Austin Business Journal shares, "Austin has been outshone by its suburbs recently in terms of affordability and population growth, and U.S. News & World Report's latest ranking of the "best places to live" in the country continues the trend.
Three of the city's suburbs — Leander, Pflugerville and Cedar Park — made the top 25, with Leander at No. 8, Pflugerville at No. 15 and Cedar Park at No. 23.
Austin, meanwhile, came in at No. 164, marking a huge tumble from No. 9 in last year's ranking. But the steep fall is deceptive, because U.S. News & World Report drastically expanded its latest list to include many smaller cities, collecting data on more than 850 cities compared with just 150 previously. Of those it analyzed this year, the top 250 were ranked.
When it comes to just big cities, however, Austin ranked No. 3 on this year's list, behind only Oklahoma City and El Paso.
“The expansion of the 2025-2026 Best Places to Live rankings gives consumers a more detailed view into what it’s like to live somewhere at the community level, enabling them to consider more options for potential places to settle down,” Erika Giovanetti, consumer lending analyst at U.S. News & World Report, said in a statement.
The move to rank many more cities is immediately evident in the overall list, with smaller cities taking the spotlight over larger ones. The top 3 cities overall this year are Johns Creek, Georgia; Carmel, Indiana; and Pearland, Texas.
Last year, Naples, Florida; Boise, Idaho; and Colorado Springs took the top 3 spots. Naples slumped to No. 179 on this year's overall list, while neither Boise nor Colorado Springs were ranked, meaning they apparently didn't make the cut for the top 250.
The latest rankings take into account local job markets, value, quality of life and desirability, U.S. News & World Report said, with the measures weighted partly on public surveys of households to discern what's important.
It has been evident for some time that people have been voting with their feet when it comes to the Austin metro.
According to recently released U.S. Census data, Hutto ranked No. 13 in terms of year-over-year percentage population gain among U.S. cities with at least 20,000 people, while larger suburbs Leander and Georgetown also saw sizable percentage gains. Austin came in as the slowest-growing big city in Texas in the latest Census figures, and it also slipped to No. 13 in terms of the largest city in the country, from No. 10 previously."
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Bob Sechler
Published: May 20, 2025
Posted by Grossman & Jones Group on
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