Did you graduate from college recently, or do you know someone who has? Looking for a city with good employment opportunities? So are most other recent college graduates. In order to determine the ideal cities for this segment of the population, Zillow has analyzed many US cities looking at four factors: rent-to-income ratio, average salary for recent college graduates, job openings, and share of population in their 20s. They’ve found that the top ten cities for recent grads are Colorado Springs, CO; Spokane, WA; Des Moines, IA; Phoenix, AZ; Buffalo, AZ; Albuquerque, NM; Bakersfield, CA; Albany, NY; Portland, OR; and Little Rock, AR.
Of course, this analysis isn’t an exact science, so you should take it with a grain of salt. There are far more cities in the US than Zillow could ever hope to analyze, so they’re only looking at the largest metros. Their analysis also only looks at rentals, not purchases. While this may simply be a realistic approach, it actually doesn’t bode well for recent grads if renting is their best option — especially in a rather inexpensive place like Little Rock. Job openings also may not be the best statistic to look at, since the jobs may be open because they simply aren’t good jobs.
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