This time, we\u2019ll delve into the best cities for renters architecture and engineering occupations. According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the field includes architects and engineers ranging from civil to aerospace, as well as drafters, electro-mechanical technicians, landscape architects, surveyors, and mapping technicians.<\/p>\n
In terms of wages alone, architects and engineers in San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, are in the lead with $112,090 \u2014 nearly $14,000 ahead of the second-highest earners in San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco, CA.<\/p>\n
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Four more California metropolitan statistical areas also place in the top 10 for highest architect and engineer wages: Bakersfield ($96,350), Oakland-Hayward-Berkeley ($95,710), Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade ($94,420), and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale ($92,260).<\/p>\n
When we factor in job density \u2014 specifically, architecture and engineering jobs for every 1,000 jobs in each MSA \u2014 San Jose keeps its top spot, with 54.28 jobs per 1,000. Quite far behind San Jose, a hub of computer hardware engineers and technicians, are Detroit<\/a>-Dearborn-Livonia, MI (38.66); Albuquerque, NM (33.99); Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA (32.65); and Portland<\/a>-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA (31.71).<\/p>\n But we have one more factor to introduce: median one-bedroom rent prices. High rent prices pose a strong disadvantage to expensive metros in our ranking, but one that is easily overcome by a wealth of architecture and engineering jobs. To give each MSA in our ranking a composite score, we weighted the employment density 75%, and income-to-rent ratio the remaining 25%. The results?<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, with the highest employment score, again retained its top spot, despite having an income-to-rent ratio of just 3.76 \u2014 the ninth-lowest of all 76 cities we examined. San Jose\u2019s total score is 7.81 out of 10.<\/p>\n Detroit-Dearborn-Livonia was carried to a close second place by the best income-to-rent ratio in our study, combined with ample opportunity, for a total score of 7.47. Albuquerque (6.26) came in third, with Bakersfield, CA (5.02) and Wichita, KS (4.68) rounding out the top five.<\/p>\n Although few areas scored highly for architecture and engineering jobs, two MSAs stand out at the very bottom of the list: New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ, and Miami<\/a>-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL, both scored less than .4 points. New York has the lowest income-to-rent ratio (2.37), which goes unredeemed by an extremely low job density.<\/p>\n Miami follows similar trends, lacking both employment opportunity and affordable rents, even on an engineer\u2019s median salary.<\/p>\n For press inquiries, contact Sam Radbil<\/a>.<\/p>\n