For recent graduates, young professionals or folks considering a career change, affordability of housing often becomes the deciding factor in where they choose to look for a job. Of course, we all want to make the highest possible salary, but a souped-up paycheck in a city with sky-high rent won’t do you much good since you’ll have very little left over each month once you’ve paid your landlord.
At BusinessStudent.com, wanted to see which areas of the country, and which specific cities in those areas, give business professionals the biggest bang for the buck, so they compared the highest quoted salaries from over 100 business-related jobs on Indeed.com to average rent for a two-bedroom apartment across America from Rentjungle.com and came up with the top 25 most affordable cities to live and work. Irving ranked at 21.
You can see the full listing at BusinessStudent.com, but here’s a quick summary of what was learned:
- The average salary for the full top 25 is $72,230, and the overall average income left after rent is about 81 percent.
- Texas, the nation’s second most-populous state, is by far the overall leader on our list, placing a total of five cities in the top 25. The highest-rated Texas city on our list is Fort Worth, where the average worker has more than 80 percent of their income left after rent.
- The Midwest placed eight cities on our list, including three in Ohio alone.
- No spoilers, but you should strongly consider Oklahoma, as the Sooner State boasts two of the top three cities, including the overall No. 1.
- Dallas had the highest average salary at $82,609, while its Texas neighbor, College Station, had the lowest average salary at just $55,086.
- The cheapest average monthly rent was $863 in Tulsa, while the highest average rent was Dallas’ $1,422.
- Before you start your new job search, be sure to consult this list of the 25 most affordable cities to live and work in the U.S., but you also remember to take into account things like income tax (two of the states on our list, Texas and Nevada, have no personal state income tax), transportation and insurance costs.
Se the whole list here.
