Overview

• Realtor.com assessed over 300 cities based on rent-to-income ratios, vacancy rates and entry-level job availability to compile its annual ranking.
• Austin leads for a second consecutive year with an 18.9% rent-to-income ratio, $1,504 median rent and 29.4% of jobs open to bachelor’s degree holders without experience.
• Raleigh ranks second with the highest share of grad-friendly occupations at 30.4%, followed by Overland Park, Minneapolis and St. Louis among the top five.
• Median rents across the top ten cities range from $1,335 in St. Louis to $1,604 in Atlanta, enabling recent graduates to rent affordably.
• The combined unemployment rate in these markets is 3.8%, below the 4.1% average across the 50 largest U.S. metros.