Kent named as 1 of the 2 top college towns in the nation by Zillow

The city of Kent is among the Top 2 college towns in the nation, according to ranking released recently by online real estate platform Zillow.

Zillow defines a college town as a city with at least 20% of the population enrolled in higher education.

Kent came in second to West Chester, Pennsylvania, where West Chester University is located.

To rank the most popular markets among its users, Zillow analyzed page-view traffic, home value growth and days on market.

The university includes its main campus in Kent, plus eight campuses spanning Northeast Ohio, a College of Podiatric Medicine, a Twinsburg Academic Center and academic sites in locations such as New York City, Florence, Italy, and Curitiba, Brazil. More than 10,700 are employed by Kent State, and there is an average of 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students, according to information provided by the university.

The city's population is 27,147, according to information from the July 2022 census. Kent's nickname is "Tree City" after John Davey, an expert horticulturalist, planted hundreds of trees throughout the city in the late 1800s, according to information from the city. Davey later founded the Davey Tree Company.

Rounding out the top 5 were Newark, Delaware, home to the University of Delaware; San Luis Obispo, California, home to California Polytechnic State University; and Ypsilanti, Michigan, home to Eastern Michigan University.

Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kent named 1 of the 2 top college towns in the country by Zillow