Zillow Releases Its '20 Best Cities to Trick or Treat in 2012'

SEATTLE (Zillow) — Listen up all you ghosts, goblins and witches! While you’ve been planning the best Halloween costume ever, the data heads at Zillow took a break from the serious business of tracking housing to crunch numbers with one really, really important thing in mind: candy.

The sweet results of the fourth annual Zillow Trick-or-Treat Index, which ranks the top 20 cities around the country to get the best Halloween loot, rolls out Tuesday through Thursday, unveiling the top five neighborhoods within each of the cities. The site urges people to come back and see if their neighborhood made the list.

Behold, the national list:

1. San Francisco

2. Boston

3. Honoloulou

4. Seattle

5. San Jose

6. Chicago

7. Los Angeles

8. Portland

9. Philadelphia

10. Washington, D.C.

11. Minneapolis

12. Pittsburgh

13. Denver

14. Miami

15. San Diego

16. Milwaukee

17. Buffalo

18. Cincinnati

19. Virginia Beach

20. Baltimore

Methodology

There is a belief wealthy neighborhoods are the Holy Grail for harvesting the most Halloween candy. To provide a more holistic approach to trick-or-treating, the Zillow Trick-or-Treat Index was calculated using four equally weighted data variables: Zillow Home Value Index, population density, Walk Score and local crime data from Relocation Essentials. Based on those variables, the Index represents cities that will provide the most candy, with the least walking and safety risks.

See more here.