Seventy-eight percent the Auburn population sampled in the annual citizen survey reported being satisfied with the overall value of their tax dollars--33 percent higher than the national average.
"That shows success with the steps we have taken to try to be efficient and not to overly burden residents with taxes and things like that," said city manager Charlie Duggan.
A random sampling of residents was chosen, and about 650 people filled out the surveys.
More than 50 of those were Auburn students, Dorton said.
Ninety-five percent of residents indicated that they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with living in Auburn.
The city exceeded the national average by 11 percentage points.
"Auburn seems to be a place that everybody loves," said David Dorton, director of public affairs.
Dorton also said the residents indicated three top priorities for improvements: traffic flow and congestion, maintaining city streets and updating local schools.
However, the survey indicated an 89 percent satisfaction rate with local schools.
"I think it's just their way of saying, 'Things are going well, and you need to keep working in that area,'" Dorton said.
Duggan said some areas are tough to raise scores in the eyes of all of the citizens.
For example, 11 percent of respondants indicated University students negatively affected their neighborhoods.
Duggan attributed this to students living in family-oriented neighborhoods who have habits of being noisy, speeding or littering their yards.
"If you have a family of small kids, you might not have the same lifestyle that 18- to early 20-year-old college students want to live," he said.
However, Duggan said this number is falling from years past.
"I think students are being conscientious of who their neighbors are and being respectful of their needs," he said.
Dorton said he was pleased with the increase in the ratings for city leadership across the board.
"That's definitely the kind of thing we don't want to take for granted," he said.
The 2011 citizen survey was conducted in February and was presented to the council March 22.
Auburn has been conducting the annual survey since 1987.
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