It seems like there are fewer and fewer places in the country that can offer both jobs and affordable housing; places where individuals can get their proverbial cake and eat it too. However, using data from the Distressed Communities Index, Bloombergreview.com has compiled a list of 5 U.S. metros that offer both job opportunity and affordable housing.
In combination with a Brookings Institution report form January on “growth prosperity and inclusion” and the National Association of Realtors’ 2015 affordability index, 11 cities were found to offer jobs and housing. But then, a final filter was applied, a Brookings ranking of the share of area residents with a college degree, which can help indicate the quality of jobs available. With this final filter, only five cities remained.
Odds are, the cities on the list are not what you might expect. Cincinnati, Columbus, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Pittsburgh all offer quality job opportunities and affordable housing. With the exception of Minneapolis, each one of these cities is pretty surprising, as they aren’t really lighting up the media as the next “It” town and none of them can really even be considered boomtowns.
While they aren’t growing exponentially, they also aren’t falling by the wayside. They exist firmly in the slow and steady wins the race category. If these cities are to be believed, there might be something to that whole slow and steady saying.
