Lacombe residents have a bit of a spring in their step this week, after Canada's leading personal finance magazine and website ranked our city as the fifth out of 415th, for best place to live in Canada in 2018.

Author of the article and Assistant Editor of Reports and Rankings at MoneySense Claire Brownell says out of the ten factors used to determine the rankings, Lacombe was in the top 25% for three of them: wealth and economy, affordability, and population growth.

“In the main ranking, we weigh wealth and economy and affordability equally, and they are the highest weighted categories, so each one of those is worth 20% of the total ranking. So basically we think that you want a balance, you want to live in a city that has low unemployment rates, high income, but you also want to live somewhere where you can take that high income and actually afford to buy a house with it.”

Using other categories such as population growth, access to health care, and weather, they painted a shiny picture of our city, boasting the fifth fastest improving unemployment rate and making the jump from 299th place on the same list last year.

Brownell says a change in how they determined population growth, as well as the recovering Alberta economy were big factors in Lacombe's massive rank increase.

“That economic recovery in Lacombe and in Red Deer as well is being felt particularly in that region. Your (Lacombe’s) unemployment rate is pretty low; it’s in the top 50 of the lowest. So you’ve got that balance that we are looking for of a good strong recovering economy, high average household income, but it’s still affordable to live in.”

Lacombe also has the 11th most affordable rent in the country out of the cities and towns surveyed.

Our biggest blemish on the list was our high crime rate, which according to Canada’s Crime Severity Index, is only getting worse.

For more information, you can click here to check out the entire list and how Lacombe ranked in each category.