Regular readers of this column may have noticed that I like to keep tabs on our fair city’s placement in the various rankings that filter through my email inbox. Since this is the Back to School 2022 issue, I figured I’d put together some of Austin’s defining factlets, in case any newcomers don’t yet know what kind of city you’ve moved to. (The sources are a variety of data centers and publications; you can see the links below. For now just be assured that these are all actual things that someone claims to have quantified.)
For starters, we’re the fastest-growing major metro area in America, and you’ve probably encountered our housing costs; Austin is on a lot of lists about that. We’re the fourth best city in the country for real estate investment, and the sixth best place specifically for to invest in rental property – and coincidentally, we’re also the most expensive city in Texas for renters. (We also have the highest residential land values in the state, and are the 17th most expensive city in the world to rent office space in.)
Despite that, we’re still the seventh best city in the country for young professionals to move to.
Why? Perhaps because we’re the best city in Texas for surviving a zombie apocalypse. We’re also the seventh most fun city in the country, the second best city for gamers, and tied for first in the number of dog-friendly restaurants per capita.
We’re also the ninth geekiest city in the country, largely because we have the most board game and trading card shops per capita. We’re high on the list for Best Cities for Witches (we have the eighth most covens in the nation!) but below average in Best Cities for Vampires (apparently our Lair Safety rating is poor, due to a shortage of basements).
Other studies have us as the 10th most educated metro area in the nation, the seventh healthiest place to live, and the eighth best city for thrifting. We also rank fourth for the percentage of homes that have park views.
In a study judging the best- and worst-run of 150 cities, we come in just below average at No. 85, but there’s more to it than that: We rank 12th in the quality of services, thanks in large part to having the top-rated economy and high scores in health and education (including the highest high school graduation rate in the nation). But we rank 117th in budget per capita; that is, we pay a hefty amount for those services – perhaps because we can afford to, with the fifth highest median household income in the nation, even when adjusted for a relatively high cost of living.
This one really bugged me: A recent press release lists Austin as the second best barbecue city in the nation. OK, I can live with that; there’s a lot of great barbecue. So who beat us? Memphis? Kansas City? Maybe even somewhere in North Carolina if you consider that wet stuff barbecue? No. It’s San Antonio, and that’s just unacceptable.
On the other hand, we’re also the sixth best city in the country for vegans and vegetarians, with high marks for both Diversity, Accessibility & Quality and Affordability, though we’re not rated as well for Vegetarian Lifestyle – probably because of the barbecue.
We’re in the top 20% for beer lovers as well, with high marks for quality but points off for the number of pubs, breweries, and beer gardens per capita.
We’re also the fifth best city in the nation to celebrate Halloween. (Port St. Lucie, Florida, is first, “mostly because of how safe the city is,” so I’m going to call bullshit on that claim.)
So anyway, that’s Austin in a nutshell.
Sunday, Aug. 21, is the last day to register for the ACC fall semester, whose classes start Aug. 22. To help new students, they’re offering “1-on-1 support with registration, financial aid,” and more, at austincc.edu.
This article appears in Back to School 2022.