Houston Named Among the Top 25 Best Cities for College Graduates

In an Annual Ranking

Kathryn Edwards, Jun 06, 11.

Along with fellow Texas cities like Austin, Dallas and Corpus Christi, Houston has been listed in the Top 25 Best cities for College Graduates according to The Daily Beast. The ranking takes into account the cities’ rental markets, their access to public transportation, the supply of entry level positions and the availability of day to day activities. Many of this year’s cities are located in the southern states where the economy took a smaller hit. A particular cities’ position in these types of rankings depends heavily on the particular metrics used, as noted by CultureMap, who question Austin’s ranking above Houston.

According to The Daily Beast’s second annual ranking of the best cities for recent college graduates, many of American’s most livable cities for those seeking low rents, cheap eats, good job prospects, and decent pay are not the traditional destinations of New York City or Los Angeles. Austin has a huge rental market, Savannah is packed with those in their early 20s, and Seattle bears a boast-worthy cost of living. In general, it seems grads should try to unpack their bags in the South, where cost of living is low, job growth is strong, and average earnings are high.
To put together the list of the top towns for recent graduates, we looked at the cities through the lens of the basics of quality of life: housing, employment, affordability, and relationships. The cities that land among the top 25 have relatively low unemployment, high average salary per capita, a low cost of living, a high portion of housing units devoted to rental properties, and a large population between ages 22 and 24.

The number one ranked city on the recent list is Fayetteville, NC, having the greatest results in all the categories. A FayObserver.com writter ironically states that “It’s unclear whether the people who compiled the rankings knew the reasons why Fayetteville meets many of those qualifications is because it’s a military city.” Still the city offers low rent, job opportunity and a young population.