Newcastle makes list of good places for families

Life with children is expensive, but in some places a dollar goes a lot further. Bloomberg BusinessWeek evaluated information provided by community data company OnBoard Informatics to determine the best affordable suburb in each state.

Newcastle made the list.

The focus of the list was on communities where families can live well for less and enjoy good schools, low crime and reasonable commutes. The selected suburbs were limited to towns within 25 miles of the most populated city in the state, with populations of 5,000 to 60,000, median family incomes of $51,000 to $120,000, and lower-than-average crime rates.

Factored in were livability (short commutes, low pollution, green space), education (well-educated residents, high test scores), crime (low personal and property crime), economy (high job growth, low unemployment rate, high family income), and affordability (median household income, cost of expenditures). Affordability was heavily weighted. Penalized were places with bad weather, a lack of racial diversity, high divorce rates and few children.

Newcastle scored with a population of 9,945, a median family income of $116,345 and a median home price of $554,700.

The city’s unemployment rate is 8.5 percent.