College towns for grown-ups

Grand Oaks, Oxford, Miss.

College: University of Mississippi

Neighborhood's median home value: $120,986, according to NeighborhoodScout.com, a neighborhood-comparison website.

Peace and quiet: Grand Oaks, about two miles southwest of downtown, has a "crime index" of 99, according to NeighborhoodScout.com, meaning it is safer than 99% of other U.S. neighborhoods. For every 10,000 Oxford residents, 448 were victims of "known offenses" reported to law enforcement, the FBI says.

Charming, quaint and distinctively Dixie, Oxford was described in a New York Times headline as "a college town where the streets are paved in magnolia," and it has landed on "best small towns" lists. About 17,000 people live in town, where writer William Faulkner resided for nearly 60 years, making it the smallest community on this list.

Grand Oaks, a golf-course community, has been a popular draw for retirees, the Oxford Chamber of Commerce says. It boasts a range of housing and pricing options, from condos to ranch-style homes with fairway views and more.

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Burns Park, Ann Arbor, Mich.

College: University of Michigan

Median home value: $501,907

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 Ann Arbor residents, 555 were crime victims, the FBI says. Burns Park, southeast of downtown, is safer than 87% of other U.S. neighborhoods, NeighborhoodScout.com says. This slice of Ann Arbor ranks below the national average in six of nine crime categories tracked by RelocationEssentials.com, a moving-assistance website, including aggravated assault and burglary.

A hub of highly educated residents — scoring 10 out of a possible 10 on NeighborhoodScout.com's education-level scale —Burns Park features tree-lined streets and historic homes that date back to the 1920s.

Within walking distance of the UM campus, Burns Park is one of the city's "most desirable neighborhoods," according to the Ann Arbor Observer's Arborweb.com site. Just northeast of the area's namesake park and elementary school is an area of gentle, shady slopes known as Ives Woods, which has one of the loftiest median household incomes in town.

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Dogwood Acres, Chapel Hill, N.C.

College: University of North Carolina

Median home value: $400,190

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 Chapel Hill residents, 639 were crime victims, the FBI says. In the part of town that contains Dogwood Acres, the rates of all nine types of crimes tracked by RelocationEssentials.com are below the national average, with aggravated assault and burglary ranking particularly low.

South of downtown Chapel Hill, Dogwood Acres is laced with single-family homes that typically have three or four bedrooms and were built between 1970 and 1994. The residents are highly educated, "mostly urban sophisticates," and the area is described as "artsy/funky," NeighborhoodScout.com says. Most homeowners are professionals. Dogwoods, one of the most prevalent trees in the state, inspired the name of the family-heavy neighborhood. 

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College Hill, Corvallis, Ore.

College: Oregon State University

Median home value: $260,212

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 people in Corvallis, 692 were crime victims, FBI stats show. In College Hill, which begins one block north of campus and stretches north about eight more blocks, rates for all nine types of crime tracked by RelocationEssentials.com are below the national average. What's more, Corvallis is the safest place in the U.S. when it comes to avoiding natural disasters, according to Sperling's Best Places.

The highlands above the Oregon State campus are filled with "adorable, upscale, old homes, and it has the highest real-estate demand in the city," says Heidi Junge of the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition. The historic area contains many large Tudors, bungalows and early 1900s-era homes — some with carriage houses that are well-maintained for their age.

Junge, who used to work in real estate, says she remembers one woman seeking a house in College Hill. "She just couldn't find anything available and finally told me, 'People will die before they sell their houses in that neighborhood,'" Junge says.

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Mount Auburn and Brattle streets, Cambridge, Mass.

Colleges: Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Median home value: $1.3 million

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 Cambridge residents, 709 were crime victims, the FBI says. On the city's western edge, the swanky neighborhood near Mount Auburn and Brattle streets ranks below the U.S. average in six of nine crime-rate categories, RelocationEssentials.com says, including rape and property crime.

During the Colonial era, this tiny slice of the Boston area was dubbed "Tory Row" because so many royalist sympathizers lived in the mansions along Brattle Street.

"Today, this is a much more sedate community," the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce website says, "where political loyalties remain more private, and life seems dedicated to a more measured, perhaps even a kind of stately, existence. Home to governors, professors and other professional gentry, West Cambridge is one of the more sought-after sections of the city for those who can afford the expansive lawns and commodious dwellings."

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Westmorland, Madison, Wis.

College: University of Wisconsin

Median home value: $255,951

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 residents in Madison, 748 were crime victims, the FBI says. West of the downtown core and southwest of the Badgers' sprawling campus, the Westmorland neighborhood ranks below the national average in all nine crime categories tracked by RelocationEssentials.com. It has particularly low rates of burglary, rape and aggravated assault.

"Most people (who) go to school here want to stay here because of the quality of life," says Flo Roth, a broker manager with Bunbury & Associates, a Madison real-estate company, who has lived in the town for about 50 years. "It's a city that's also a small town."

Residents of Westmorland, which is named after a nearby park, can partake in the Westmorland Walking Band and the Speedy Weedy Dandelion Digging Contest.

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Pebble Creek, College Station, Texas

College: Texas A&M University 

Median home value: $218,893

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 College Station residents, 799 were crime victims, the FBI says. About a 12-minute drive southeast of the campus, Pebble Creek is nestled in a part of town that is safer than 91% of other U.S. neighborhoods, NeighborhoodScout.com says.

The Pebble Creek subdivision, anchored by an 18-hole golf course, features oak trees, "elegant estates," "whispery quiet woodlands, trickling streams and rippling ponds," according to PebbleCreek.org, a website promoting the development. The neighborhood, a master-planned community, spans 1,348 acres.

Dues for the country club are separate from homeowners-association dues, meaning residents can enjoy the course vistas without having to pay extra.

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Emerson Park/Mission Plaza, San Luis Obispo, Calif.

College:California Polytechnic State University 

Median home value: $436,415

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 citizens in San Luis Obispo, 824 were crime victims, according to the FBI.

Most residents relocate from Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area or elsewhere in California, usually because of the climate, says Johnny Hough, broker-owner of the Real Estate Group of San Luis Obispo, who grew up in the city.

"If you ever see your breath, people are talking about it at the coffee shop," he says.

Oprah Winfrey once called San Luis Obispo "the happiest town" in America. She was reciting information provided by Dan Buettner, author of "Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way." Tapping databases that gauged personal well-being and quality of life, Buettner listed the happiest spots on the planet; "SLO Town" was the only U.S. city to make the cut.

The college campus is north of U.S. Highway 101, and most students live there. South of the 101 is the city's downtown core, including Mission Plaza, a favorite outdoor gathering spot. In the neighborhood four blocks south of Mission Plaza, just east of Emerson Park, four homes are for sale, ranging from $495,000 to $1.75 million, according to Zillow.com. Streets are flanked by fig and eucalyptus trees.

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East Ithaca, Ithaca, N.Y.

Colleges: Cornell University and Ithaca College 

Median home value: $242,570

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 people living in Ithaca, 838 were crime victims, according to the FBI. East Ithaca, just south of the Cornell campus, is part of the East Hill area. It is safer than 99% of other U.S. neighborhoods, NeighborhoodScout.com says.

East Ithaca mainly features single-family homes, usually with three to four bedrooms, according to NeighborhoodScout.com. It also scored 10 out of a possible 10 on the website's education gauge.

"Ithaca has a combination of beauty and spaciousness because of its location in the Finger Lakes region, coupled with the opportunity to experience various cultural and entertainment events usually only seen in larger metropolitan areas,” says Ro Rukavena, president of the Ithaca Board of Realtors.

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Benton-Stephens, Columbia, Mo.

College: University of Missouri  

Median home value: $103,687

Peace and quiet: For every 10,000 Columbia residents, 860 were crime victims, the FBI says. The Benton-Stephens neighborhood is south of Interstate 70 and a short stroll from downtown Columbia, which is just north of the Mizzou campus. The area ranks below the national average in five of nine crime-rate categories tracked by RelocationsEssentials.com, including burglary, homicide and rape. 

Benton-Stephens is another smart little nook, according to NeighborhoodScout.com, which scores the neighborhood's per-capita education level at nine out of a possible 10. The area includes many renters, young singles and young professionals who share the area with some college students.

Benton-Stephens, home to the first "Bike Boulevard" in the Midwest, "offers residents the sense of community that is all too often missing from today's changing neighborhoods," says Kip Kendrick, a resident and head of its neighborhood association. "Riding your bike along Windsor Street, you will see friends and neighbors sitting on front porches, (plus) vegetable gardens in the front yards, houses with solar panels, a community garden and a street mural created by students and homeowners."

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