While Boston might be the best city in the US to lead the digital economy, it appears that Denver is ranked the top city for tech professionals to actually live in, according to a ranking of emerging US tech hubs. The Tech City Index 2016 was created as a way of allowing tech professionals to find places to live outside of the more obvious cities, such as Silicon Valley. With house prices in these areas often unattainable for the average tech worker, the index is intended to highlight alternative emerging tech cities where tech professionals can carve out a fruitful career.
According to Homes.com, $58.8 billion was invested in the US through venture capital in 2015, making it the biggest benefactor of this investment type in the world. That money was invested in everything from financial services to biomedical research. A substantial portion of the money was also invested in America’s world leading technology sector.
While Silicon Valley still dominates the technology landscape when it comes to American investment statistics, emerging cities all over the country are also getting in on the action and creating opportunities for millions of Americans. The Homes.com New Tech City Index ranks these emerging cities based on a number of metrics including industry wages, employment levels, and average house price. The creators of the index point out that as this is focused on emerging/growing cities, and top ten cities by population size, San Jose and San Francisco have been omitted from the dataset – since these are likely to have a high tech presence already; it also says that Seattle and Washington are included in the dataset to act as benchmarks for the other cities.
Denver, Colorado, ranked first out of over 365 cities analyzed. A combination of a high average wage across the industry ($91,861), steady industry employment levels (3.8/1000 jobs in the tech sector) and a booming housing market which has seen house prices rocket in the past 5 years (+41.29% over 5 years), meant Denver beat off stiff competition from across the country.
The Massachusetts town of Framingham, with a population of under 70,000, came in a surprising second, perhaps in part due to tech giants like Bose setting up bases in the town. In third, proximity to more traditional tech hubs like San Jose and San Francisco, inevitably make California’s Oakland (CA) a tempting prospect for many tech professionals.
The index also ranked:
– Columbus (OH) as the most affordable place to live if working in technology with an average house price of just $107,367
– Oakland (CA) as seeing the biggest growth in house prices amongst emerging tech hub areas, +47.61% in the past 5 years
– Framingham (MA) as having the highest average wage across the industry in the top 20 ($106,850)
The full top 10 list is:
- Denver, CO
- Framingham, MA
- Oakland, CA
- Atlanta, GA
- Boston, MA
- Austin, TX
- Santa Ana, CA
- Baltimore, MD
- Durham, NC
- Boulder, CO
“Many areas exist outside of the Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest where tech folks can find both their dream job and the home of their dreams,” says Grant Simmons, VP at Homes.com, “It’s great for these folks to know that cities like Denver not only offer tech-focused career opportunities, but also more bang for their housing buck, great schools, and lifestyle options that suit both small-town and big-city appetites.”
For the full Homes.com New Tech City Index, click here.
