New Jersey in the top 10 of ‘hotspots’ in the U.S.

With a lot of long-time and native New Jersey residents fleeing every year to the Carolinas or Florida, it might surprise you that our state made the top ten list of states that are 'hotspots' in the country.

The website Visio Lending compiled the list using a range of contributing factors. High taxes, government overreach and cost of living were obviously not factored heavily into the equation.

The research used data gathered from various sources including the United States Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis to analyze factors such as household debt to income ratio, property crime rate, and unemployment rate.

In this survey, we came out in the top ten with a decent final score. Safety is an essential matter in our state, with the violent crime rate being just 200.33 per 100,000 people, giving the state a score of 8.96 out of 10.

Here is the list of the top 10:

#10 New Jersey — Final score: 55.87

#9 Utah — Final score: 56.60

#8 Minnesota — Final score: 57.66

#7 North Dakota — Final score: 57.95

#6 New York — Final score: 58.09

#5 Nebraska — Final score: 58.24

#4 South Dakota — Final score: 58.63

#3 Maryland — Final score: 59.28

#2 Wyoming — Final score: 59.50

#1 California — Final score: 60.35

States like Tennessee, Texas and Florida which are seeing a surge of people moving in from states like California, did not make the top ten list.

Although the state where people and businesses are fleeing high prices for housing and the cost of living, rising crime and businesses fleeing to other states, that being California made the top spot on the list.

Maryland, Nebraska, both Dakotas, Minnesota and even New York scored higher than us. But at least we made it into the top ten at the number 10 spot. So the next time you think of leaving our beloved Garden State, remember we are one of the top ten hotspots in the nation.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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