Mukilteo on Money Magazine's Top 100 Places to Live!
Mukilteo is number 69 on the Money Magazine "Top 100 Places to Live," one of only four Washington communities to be featured. Other Washington towns to make the top 100 are Silverdale on the Kitsap peninsula in 99th, Camas in the Portland/Vancouver area at number 63, and Sammamish on the Eastside, which came in at number 11.
So how does Mukilteo stack up against the rest of the Top 100?
Median family income is a little lower, with the average family earning $83,569 compared to $90,316 for other communities in the Top 100. Job growth in the area is higher at 15.83% versus 13.41% for the rest of the Top 100. Real estate is more expensive here, with the average home in Mukilteo being priced at $401,510 compared to an average of $359,352 for the rest of the Top 100. On the other hand, property taxes are lower, as is auto insurance. And while sales tax here is higher than other towns in the Top 100, there are no income taxes in Washington state, so our overall rate of taxation is well below the average for the Top 100.
As for schools, approximately 100% of students in Mukilteo attend public schools, compared to 91% for other towns in the Top 100. Test scores for reading are .7% lower than other towns in the Top 100, but math scores are 17% higher. This makes sense given our proximity to Boeing and other high-tech employers.
Mukilteo is also one of the more diverse communities in the Top 100. The average racial diversity index for the Top 100 is 59.2%, while Mukilteo scored 81.3%, with higher numbers indicating higher levels of racial diversity.
Click here to see how Mukilteo stacked up in all other areas considered by the Top 100.
2 comments:
Great post Sandy! I was so pleased to see that Mukilteo was recognized by Money Magazine, and I want to proclaim it from the rooftops =)
I wanted to expand on a comment you made about property taxes. Mukilteo homes are nearly $50,000 more than the average ($401,510 vs. $359,352 average) while the average tax bill is nearly 20% lower than average ($2,951 vs. $3,585 average). The profile also notes that Mukilteo has experienced strong job growth of 15.8% since 2000, over two percent higher than the 13.4% average of the top 100 communities.
I often hear that property taxes are very high, and indeed they are, because we have such high value real estate. The important thing to remember is that if you owned a similar property somewhere else, you would be paying more for the same services. We need to focus on apples to apples!
That being said, Vote Yes on Props 1 and 2! =)
That's exactly right Marko. And one of the things people living here in Washington often forget is that overall our tax burden is much lower than it would be in most other parts of the country because there is no income tax. Yet, local government still has to provide the same services.
Thanks for your comment!
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