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Austin punches in as the No. 1 city in America for job seekers
In case you hadn’t noticed, it seems like everybody from California to the East Coast is at least considering a move to the Austin area.
A new study from Realtor.com supports that perception. A Realtor.com review of data from career platform LinkedIn puts Austin in the No. 1 position among the top 10 U.S. cities that job seekers are flocking to. No other Texas city made the list, as Realtor.com limited its ranking to no more than one metro area per state.
To arrive at its top 10, Realtor.com analyzed data indicating users’ change of location on their LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn examined the number of migrants in a metro area who had switched their location over the past 12 months and then divided that by the number of people in that area who have LinkedIn profiles.
According to Realtor.com, the LinkedIn data shows most transplants to the Austin area are arriving from the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, and New York City. It’s a sign that “workers are ditching pricier tech hubs in favor of Austin’s potential,” Realtor.com says.
Realtor.com quotes Luis Bernardo Torres, research economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, as saying about 16 percent of the people who’ve moved to Texas have come from California. They’re attracted by relatively affordable housing and the lack of a state income tax, according to Realtor.com.
“People vote with their feet, and they’re voting for Texas,” Torres says.
Realtor.com notes, however, that the influx of tech workers has put pressure on the Austin housing market. The median home price in Austin was up nearly 30 percent last month compared with the same time a year ago. Meanwhile, rents rose 20 percent from March 2020 to September 2021.
Here is Realtor.com’s top 10 list of cities relocating workers are moving to:
- Austin
- Sarasota, Florida
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Asheville, North Carolina
- Nashville
- Boise, Idaho
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Denver
- Portland, Maine
- Phoenix