Fort Worth is the No. 1 city in the nation for finding a job, and Arlington isn’t far behind it in WalletHub’s ranking of the best places to land work in 2014.
Texas cities dominated the list with No. 4 Arlington, No. 5 Dallas, No. 6 Austin and No. 10 Houston also in the top 10.
The personal finance social network rated the nation’s 60 largest cities using 13 metrics that could be broken down into three broad categories: ease of finding a job; salary and benefits; and cost of living.
The survey noted that Fort Worth has the second-most affordable housing as well as the fifth-fastest-falling employment rate and the fourth-largest proportion of full-time workers.
Those factors, combined with the lack of a state or local income tax, were enough to compensate for Cowtown’s middle-of-the pack rankings in industry variety, healthcare coverage and percentage of the workforce living below the poverty line, WalletHub said.
Arlington was second in job openings per capita with 13.44 jobs per 100 residents. Anaheim, Calif., had the highest at 17.98.
Only Detroit had cheaper housing than Fort Worth, with Arlington, Corpus Christi and San Antonio rounding out the top five in home affordability.
The worst cities to find a job were No. 56 Riverside, Calif., No. 57 Honolulu, No. 58 Fresno, Calif., No. 59 New York and No. 60 Los Angeles.
The Metroplex’s affordability was also recently highlighted by Forbes, which named Fort Worth-Arlington and Dallas-Plano the No. 1 and No. 2 best places to invest in housing in 2014.
The survey noted that prices in greater Fort Worth are considered 20 percent below their actual value, according to Local Market Monitor. The monitor forecast a 25 percent cumulative rise in Fort Worth home prices over the next three years.
Fort Worth also earned a top spot in NerdWallet’s January ranking of the best cities for job seekers.
Austin topped NerdWallet’s list followed by No. 2 Washington, D.C., and No. 3 Fort Worth. The survey considered unemployment rates, population growth and cost of living.
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