Money Magazine and CNNMoney.com have rated Cherry Hill in the top 50 'Best Places to Live' in the country.

Mayor Bernie Platt has been telling residents for years that they “couldn’t pick a better place” and that statement received national support by the two renowned media outlets today.

“It’s an honor and a privilege just to be named to the list of places by Money Magazine and CNNMoney.com,” Platt said after he reviewed the list. “This ranking is a testament to all of our residents and businesses. I’m proud to represent this extraordinary municipality and happy it’s getting the national attention it deserves.”

Starting with an initial list of 745 places with populations above 50,000, Money’s team of editors and writers undertook several months of research, reviewing data on a wide range of economic and quality-of-life indicators. Working with data provider Onboard of New York City and consultant Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net, Money’s team narrowed the list and then visited cities across the country, interviewing residents, community leaders and local officials before compiling the final rankings.

Craig Matters, executive editor of Money magazine, said the assessment process was painstaking and a myriad of factors were used to determine the best place to live.

“This year we set out to find small livable cities that had the best possible blend of good jobs, low crime, quality schools, plenty of open space, rational home prices and lots to do,” Matters said. “These places reflect the qualities that most Americans want when it comes to a place to live and raise a family – the opportunity for themselves and their children to prosper and a quality of life that lets them enjoy the fruits of their work.”

One of the most important individual statistics listed in the "Best Place to Live" in America for 2006 is the safety ranking. Cherry Hill was listed in the top ten in lowest crime risk and came in 8th overall for safety.

“All of us at the Cherry Hill Police Department are honored to be selected by CNN-Money as one of their top ten safest places to live. An achievement of this magnitude is only possible by the cumulative effort and dedication of our men and women who serve and work with the members of our community,” stated Chief Charlie Jones. “The police department enjoys an excellent working relationship with our municipal leaders who work hand-in hand with us to provide the tools needed to accomplish our mission. The relationships with our community partners have enabled the police department to bring more programs to the community and enhance our delivery of critical services with state of the art equipment. As always we will continue to strive to provide the very best in police services to our residents and visitors.”

Besides crime several other factors were used to breakdown the top 100 towns. This included economic opportunity, taking into account income, job growth and affordability; quality-of-life indicators, including risk of violent crime and property crime, quality of public schools, arts and leisure, park space and incidence of stress-related ailments; along with “ease of living” gauges such as commute times, divorce rates, population density and weather.

Mayor Platt said the quality of life assessments used by the world wide financial news Web site and the highly read finance magazine are the hallmark of Cherry Hill.

“Money took into account a lot of the things that make this Township a great place to live, including open space, economic development and crime risk,” Platt said. “These are issues that I pride my administration on improving, and in my eyes, Cherry Hill is the number one place to live in the country.”

The 'Best Place to Live' rankings are currently available at www.CNNMoney.com and will hit newsstands July 24 in the August issue of Money magazine.