City of Rio Rancho

For Immediate Release

November 18, 2009

Rio Rancho Named as the State's Best Place to Raise Kids for a Second Year in a Row

RIO RANCHO, N.M. - Rio Rancho has been named by Business Week magazine as New Mexico's best place to raise kids in 2010. Rio Rancho earned this same distinction for 2009.

"More and more young families with children are calling Rio Rancho home, and this is testament to our tremendous public school system and public safety departments," said Mayor of Rio Rancho Tom Swisstack. "This ranking is evidence that Rio Rancho's commitment to quality of life projects and initiatives is getting noticed and on the right track."

For Business Week's annual list of best places to raise kids, they teamed with OnBoard Informatics, a New York-based real estate analysis provider, to select a community from every state. Communities with at least 45,000 residents and a median family income between $40,000 and $125,000 were used as a starting point.

From this starting point, the list was narrowed using weighted criteria such as school performance, number of schools, household expenditures, crime rates, air quality, job growth, family income, museums, parks, theaters, diversity, and other amenities. Affordability, safety and school performance were weighted the most heavily when assessing a community.

To view the entire list, visit Business Week's Web site, http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/11/1117_best_places_to_raise_kids/index.htm.