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Greater Austin is a Great Place to Do Business
Austin Named One of America’s 50 Hottest Cities Austin was named by 80 prominent site location consultants who were asked to list the nation’s best cities for expanding and relocating. Austin’s reputation as a high-tech hot spot with an involved university community, as well as the planned Southwest Academy of Nano-Technology, put Austin on the list. (Expansion Management, 2/14/07)
Austin-Round Rock MSA Ranked No. 23 in Best Cities for Jobs Austin moved up 28 spots from last year’s number 51 spot thanks to the city’s income and job growth. (Forbes 2/07)
Austin Ranks No. 1 in Cleantech Incubation Clusters SustainLane Government analyzed US cities to see which led in combining Cleantech investments, infrastructure and supportive policies into a physical “cluster.” The ideal existing model for a Cleantech incubation cluster combines start-up or advanced stage venture capital (VC) and investor network access, including mentoring, Academic or federal research lab collaboration and active state or local government participation (field testing, prototyping, and pilot programs) and incentives. (Sustainlane Government 2/07)
Austin's Job Market is One of the Hottest in the Country Austin ranks fourth for projected job growth among metropolitan areas with at least one million residents and has a forecasted 24.7 percent job growth from 2005 to 2015. (Business 2.0 magazine citing data from research firm Global Insight Inc., 5/06)
Austin Area Employers Among Best Corporate Citizens Eight major employers in the Austin area are among the 100 best corporate citizens for 2006: Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, Intel, Wells Fargo & Co., Applied Materials, IBM, 3M and Whole Foods Market. The companies on the list, all of them publicly held, were ranked on their performance in eight stakeholder categories: shareholders, community, governance, diversity, employees, environment, human rights and product. (Business Ethics, Spring/06)
Austin Among Hottest U.S. Regions for Relocation, Expansion Site consultants who were surveyed for the report cited factors that include business climate, workforce quality, operating costs, incentive programs, and the ease of working with local political and economic development officials. (Expansion Management magazine, 2/06)
Austin Named One of the Hottest Spots for Wireless Austin ranks second in the nation for offering more free wireless “hot spots” than most places. Austin has 97 free hot spots according to JiWire, Inc. which ranked cities in the United States and around the world based on the number of wireless Internet connections in public places such as cafes and hotels. (JiWire, Inc., 1/06)
Expansion Management Notes Austin's High Tech Leadership The site consultant's magazine featured Austin in its Metro Spotlight as "one of the focal points of the high-tech sector, not only in the United States, but in the world." (Expansion Management, 10/05)
Austin is One of the Best Places to Start and Grow a Company Austin ranked ninth on the "Hot Cities" list compiled by Entrepreneur.com and the National Policy Research Council. Among the criteria was the number of startups, young companies and companies experiencing rapid growth. (www.entrepreneur.com/bestcities, 9/05)
Austin Employment Outlook Among Nation's Best Manpower ranked Austin tenth in its Fourth Quarter 2005 Employment Outlook Survey. The recruiting company's survey of employers showed that 41 percent of Austin area companies planned to hire more employees and none expected to reduce their payrolls. (www.manpower.com, 9/05)
Austin Ranked No. 16 Among Best Real Estate Markets for Expanding Companies in 2005 Expansion Management Magazine ranked the best metros for low prices and a wide selection of commercial and industrial real estate using data from the National Real Estate Index, Grubb & Ellis' Office Market Trends and Industrial Market Trends and RS Means Construction Cost Index. (Expansion Management 8/05)
Number Three Best Place for Business and Careers on Forbes’ List For the third straight year, Austin ranks in the top three places among 150 metro areas on such criteria as business costs, living costs, number of engineers, crime rates, job growth and employment rates. (Forbes, 05/05)
Red Herring Attributes Austin Comeback to Tech Talent, Lifestyle The article noted that it proved impossible “to find any entrepreneurs in Austin who did not express affection for the place” pointing out that high-tech paychecks in Austin continue to grow. (Red Herring, 04/11/05)
Austin Named One of Five Most Innovative Entrepreneurial Regions in the US This national assessment of entrepreneurship and regional economic growth and development ranked Austin on criteria that included high levels of R&D expenditures, the percentage of high tech establishments and the percentage of the population with a college degree. (www.sba.gov/advo/research, 04/05)
Greater Austin is a Great Place to Live
Austin Ranks Among the Eight Best of "America's Greatest Golf-Home Towns" Austin's live music scene, hike and bike trail, tech companies, the University of Texas and the city's affordability are touted as criteria that contributed to the ranking. (Men's Journal, 3/06)
Austin Ranks Second in 50 Best Places to Live Austin's live music scene, hike and bike trail, tech companies, the University of Texas and the city's affordability are touted as criteria that contributed to the ranking. (Men's Journal, 3/06).
Austin One of the Best Cities in Which to Have a Baby Fit Pregnancy magazine ranked Austin number 39 on their list. Their criteria included fertility services available; maternal and infant health risk; access to hospitals and doctors; safety; affordability; stroller friendliness; and birthing options. (Fit Pregnancy, 02/06)
Austin Ranks in Top 25 of Most Fit Cities Men’s Fitness magazine ranks Austin the 23rd fittest city in the country. The magazine compared cities in more than a dozen categories including the number of health clubs, the number of fast-food restaurants, television viewing, health care availability and the number of public basketball and tennis courts, golf course and swimming pools per capita. (Men’s Fitness magazine, 1/06)
Austin is Texas' Most Literate City and 16th nationwide A study by Central Connecticut State University developed a statistical profile of 69 cities over 250,000 population and ranked them according to internet resources, newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources and educational attainment. (www.ccsu.edu/Amlc/, 11/05)
One of Kiplinger's Top Seven Cool Cities Kiplinger's Your Money named Austin one of "seven locations that are perfect for young professionals. These cities all have a healthy head count of people under 30 and a solid or improving job market," the magazine said. (Your Money, 10/05)
Austin Ranks Highest in Homebuyer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is based on warranty and customer service, home readiness, sales staff, construction manager, quality of workmanship and materials, price and value, physical design elements, builder's design center, recreational facilities and location. (J.D. Power and Associates 2005 New Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Survey, 9/05)
Austin Executives Enjoy One of the Shortest Commutes A jobs website for annual incomes over $100,000 noted that Austin's average door-to-door commute is 32.6 minutes, lower than the average of 42.3 minutes for executives surveyed. (TheLadders.com 07/05)
Austin's Barton Creek Greenbelt Named Second Best Hiking Trail The Barton Creek Greenbelt is a 7.9 mile trail that follows spring-fed Barton Creek through lush foliage past a cavern and below steep cliffs. (www.americanhiking.org, 07/05)
Reader’s Digest Ranks Austin as One of the Cleanest Cities Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Reader’s Digest ranked the country’s 50 biggest metro areas on such measures as air pollution, water pollution, toxic emissions, hazardous waste and the number of sanitation workers per capita. (www.rd.com, 06/05)
Austin Ranked No. 2 Large Market for Families to Relocate Austin ranked second as the best site to which families could relocate among cities over 500,000 in population. Among the criteria considered were cost of living, taxes, home costs/appreciation, schools, climate, commute times, out-of-state tuition rules at local universities and regulation of long-term care facilities. (www.erc.org, 05/05)
Austin Ranked 8th Among the Top 25 Large City Arts Destinations AmericanStyle Magazine’s readers’ poll put Austin high on their list with New York, Chicago and San Francisco in this rating of arts attractions including the Blanton Art Museum, the Austin Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte, ArtHouse, the Guadalupe Art Center and Umlauf Sculpture Gardens. (www.americanstyle.com, 05/05)
Austin Ranks as the 10th Healthiest Large City Sperling’s Best Places ranked the 50 largest cities based on 50 measures in five categories: physical activity, health status, nutrition, lifestyle pursuits and mental wellness. (www.bestplaces.net, 04/05)
Austin Area High Schools Make Newsweek’s List of Top 1000 Thirteen Austin metro high schools were ranked among the nation’s Top 1000 by Newsweek magazine in 2005. Schools were scored by dividing the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken into the number of high school graduates.

Greater Austin is a Great Place to Do Business

Austin Named One of America’s 50 Hottest Cities
Austin was named by 80 prominent site location consultants who were asked to list the nation’s best cities for expanding and relocating. Austin’s reputation as a high-tech hot spot with an involved university community, as well as the planned Southwest Academy of Nano-Technology, put Austin on the list. (Expansion Management, 2/14/07)

Austin-Round Rock MSA Ranked No. 23 in Best Cities for Jobs
Austin moved up 28 spots from last year’s number 51 spot thanks to the city’s income and job growth. (Forbes 2/07)

Austin Ranks No. 1 in Cleantech Incubation Clusters
SustainLane Government analyzed US cities to see which led in combining Cleantech investments, infrastructure and supportive policies into a physical “cluster.” The ideal existing model for a Cleantech incubation cluster combines start-up or advanced stage venture capital (VC) and investor network access, including mentoring, Academic or federal research lab collaboration and active state or local government participation (field testing, prototyping, and pilot programs) and incentives. (Sustainlane Government 2/07)

Austin's Job Market is One of the Hottest in the Country
Austin ranks fourth for projected job growth among metropolitan areas with at least one million residents and has a forecasted 24.7 percent job growth from 2005 to 2015. (Business 2.0 magazine citing data from research firm Global Insight Inc., 5/06)

Austin Area Employers Among Best Corporate Citizens
Eight major employers in the Austin area are among the 100 best corporate citizens for 2006: Advanced Micro Devices, Dell, Intel, Wells Fargo & Co., Applied Materials, IBM, 3M and Whole Foods Market. The companies on the list, all of them publicly held, were ranked on their performance in eight stakeholder categories: shareholders, community, governance, diversity, employees, environment, human rights and product. (Business Ethics, Spring/06)

Austin Among Hottest U.S. Regions for Relocation, Expansion
Site consultants who were surveyed for the report cited factors that include business climate, workforce quality, operating costs, incentive programs, and the ease of working with local political and economic development officials. (Expansion Management magazine, 2/06)

Austin Named One of the Hottest Spots for Wireless
Austin ranks second in the nation for offering more free wireless “hot spots” than most places. Austin has 97 free hot spots according to JiWire, Inc. which ranked cities in the United States and around the world based on the number of wireless Internet connections in public places such as cafes and hotels. (JiWire, Inc., 1/06)

Expansion Management Notes Austin's High Tech Leadership
The site consultant's magazine featured Austin in its Metro Spotlight as "one of the focal points of the high-tech sector, not only in the United States, but in the world." (Expansion Management, 10/05)

Austin is One of the Best Places to Start and Grow a Company
Austin ranked ninth on the "Hot Cities" list compiled by Entrepreneur.com and the National Policy Research Council. Among the criteria was the number of startups, young companies and companies experiencing rapid growth. (www.entrepreneur.com/bestcities, 9/05)

Austin Employment Outlook Among Nation's Best
Manpower ranked Austin tenth in its Fourth Quarter 2005 Employment Outlook Survey. The recruiting company's survey of employers showed that 41 percent of Austin area companies planned to hire more employees and none expected to reduce their payrolls. (www.manpower.com, 9/05)

Austin Ranked No. 16 Among Best Real Estate Markets for Expanding Companies in 2005
Expansion Management Magazine ranked the best metros for low prices and a wide selection of commercial and industrial real estate using data from the National Real Estate Index, Grubb & Ellis' Office Market Trends and Industrial Market Trends and RS Means Construction Cost Index. (Expansion Management 8/05)

Number Three Best Place for Business and Careers on Forbes’ List
For the third straight year, Austin ranks in the top three places among 150 metro areas on such criteria as business costs, living costs, number of engineers, crime rates, job growth and employment rates. (Forbes, 05/05)

Red Herring Attributes Austin Comeback to Tech Talent, Lifestyle
The article noted that it proved impossible “to find any entrepreneurs in Austin who did not express affection for the place” pointing out that high-tech paychecks in Austin continue to grow. (Red Herring, 04/11/05)

Austin Named One of Five Most Innovative Entrepreneurial Regions in the US
This national assessment of entrepreneurship and regional economic growth and development ranked Austin on criteria that included high levels of R&D expenditures, the percentage of high tech establishments and the percentage of the population with a college degree. (www.sba.gov/advo/research, 04/05)

Greater Austin is a Great Place to Live

Austin Ranks Among the Eight Best of "America's Greatest Golf-Home Towns"
Austin's live music scene, hike and bike trail, tech companies, the University of Texas and the city's affordability are touted as criteria that contributed to the ranking. (Men's Journal, 3/06)

Austin Ranks Second in 50 Best Places to Live
Austin's live music scene, hike and bike trail, tech companies, the University of Texas and the city's affordability are touted as criteria that contributed to the ranking. (Men's Journal, 3/06).

Austin One of the Best Cities in Which to Have a Baby
Fit Pregnancy magazine ranked Austin number 39 on their list. Their criteria included fertility services available; maternal and infant health risk; access to hospitals and doctors; safety; affordability; stroller friendliness; and birthing options. (Fit Pregnancy, 02/06)

Austin Ranks in Top 25 of Most Fit Cities
Men’s Fitness magazine ranks Austin the 23rd fittest city in the country. The magazine compared cities in more than a dozen categories including the number of health clubs, the number of fast-food restaurants, television viewing, health care availability and the number of public basketball and tennis courts, golf course and swimming pools per capita. (Men’s Fitness magazine, 1/06)

Austin is Texas' Most Literate City and 16th nationwide
A study by Central Connecticut State University developed a statistical profile of 69 cities over 250,000 population and ranked them according to internet resources, newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources and educational attainment. (www.ccsu.edu/Amlc/, 11/05)

One of Kiplinger's Top Seven Cool Cities
Kiplinger's Your Money named Austin one of "seven locations that are perfect for young professionals. These cities all have a healthy head count of people under 30 and a solid or improving job market," the magazine said. (Your Money, 10/05)

Austin Ranks Highest in Homebuyer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is based on warranty and customer service, home readiness, sales staff, construction manager, quality of workmanship and materials, price and value, physical design elements, builder's design center, recreational facilities and location. (J.D. Power and Associates 2005 New Home Builder Customer Satisfaction Survey, 9/05)

Austin Executives Enjoy One of the Shortest Commutes
A jobs website for annual incomes over $100,000 noted that Austin's average door-to-door commute is 32.6 minutes, lower than the average of 42.3 minutes for executives surveyed. (TheLadders.com 07/05)

Austin's Barton Creek Greenbelt Named Second Best Hiking Trail
The Barton Creek Greenbelt is a 7.9 mile trail that follows spring-fed Barton Creek through lush foliage past a cavern and below steep cliffs. (www.americanhiking.org, 07/05)

Reader’s Digest Ranks Austin as One of the Cleanest Cities
Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Reader’s Digest ranked the country’s 50 biggest metro areas on such measures as air pollution, water pollution, toxic emissions, hazardous waste and the number of sanitation workers per capita. (www.rd.com, 06/05)

Austin Ranked No. 2 Large Market for Families to Relocate
Austin ranked second as the best site to which families could relocate among cities over 500,000 in population. Among the criteria considered were cost of living, taxes, home costs/appreciation, schools, climate, commute times, out-of-state tuition rules at local universities and regulation of long-term care facilities. (www.erc.org, 05/05)

Austin Ranked 8th Among the Top 25 Large City Arts Destinations
AmericanStyle Magazine’s readers’ poll put Austin high on their list with New York, Chicago and San Francisco in this rating of arts attractions including the Blanton Art Museum, the Austin Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte, ArtHouse, the Guadalupe Art Center and Umlauf Sculpture Gardens. (www.americanstyle.com, 05/05)

Austin Ranks as the 10th Healthiest Large City
Sperling’s Best Places ranked the 50 largest cities based on 50 measures in five categories: physical activity, health status, nutrition, lifestyle pursuits and mental wellness. (www.bestplaces.net, 04/05)

Austin Area High Schools Make Newsweek’s List of Top 1000
Thirteen Austin metro high schools were ranked among the nation’s Top 1000 by Newsweek magazine in 2005. Schools were scored by dividing the number of Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate tests taken into the number of high school graduates.