Austin ranked fifth best city for tech workers who rent

In the ever-growing world of listicles, Austin is used to ranking high on all variety of national lists, including everything from cities where millennials are moving (we’re number three!) to rate of new apartment construction (sixth highest).

Similarly, it’s not news that Austin has been working concertedly and excitedly to become a major tech hub, and is succeeding quite nicely at that. Nevertheless, given how much we complain about housing costs, it comes as a bit of a surprise that a new new study that ranks Austin as the fifth best city in the United States for renters who work in tech.

Rental listings company Adobo analyzed a total of 76 metropolitan statistical areas to come up with the rankings, which have the Austin-Round Rock area pulling behind expected areas such as San Francisco and Silicon Valley metros, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.

For its methodology, ABODO looked at three factors: median 1-bedroom rent in the city, median salary for workers in tech, and the employment per 1,000 jobs.

The Austin–Round Rock area’s high ranking is partly the result of the fact that rents, while too high for many residents in central areas, have risen fairly slowly, while the increase in tech jobs means more workers with higher salaries in the area.

According to the study, the metro area has nearly 65 computer and math jobs per 1,000 and workers whose earnings are nearly seven times the cost of rent.

Interestingly, the rental side of the data cause some cities not generally considered to have tech-heavy economies to rank high on the list; even if they could stand to increase the number of tech jobs, lower rent balances out the ranking.