If you’re looking to earn a good living without paying a high cost of living, consider a Texas city or a college town.
Most of the U.S. cities that offer the most bang for your buck are in Texas, or are home to universities, a recent analysis by CareerCast shows.
Four of the top 10 cities that CareerCast identified as offering relatively high pay and low costs are in Texas:
Throughout the Lone Star State, there are attractive destinations both in terms of pay, diversity of career options and living expense.
Six of the cities are also home to at least one university.
For example, Austin — home to the University of Texas — has a median household income of $63,603 and an average cost of living that is 6 percent below the national average. it also has a low unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.
CareerCast compiled its list by cross-checking the salaries for 200 careers against the average cost of living for cities that pay comparatively well in a broad range of sectors. The website relied on its own jobs data as well as data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, PayScale and the Council for Community and Economic Research.
The top 10 cities are:
Austin, Texas
- Median household income: $63,603
- Average cost of living: 6 percent less than the national average
Columbus, Ohio
- Median household income: $56,371
- Average cost of living: 10 percent less
Durham, North Carolina
- Median household income: $51,988
- Average cost of living: 8 percent less
Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
- Median household income: $52,430
- Average cost of living: Same as national average
Houston
- Median household income: $60,072
- Average cost of living: 1 percent less
Lincoln, Nebraska
- Median household income: $52,046
- Average cost of living: 10 percent less
Midland, Texas
- Median household income: $77,574
- Average cost of living: 3 percent less
Pittsburgh
- Median household income: $52,293
- Average cost of living: 4 percent less
Tucson, Arizona
- Median household income: $45,856
- Average cost of living: 2 percent less
Wausau, Wisconsin
- Median household income: $53,300
- Average cost of living: 9 percent less than national average
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