This Triangle city is one of the best rental markets for recent college grads. Here’s why
One Triangle city is among the top 10 rental markets in the country for recent college graduates.
Raleigh was ranked No. 4 in the report, released by Realtor.com in early May.
“Graduates have a lot to consider when deciding where to start that next phase,” Danielle Hale, the chief economist of Realtor.com, said in a press release. “Considerations like finding an affordable place to live, positive job prospects and a nice lifestyle, are all important and it can be tricky to balance each of these factors.”
Cities were ranked based on factors including:
- affordable rent
- housing stock available
- college graduate-friendly jobs
- job stability
- opportunities for job growth
- how many similarly aged peers live in the area
- short commutes and availability of entertainment
- shopping
- dining and other lifestyle business options
Realtor.com’s analysis considered 313 cities and towns with at least 75,000 people, all within the 50 largest metro areas in the U.S. Recent college graduates are defined as people between 25 and 29 years old who earned a bachelor’s degree and were not in school.
How Raleigh stacked up
The Triangle city was the only place in North Carolina that made Realtor.com’s list:
- No. 1: Austin, Texas
- No. 2: Bloomington, Minnesota
- No. 3: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- No. 4: Raleigh, North Carolina
- No. 5: Overland Park, Kansas
- No. 6: Richmond, Virginia
- No. 7: Scottsdale, Arizona
- No. 8: Beaverton, Oregon
- No. 9: St. Louis, Missouri
- No. 10: Atlanta, Georgia
Like Raleigh, many of these cities are home to or are nearby major universities. The University of Texas at Austin is located in the state’s capital city, Georgia Institute of Technology is in Atlanta, and Bloomington is just miles from Minneapolis, where the University of Minnesota is located.
Raleigh ranks highly for job availability
One of the metrics used in the analysis was availability of jobs for people who have a degree but no prior experience.
Realtor.com used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find occupations that match recent college graduates’ skills and qualifications.
The Austin metro area, which is home to tech companies including Dell, had the highest percentage of occupations fit for recent college grads, at 29.6%. Raleigh, of course, is near Research Triangle Park and had the second highest, 28.8%. Bloomington, Minnesota, took the third spot, with 26.7%.
Raleigh’s stats for other metrics
Realtor.com’s analysis provided data on rent-to-income ratio, average commute time and culture and lifestyle businesses per 1,000 households for each of the 10 cities in the ranking.
Here’s the data for Raleigh:
- Rent-to-income ratio: 21.4%
- Average commute time: 25 minutes
- Culture and lifestyle businesses per 1,000 households: 17.1
Only Bloomington and Overland Park had lower rent-to-income ratios compared to Raleigh; Austin had the same ratio as Raleigh.
Raleigh had the fewest culture and lifestyle businesses per 1,000 households.
Its average commute time was the same as in Pittsburgh and St. Louis, while Bloomington, Overland Park, Richmond and Scottsdale had shorter commute times.
Snapshot: Rental markets in the Triangle
Last year, the Triangle was one of the most competitive rental markets in the country, The News & Observer previously reported. RentCafe’s year-end report showed that while prices were slowly coming down, apartment shoppers still faced challenges — with about eight would-be renters vying for each empty apartment The Raleigh-Cary metro area ranked 36 of 139 large markets in RentCafe’s analysis.
At the same time, new construction was up. Another RentCafe report found that 10,922 apartments in the Raleigh-Cary region would become available by the end of 2023. The 3.8% increase was double the national average of 1.9%, The N&O reported.
The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Raleigh fell 1.6% to $1,270 in April 2024, a 10.6% decline year-over-year, The N&O reported. And in Durham, the median rent dropped 1.4% to $1,463, a 4.7% decline year-over-year.
As prices fall, likely a result of increasing supply, Triangle renters can expect to see deals such as waived fees, no deposits and up to two months of free rent.
News & Observer reporter Chantal Allam contributed to this story.
This story was originally published May 30, 2024 at 6:00 AM with the headline "This Triangle city is one of the best rental markets for recent college grads. Here’s why."
