Alexandria is "underrated," according to a new study from Commercial Cafe, a commercial real estate news website.
The company looked for cities "that offer a great quality of life, are smaller and are perhaps even a little more affordable...."
That last part — affordability — was a struggle for Alexandria. Home prices and the cost of living in Alexandria have both increased significantly in the past year. (See the latest Real Estate Market Scoop here.)
But other factors boosted Alexandria's overall score. "For this study, we only considered cities that have more than 100,000 residents, but less than 250,000. We also factored in attributes like earning potential, home prices, crime rates, local entertainment and whether the city itself was growing or not. The city got positive points for having a relatively low crime rate compared to some other, similarly-sized cities, very high earning potential and great local entertainment including a thriving restaurant scene.
Other cities in the top five on the list after Alexandria: Overland Park, Kansas; Bellevue, Washington; Fort Collins, Colorado; and Cary, North Carolina.
