Movoto.com Ranks Chester County #4 in Country

By Ryan Dosen

 

The real estate experts behind Movoto.com recently crunched some numbers and released their list of the “10 Best Counties in America.” Several factors were considered, all aimed directly or indirectly at the quality of each county’s real estate market. Of the 640 counties that published the necessary data, Chester County ranked among the best, just missing the podium and coming in at fourth overall.

Knowing that Chester County is being ranked in the top 1 percent of all counties in the country is fine and dandy, but we should examine the hard numbers and facts underscoring the impressive results.

 

Strong Across-the-Board

Movoto.com chose to measure counties by six metrics:

• Unemployment rate
• Median household income
• Median rent (higher rents implying greater desirability)
• Median home price (higher prices again implying greater desirability)
• Percent of families below the poverty line
• High school graduation rate

While Movoto’s rankings may not hit on many of the usual criteria for “best places” lists, such as natural beauty, work-life balance and history, the rankings are also not influenced by the subjective nature of many of other lists’ determining factors.

The cold, hard data says that Chester County is unique in that it ranks in the top 9 percent of all counties for each of the six metrics. It was this balance that helped Chester County soar in the ranking while others swooned.

 

Real Estate Highly Desirable in Chester County

Chester County ranked highly, but not astronomically high in both median rental and median home prices (50th and 56th overall, respectively). Some would argue that high rents and home prices are a bad thing. High prices may indeed be a bad thing for your bank account if you’re looking for a rental, but we’re not talking about your bank account. We are talking about where you would want to live.

Movoto says high asking prices for real estate simply indicate better places to live. Simple supply and demand. They stopped making land a long time ago. With supply relatively fixed, demand will drive prices up. The ranking looks at it from the flip side and says that higher prices imply greater demand, and that greater demand implies a better place to live. The logic might not be impenetrable, but it presents something worth considering.

 

Strong Income Levels and Low Poverty

Chester County ranked 12th in the country for both highest household income and lowest percentage of people below the poverty level. According to Census.gov, Chester County has a median household income (through 2012) of $86,184. This compares quite favorably to the entire state of Pennsylvania’s household income, which comes in at $52,267. Chester County also has just 6.5 percent of its population living below the poverty level; Pennsylvania more than doubles Chester County’s number, registering at 13.1 percent.

When deciding where you want to live, the opportunity to work and make good money will almost always be an important consideration. Fortunately for those of us already living in Chester County, we have positioned ourselves nicely for the opportunity for prosperity.

 

Chester County’s Real Estate Market

Reasons abound, both numerical and subjective, for why Chester County is one of the best places in which you could choose to take up residence. Higher home prices, higher household incomes, lower unemployment rates, higher high school graduation rates, top school districts, and close proximity to commercial hubs in Wilmington and Philadelphia are just some of the more definable reasons to feel good about owning real estate in Chester County.

Less definable yet highly important reasons runneth over as well. Declan, my 3-year-old son, loves Thomas the Tank Engine and he adores the Strasburg Rail Road and the Choo Choo Barn. Well, guess what? Thomas is coming. Again. He never stops coming. Wait. Are we still talking about the pluses for Chester County? I think so. And Strasburg is in Lancaster County anyway. And what was I saying before about impenetrable logic? I guess if this real estate team manager thing doesn’t work out, maybe I should contact Movoto.

 

— Ryan Dosen manages The Wayne Megill Real Estate Team of Keller Williams Brandywine Valley in West Chester. Contact Ryan for buyer or seller representation or for more perspective on the local and national real estate market by emailing rdosen@megillhomes.com or calling 610-399-0338. Please also visit The Wayne Megill Team blog at www.PAHomesAndRealEstate.com.