The personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Cities Where People Have the Best Money Management Skills, with Chevy Chase, MD coming in ranked 3rd in the country. Not all areas included in the list are considered cities, with some of them being census designated places.
In order to determine where Americans are best at handling their finances, WalletHub compared more than 2,500 cities based on 10 key indicators of money-management skills. The data set ranges from the median credit score to the average number of late payments to the mortgage debt-to-income ratio.
Chevy Chase, which was ranked 3rd in the country, had a median credit score of 777, credit card debt to income ratio of 2.61%, mortgage debt to income ratio of 253.65%, car loan debt to income ratio of 9.32%, student loan debt to income ratio of 14.31%, and the average number of late payments was .74. Potomac, MD was ranked 18th overall and Bethesda, MD was ranked 19th.
A trend visible towards the top of this list shows that money management appears to be easier in places where many people have plenty of it, based on the average household income of most areas included at the top of the list.
| Cities with Best Money-Management Skills | Cities with Worst Money-Management Skills |
| 1. Cupertino, CA | 2508. Locust Grove, GA |
| 2. Palo Alto, CA | 2509. Covington, GA |
| 3. Chevy Chase, MD | 2510. Hampton, GA |
| 4. Los Altos, CA | 2511. Park Forest, IL |
| 5. Scarsdale, NY | 2512. Calumet City, IL |
| 6. Sunnyvale, CA | 2513. Fairburn, GA |
| 7. Lexington, MA | 2514. Tolleson, AZ |
| 8. Redmond, WA | 2515. Canton, MS |
| 9. Mountain View, CA | 2516. Dolton, IL |
| 10. McLean, VA | 2517. Ruston, LA |
The full report can be seen here.