Southwest is Best Region for Young Adults to Thrive During the Recession

NEW YORK, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Portfolio.com, the national business news site that provides services for small and mid-sized business executives, today named Austin, Texas, as the best market in the country for young adults, and anointed the Southwest as the best region. The ranking is the latest installment of Portfolio.com's popular U.S. Uncovered series – a monthly collection of exclusive, in-depth analyses of U.S. lifestyle trends.  

"Entrepreneurs looking to jump-start their business and marketers looking for the disposable income of this crucial demographic now know where to focus," said J. Jennings Moss, editor of Portfolio.com. "The Southwest is making headway in attracting younger crowds and re-establishing itself as a destination for those in their 20s and 30s looking for opportunities during the recession."

    
    
    
    
                          BEST PLACES FOR 
                           YOUNG ADULTS
                          
                           Metro Area
                          ---------------
                           Austin
                           Washington  
                           Raleigh
                           Boston
                           Houston
                        
                           Source: Portfolio.com
    
    

Two qualities that helped Austin stand out among the 67 metros, said G. Scott Thomas, a nationally-recognized demographer who creates the analyses for Portfolio.com. Texas' capital city added 99,200 jobs in five years and its annual employment growth of 2.8 percent is the fastest in America.

Behind Austin at the top of the list:  Washington DC, Raleigh and Boston. Four other Southwest metros also made the top 10: Houston, Oklahoma City, Dallas-Forth Worth and Tulsa. Detroit, with a loss of 343,700 jobs in the past five years, sits at the bottom of the ranking, along with two Midwest industrial and two Sun belt metros: Cleveland, Dayton, Tampa-St. Petersburg and Riverside-San Bernadino.

Businesses looking for where the most affluent young Americans are will do well to focus on the coasts, according to the Portfolio.com analysis. Metropolitan areas where more than one-third of households under age 45 have incomes of $100,000 or more are led by San Francisco Bay-area metros, while the Northeast Corridor is also well-represented:

    
    
    
    
                           WHERE THE YOUNG MONEY IS
                     
                     Metro Area                Percentage
                     -------------------------------------
                     San Jose                        47.8%
                     Bridgeport-Stamford, CT         41.2%
                     San Francisco-Oakland           39.2%
                     Washington                      38.5%
                     Boston                          34.7%
                     Oxnard-Thousand Oaks, CA        33.9%
    
                     Households under the age of 45 with incomes of $100,000
                      or more (2008)
                     Source: Portfolio.com
    
    

For the "Best Markets for Young Adults" survey, Portfolio.com analyzed 67 U.S. metros with populations above 750,000 that offered the best opportunities for workers in their 20s and early 30s. A 10-part formula looked at strong growth rates, moderate costs of living, and substantial pools of young adults who are college-educated and employed.

The U.S. Uncovered series – new this year for Portfolio.com – provides original, insightful analysis of the American lifestyle and business trends of interest to the $13.7 trillion-dollar market of small- and mid-sized business executives, who will fuel the country's economic recovery over the next five years. According to data compiled annually by American City Business Journals, spending from small and mid-sized businesses is expected to reach $1.83 trillion this year and these executives are optimistic about future business prospects.

Earlier U.S. Uncovered rankings this year looked at the "Top U.S. Wealth Centers," naming Newport Beach as #1; and "Small Business Vitality," naming Texas the best state and Austin the top city for small business.

About Portfolio.com

Portfolio.com is a national business news site that provides services for small and mid-sized business executives. Comprising original, in-depth reporting, thought-provoking insights, colorful features, exclusive analysis of custom research, and an intelligent business-news filtering tool, Portfolio.com is the first national business media outlet dedicated solely to delivering actionable news and information to this coveted $13.7 trillion audience. Portfolio.com relaunched in December 2009 as the information destination for business executives, insiders and strategists within the growing and profitable American City Business Journals.

About American City Business Journals

American City Business Journals engages 13.5 million decision makers each month through the company's 40 newsweeklies, 42 Web sites, digital newsletters and more than 400 local events across the country. It is the largest publisher of business-to-business information in the United States. More than 4 million readers each week engage with exclusive, in-depth coverage of local business communities; some 9 million unique monthly users engage with the company's digital content; more than 11 million e-newsletters are delivered each month via email; and the company sees more than 1 million mobile page views each month. American City is a unit of Advance Publications Inc., which also operates Conde Nast Magazines, Parade magazine, Fairchild Publications, the Golf Digest companies, Newhouse Newspapers and cable television interests.

SOURCE Portfolio.com