Austin in the Top 10 Again

For those of us living in Austin, it comes as no surprise that Austin made the top ten list of 2008 Best Cities to Live, Work and Play. Kiplinger selected the winners by looking for cities with strong economies, abundant jobs, reasonable cost of living, and lots of fun things to do. They utilized the services of Martin Prosperity Institute, a think tank that studies economic prosperity, in coming up with their winners. Interestingly enough, one of the key ingredients that the think tank looked for was number of residents in the creative ‘class’. According to the think tank, “People in creative fields — scientists, engineers, architects, educators, writers, artists and entertainers — are catalysts of vitality and livability in a city.” Austin made the list of top 10 cities at #6, below Houston, Raleigh, Omaha, Boise and Colorado Springs. Out of a population of 1,506,425 residents, 36.5% of our workforce is in the Creative ‘Class’. Our population has grown 17% since 2000 and our median income has increased 12% since 2000.In addition to looking at Austin’s creative class, Kiplinger counted Austin in because of our solid, moderately priced housing market. Austin has managed to insulate itself from the national housing crisis and continues to be a solid real estate investment. If you are curious about the Austin Real Estate Market, be sure to check out our latest Austin Real Estate Stats and Graphs.In a separate study by Salary.com, Austin ranked 13th out of 69 us cities as a place to build wealth. Salary.com considered several factors in selecting their winners. These included local salaries, the cost of living, unemployment rates relative to the national average, diversity of industry, the education level of the city’s population, proximity to post-secondary institutions, the percentage of residents below the poverty level and median commuting time.We love to see all of the places that Austin ranks high. If you know of any other surveys where Austin ranked high, please post them here.