Cottage Lake, Wash., is one of four Seattle suburbs to lead the Coldwell Banker Real Estate “Top Booming Suburbs in America” survey — the final installment of the Coldwell Banker® Best Places to Live series. The “Booming Suburbs” ranking rated 1,500 communities based on increased year-over-year levels in employment and unemployment percentages below the national norm, along with a range of attributes that include access to suburban staples (grocery stores, banks, etc.), proximity to good schools, commuting by car and community safety.
Cottage Lake, located approximately 21 miles northeast of downtown Seattle, was joined in the top five by Sammamish and Mercer Island, both within a 30-minute commute from the Emerald City. Prairieville, La., a suburb of Baton Rouge, and Jacksonville suburb Fruit Cove, Fla., rounded out the top five Booming Suburbs, based on methodology created by Coldwell Banker and its partner in the study, Onboard Informatics.
“As America continues to bounce back from the recession, this ranking identifies suburbs that have shown strong economic growth since the recovery,” says Budge Huskey, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “These communities have the American ideals we love, the suburban dream intact and a population that is finding jobs at a better rate than the national average. That is the definition of a thriving community.”