Mo’ money

Austin among best cities in U.S. to climb out of debt, study says

Austinites have among the highest rates of disposable income, says this study.

Photo by RoschetzkyIstockPhoto/iStock

Four big cities in Texas, including Austin, are among the best places in the U.S. for people trying to wipe out debt, according to a new study. But before you get too excited, that’s not an excuse to go on a holiday spending spree.

The study, released by Austin-based financial education website Student Loan Hero, ranks Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio as four of the top 20 cities in the country where residents have the most extra money for reducing debt.

In all, Student Loan Hero crunched data for 159 U.S. cities, looking at the average wage, income tax burden, and cost of living. Houston appears at No. 3 on the list, with Austin at No. 5, San Antonio at No. 8, and Dallas at No. 11. At the top of the list is Durham, North Carolina.

Fort Worth doesn’t fare too well, ranking 71st among the 159 cities covered in the study.

“Living in one of the top 20 best cities gives you a disposable income of $18,000 left over, on average, after taxes and basic living expenses are paid,” Elyssa Kirkham, who led the Student Loan Hero study, says in a release. “That’s a huge boon to residents of these cities who want to get out of debt faster. It gives them a lot of room to play with their budget and find extra money to put toward debt.”

While the Student Loan Hero study offers some good news for residents of Austin, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, here’s some bad news: A survey earlier this year by personal finance website GOBankingRates found that the average Texan has $185,583 in debt, making it the third worst state in that regard. The debt load includes mortgage payments, credit card bills, and student loan payments.

Here are statistics that Student Loan Hero compiled for Texas’ five largest cities, with the average disposable income being used to rank each place.

Austin

Average disposable income: $20,027
Average annual wage: $50,830
Average income tax burden: $9,643
Cost of living: 3.5 percent below national average

Houston

Average disposable income: $20,422
Average annual wage: $52,870
Average income tax burden: $10,310
Cost of living: 2.3 percent below national average

Dallas

Average disposable income: $19,414
Average annual wage: $51,890
Average income tax burden: $9,990
Cost of living: 0.8 percent above national average

Fort Worth

Average disposable income: $17,220
Average annual wage: $46,520
Average income tax burden: $8,480
Cost of living: 2.8 percent above national average

San Antonio

Average disposable income: $19,718
Average annual wage: $45,210
Average income tax burden: $8,184
Cost of living: 12.2 percent below national average

rankings lists

Defensive Driving

Austin-based Tesla faces new probe focused on remote driving feature

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating 2.6 million Teslas.

Federal regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also said Tuesday, January 7 that Austin-based Tesla did not report any of the accidents. Tesla is under order to report crashes on “publicly accessible roads” involving vehicles being operated through its autonomous driving technology.

The new investigation follows another probe launched in October looking into the company's “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian. That investigation covers 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

One driver filed a complaint after a crash while using Tesla's “Actually Smart Summon” technology and NHTSA is looking into another three similar incidents based on media reports, the NHTSA said. The agency is looking into 12 total incidents reported by users of the technology.

Each of the vehicles failed to detect posts and other parked vehicles, according to the NHTSA.

Regulators say the vehicles struck objects because the users had "too little reaction time to avoid a crash, either with the available line of sight or releasing the phone app button, which stops the vehicle’s movement.”

Shares of Tesla Inc. slid more than 4 percent in late afternoon trading Tuesday.

Musk has complained that U.S. regulations are too onerous and are holding back the development of self-driving cars. Ethics experts are worried that once President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Musk will push him to ease oversight of Tesla, which just suffered its first decline in annual sales in more than a decade.

Musk donated an estimated $250 million to Trump's presidential campaign and is a frequent guest at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, vetting cabinet nominees and meeting with foreign heads of state. Trump has put Musk in charge of an advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, that will recommend where to cut government expenses and staff at federal agencies and reduce regulation.

The NHTSA said it will look into the top speed that Teslas can reach when users deploy its “summons” technology, as well as restrictions on public roads and line of sights requirements. It also said it expects to check for any “connectivity delays" with the app that could result in increased stopping distance.

Tesla’s Model 3 owner’s manual says that its “summons” feature is designed for use only in parking lots and driveways on private property and is disabled on public roads.

The new probe covers 2016-2025 Model S and X vehicles, 2017-2025 Model 3, 2020-2025 Model Y equipped with Tesla's Full Self-Driving driver assistance system.

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