Milken Institute Ranks Austin as Fourth Best-Performing City in the Nation

Austin is a city of diverse talents and is often recognized for those talents. Most recently, the Milken Institute recognized Austin as the fourth best-performing city in the nation, thanks to a combination of factors, including jobs, wages, and technology performance. The Best Performing Cities Index was created by the Santa Monica, California-based non-partisan, nonprofit economic think tank and shows what a great place Austin is to search for a home and have a successful career.

Big factors in Austin’s economic stability included the University of Texas and the state capital in Central Austin, as well as the large concentration of tech companies in the area. Places like Samsung Semiconductor in North Austin invested billions of dollars in their Austin branch, adding jobs and more money to the local economy. Other high-tech companies like National Instruments, Apple, and South Austin’s AMD were all important in helping create local jobs. Another major indicator linked to job and wage gains, thanks to employers like these, was that housing prices slipped very little because of an influx of new residents to the area.

Texas performed very well on the index; San Antonio took home top honors at the number 1 spot, and El Paso and Killeen also ranked in the top 10. Of the top 25 (out of 200), 9 of the spots went to Texas cities. Of all the new jobs created in the United States, Texas employers were responsible for creating one out of every six new jobs for the year ending October 31, 2011.

Austin offers a wide variety of housing options near its major employers. For anyone conducting an Austin home search and wanting to be closer to one of these companies, Austin REALTOR® Brian Talley can certainly help find the best home.