The Most Prosperous Cities In The US Are…

Wealthy coastal enclaves no longer have a monopoly on prosperity, according to a recent ranking by RentCafe.

After analyzing Census data from between 2000 and 2016, RentCafe ranked 303 cities according to changes in overall prosperity. RentCafe examined a mix of factors, with a final prosperity score that was based on the combined value of six  individual fields. Surprisingly, Texas cities occupied six of the top 20 spots, disrupting the longstanding east coast west coast rivalry.

With crude oil prices moving higher once again, it’s hardly a coincidence that the Midland-Odessa area – one of the main employment hubs in the Permian Basin with some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country – showed up on the list.

In a separate ranking that only takes into account “large” cities (i.e. those with populations greater than 300,000), Rent Cafe discovered that Washington, New York and Miami are among the most prosperous of the major American cities.

More surprising is the number of cities that experienced growth across all six categories used to calculate prosperity.

RentCafe calculated prosperity by incorporating the magnitude of proportional changes that affected a city’s population, median income, home values, share of inhabitants holding a higher education degree, poverty rate and its unemployment rate.