health and Wealth”
Source: MORE, REALTORS
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