Seven Shelby County cities among ‘2019 Best Places to Live in Alabama’

Published 5:27 pm Tuesday, June 11, 2019

By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

A national website recently released a list of the best places to live in the state of Alabama for 2019, and Shelby County was well represented with several cities earning high rankings.

Niche.com is a national website that helps people research U.S. colleges, schools, neighborhoods, companies and more while using rankings and analysis on large date sets to help provide insight.

Using a variety of methodology, Niche.com released the “2019 Best Places to Live in Alabama,” and seven cities in Shelby County made the top 25 list.

Several key factors used to provide the rankings included location, quality of local schools, crime rates, housing trends, employment statistics and access to amenities to measure the overall quality of an area.

In Shelby County, the website ranked Hoover as the 2019 best place to live coming in at No. 3, followed by Indian Springs at No. 6, Helena at No. 9, Pelham at No. 10, Calera at No. 14, Alabaster at No. 18 and Chelsea at No. 22.

The highest rated factors when calculating the best places to live included a 12.5 percent weight on cost of living and a 12.5 percent weight on higher education rate among others.

At No. 3, Hoover was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A+ and a grade of A+ for public schools.

At No. 6, Indian Springs was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A+ and a grade of A- for public schools.

At No. 9, Helena was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A and a grade of B+ for public schools.

At No. 10, Pelham was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A and a grade of A- for public schools.

At No. 14, Calera was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A and a grade of A- for public schools.

At No. 18, Alabaster was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A and a grade of A for public schools.

At No. 22, Chelsea was awarded an overall Niche grade of an A- and a grade of A- for public schools.

Overall, Madison came in as the No. 1 2019 best place to live in Alabama.

To view the full list and see more of the “2019 Best Places to Live in Alabama” rankings, visit Niche.com/places-to-live/search/best-places-to-live/s/alabama/.