Develop Austin Texas

Forbes just recently published their “Best States for Business” list, ranking all states from 1-50. The list factors in six categories of data, with 33 points of data from nine different sources. Business costs including labor, energy and taxes were weighted most heavily.

 Texas ranked first for Economic Climate, and third in Growth Prospects. It also ranked tenth in Regulatory Environments. Strong rankings in these three categories, and three others, put Texas in the eighth spot on Forbes’ top ten list.

"A common theme with our top-ranked states is an expanding, educated workforce," writes Forbes.

The top ten states were:

1. Virginia

2. Washington

3. Utah

4. Colorado

5. North Carolina

6. Georgia

7. North Dakota

8. Texas

9. Nebraska

10. Oregon

You can see all fifty states ranked here.

This is not the first time Texas has been recognized as a top state for business – in June, Directorship named Texas number one.

We’ve said it before and we are saying it again now. The Austin market has been and will remain relatively immune to the recent economic downturn. With news coming out that the national economy is starting to look up, analysts are looking for places that are going to recover the fastest and Austin tops the list according a recent Forbes article. Because of our diverse economy, continued population growth and immunity to the past housing crisis (and by past I mean in the past!), the Austin area is poised to show the strongest positive economic growth of any U.S. city by the end of this year.

From Forbes:

“Total Population: 1,249,763
Number of Top Companies: three
Median Household Income: $56,422
Cost of Living: 94.93 (average is 100)
Unemployment Rate: 5.8%

With one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, Austin’s popularity streak continues. This has quite a bit to do with the metro area’s employers, which include the University of Texas, Advanced Micro Devices and Dell.”

Accolades just keep coming in for Austin!

If anyone’s curious about the rest of the list:

10. New York, NY

9. Kansas City, MO

8. St. Louis, MO

7. Austin, TX

6. Washington D.C.

5. Boston, MA

4. Pittsburgh, PA

3. Minneapolis, MN

2. Dallas, TX

1. Houston, TX

Forbes has just announced what many Austinites already knew: Austin, Texas is the best city to live in for affordability and opportunities. Austin landed number one on their Top 10 list of Best Bargain cities.

The list was based on five points:

- Average salary of workers (Bachelor’s Degree or higher)

- Annual unemployment statistics

- Cost of living

- Housing Opportunity Index (amount of homes sold that are affordable to family with the local median income).

Austin did well in all categories, particularly the unemployment rate, which at 5.5%, is about half the national average.

Why Austin? Austin has three main contributing features: being the state capital, a university town, and a technology industry based city. Further, Texas as a state offers many incentives for entrepreneurs and business owners; Texas is now home to many California businesses that became too expensive to operate in that state. Four other Texas metropolises are on the top ten (Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth). Although, even Forbes acknowledges that it’s the charm of the city and the people in it that makes Austin such a desirable place to work and live.

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