Park City Wins Outside Magazine's 2013 Best Town In America to Live

"Best Town Ever" According to Outside Magazine readers who voted for the Best Town in America to Live for 2013. Park City appears on the cover of the magazine, showcasing a mountain biker on the Lost Prospector trail overlooking Old Town Park City. The cover says: "America's Best Towns. 18 Perfect Places to Live".

To find the winner they started with the American College of Sports Medicine's annual list of the country's 50 healthiest cities, then added a few small and mid-sized towns that the metro-centric pool had overlooked. Next they went to the experts, the true experts. They called on runners, bikers, surfers and climbers to help narrow the finalists to the top ten list where it's easy to eat healthy, find work, quickly access great trails, beaches and mountains. It was up to a three week vote on facebook to decide the winner, which was confirmed by the editors after taking a three day trip to experience Park City for themselves - lucky!

It's no wonder why Park City won this prestigous title, at least no wonder to us locals who are lucky enough to call Park City home. As stated in the page of Outside Magazine below, the goal was to find America's "best place to be healthy". They were looking for a town with ample trailheads, nearby adventure, great farmer's markets, and a competitive gear-shop scene. Readers of Outside Magazine cast over 21,000 votes and raved about their favorite towns giving Park City, Utah the top honors.

According to the article, much of what the editors really noticed was the friendly people, laid-back atmosphere, and charismatic historic ski town feel. They stated is was like dropping a Colorado ski town into Utah's Wasatch with one major difference: Park City has an major city Salt Lake and an international airport 30 minutes away. The convenience of a lareg metropolitan city and airport so close by makes it very doable to actually live in a ski town. Abundant work and travel is only a short, easy drive down.

The article was more about "living" in Park City not just "visiting" Park City. They did mention that it can be expensive here which it can be. The article stated that the median price of a home is $765,000, about 60% more than the national average. True Park City is becoming more expensive to purchase a home, but there are still options in town to be under $500,000 like in Trailside Park, or Kimball Junction. To live in a place as wonderful as this, you must make some sacrifices. Here you will spend more on a home, or buy a less extravagant home for the same money as what you might spend in say, Schaumburg, Illinois. But unlike Schaumburg, you will have an abundance of outdoor activities out your door and ideal weather. This will increase your family's quality of life like you would never have imagined. More expensive? - yes. Worth it? - for sure. To stretch your dollar even further, the Heber Valley has many great options in a much more affordable price range. In the charming small town of Heber you can still find homes in the $200,000 - $300,000 range.

There are so many things that make this such a wonderful town to call home. We have epic winters, and enjoy the choice of three ski resorts right here in town. In summer the weather is beautful and there may even be more to do in what used to be the "off-season". We could go on for hours listing all the great reasons to make Park City your home, as the article mentioned many great apsects but skipped over our amazing public schools, abundant open space, cross-country skiing, and many others. I guess the entire magazine could not be just about Park City, they did need to write about the runner-up towns too.

There really is no equal, Park City is the "Best Town Ever!"