You wouldn't know it from looking at the thermometer lately, but Anchorage is hot.
The municipality has been named one of America's "hottest cities" as a desirable place to live by CNN Money Magazine.
Anchorage was ranked 13th in the Western region for populations over 100,000, joining eight California cities and others in Texas, Arizona and Colorado. Plano, Texas, was named the top "hottest city" in the West for those with populations over 100,000.
The city ranking order measured criteria such as the percentage of the population with a college education, percentage of working professionals, well-above-average income, and access to art and cultural resources.
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"Anchorage's ranking is just another acknowledgment of what a terrific city we live in," Larry Crawford, President & CEO of Anchorage Economic Development Corporation, wrote in a Jan. 5 press release. "It's a primary goal of ours to promote Anchorage's friendly business climate and unparalleled quality of life."
The study complements AEDC's marketing and public relations campaign, which was launched in April 2003, Crawford said. The campaign consists of aggressive media outreach to top tier news outlets and selected industry publications, as well as marketing visits with site selection consultants and corporate decision makers, in an effort to promote Anchorage as a place to live and conduct business.
"Residents of Anchorage already know we live in one of the most desirable cities in America," Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich said in the release. "It's encouraging to see national recognition that we have a thriving community and a quality of life considered to be one of the best in the country."
Begich said that when he traveled to the West Coast last year, he realized there is still a great misperception about Anchorage and Alaska.
"These types of surveys help us spread the word that Anchorage is truly one of the hottest towns in which to live," he said.
According to Money Magazine, the findings are based on statistics on 271 U.S. cities provided by OnBoard LLC, a real estate information company. The cities on the list had the highest median household incomes in the nation and above average population growth.
The list was then combined with lifestyle data provided by consulting firm Applied Geographic Solutions, which narrowed the list to 87 cities, within Eastern, Central and Western regions. The list was further broken down by population categories: Over 100,000, and under 100,000.
