Texas cities dominate list of best places to live in US during a recession, study says

Four of the top five best cities to live in during a recession are in Texas, according to a new study by personal finance website SmartAsset.

Frisco nabbed the top spot followed by Cedar Rapids, Iowa, with Plano, Denton and Austin rounding out the top five. Lubbock ranked seventh.

The study assessed data from 264 cities, according to SmartAsset.

What makes a city recession-resistant?

The Great Recession ran from 2007 to the early 2010s and saw unemployment rates soar to 10.1%, making it difficult for Americans to save money and pay their mortgages, according to the study.

To determine a city’s ability to resist a recession, SmartAsset analyzed nine factors that fall into three key categories: employment, housing and social assistance.

The employment category factors in labor force participation, current unemployment rates and change in unemployment rates during the recession.

The housing category looks at the “mortgage delinquency rate,” “housing costs as a percentage of income” and “change in home value” during the recession.

The social assistance category assesses the “average annual amount of assistance per household,” “percentage of the population relying on public assistance” and “state rainy-day funds as a percentage of state expenditures.”

Which factors make Texas cities rank so high?

Frisco ranked in the top 35% of every metric SmartAsset assessed and in the top 11 for each broader category, according to the study.

It ranked fourth in housing cost as a percentage of income with 18.2% and had the 17th lowest unemployment rate in 2018 at 3.1%.

Plano ranked in the top 10% of each of the three categories, according to the study, finishing in the top 25% for every employment metric. It also had the ninth-lowest percentage of people relying on public assistance.

Denton finished in the top 20% of each category, ranking third in the social assistance category, according to SmartAsset. It ranked No. 34 in employment and No. 50 in housing.

Austin ranked in the top 11% of each category, finishing No. 13 in the employment category, No. 29 in housing and No. 26 in social assistance. It also had the 10th-highest labor participation rate in 2018.

Texas also has the second-highest rainy-day funds as a percentage of state expenditures in the country at 19%.

Click here to read the full study.