WalletHub: Austin is Third Best U.S. City

WalletHub named Austin, Texas the third best big city to live in within the United States. Seattle, Washington and Virginia Beach, Virginia took the top two spots, while San Francisco, San Diego, and Honolulu rounded out the top five. The top three scores were very close, with scores of 63.63, 63.27, and 63.24.

There was a three-way tie among U.S. big cities for income growth, with San Francisco, Seattle, and Austin taking top spot. Austin ranked second overall in the U.S. for its economy and ranked eighth for education and health. For quality of life, Austin ranked 16th and then dropped below the top 20 from there, to 21st in safety and 28th in affordability.

Of Texas cities, Arlington was the next highest ranked at 31, followed by Fort Worth and El Paso in the next two spots, 32 and 33. San Antonio was ranked in place 39, Corpus Christi in place 42, Dallas in place 50, and Houston in place 52.

El Paso ranked second in the nation for lowest crime rate. Dallas, tying with Fresno, California, was third lowest among big cities for percentage of population 25 and older with a high school diploma or higher. Fort Worth was fourth lowest in the nation for bike score, tying in this spot with Kansas City and Pittsburgh.

WalletHub’s results are based on examining the 62 largest cities, those with populations over 300,000, in the country. The five analytics were affordability, economy, education & health, quality of life, and safety, and those were broken down into 56 “key indicators of attractiveness.”