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Most of Sunset's picks for small green towns you've probably heard of - but did you know they were green and why?

Living green doesn't come cheap however, with the average housing costs for these 5 small cities in the neighborhood of $563,000.

#1, Corvallis, OR
Population: 51,388 
What a house costs: $265,388

"The vibe: As small towns go, you don’t get much greener than Corvallis. This Willamette Valley town happily took up the Corvallis Energy Challenge, where residents strive to use the lowest amount of energy in their homes. With two LEED-certified buildings and more on the way, OSU is listed by the Kaplan College Guide as one of the nation’s top green universities. Every downtown block seems to have at least one eco-friendly business."

#2, Boulder, CO
Population: 93,552
What a house costs: $424,044
Its smart growth policy is the best in the nation. And it’s a biking capital whose gobikeboulder.net helps cyclists find routes around town.

#3, Palo Alto, CA
Population: 58,246
What a house costs: $1,343,778
At the forefront of the green technology wave with venture capitalists like Kleiner Perkins and eco-innovators like Ausra (solar energy).

#4, Salt Lake City, UT
Population: 180,651
What a house costs: $284,401
Okay, it’s not small, but SLC has received about every available accolade for its green policies, including its e2 Citizen program to help address climate change.

#5, Truckee, CA
Population: 16,042
What a house costs: $499,000
The Truckee Climate Action Network’s "Keep Truckee Cool" campaign encourages residents to install 1,000 solar roofs by 2013.

See the whole article here.

So what towns did they miss?

Photo Credit Corvallis, OR (Photo: John Clark) via Sunset.com.