It comes as no surprise to residents in the Classic City, but Athens has once again made it to a "Best of" list. This time Athens is in the top 100 of 2018’s Best & Worst College Towns & Cities.
Analyst Jill Gonzalez is with the personal finance website WalletHub. She says they compared over 400 cities in several categories.
"We looked at factors including of course, academic. We're looking at the quality of higher education, earning potential for college graduates, also economic opportunities," said Gonzalez. "We looked at the social environment from students per capita to night life options, single persons, and gender balance. And then finally we looked at wallet friendliness. What do housing costs look like, the share of rental units available, the cost of tuition."
Athens came in at number 69 on the list. Gonzalez says there are some areas where Athens was particularly strong.
"So the cost of living is relatively low in Athens. That definitely helps. It has some of the cheapest housing costs in the country. The average monthly rent for a two bedroom apartment is around $780. So splitting that between two people is very affordable here. One of the most affordable cities we saw," said Gonzalez. "Also a high number of rental housing units, which means that a lot of competition there. Socially of course, it's hard to beat. There are a lot of night life options."
WalletHub compared cities in large, medium and small cities. Ann Arbor was ranked the best city overall, while Germantown Maryland was the worst at number 415 on the list.
For more information visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-college-cities-and-towns-in-america/8974/
