Austin 'Most Changed' Among Nation's 50 Major Metro Areas

AUSTIN, TX — Austin, you sure have changed. Seriously: According to a new study, Austin is the city that has changed the most over the last decade in the entire country.

That was the conclusion of a study by MagnifyMoney, a subsidiary of LendingTree, that looked at a decade of data to determine which communities are undergoing dynamic transformations. To achieve the rankings, MagnifyMoney analyzed nine elements of local change from 2006-2016 among the 50 largest metros in the U.S. creating a "Change Score" (0-100) for each. Factored into the scores are such dynamics as commute times, income, house prices, crime rates, building permits and more.

According to the data, Texas in general emerged as a hot spot for change with Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston ranked in the top three of most-changed cities among the nation's biggest metro areas.

Here's what the study had to say about the three most-changed cities:

• Austin, Texas (90.4). Austin is a magnet for change, with the fastest job growth in the nation (+40% since 2006), 60% of residents moving since 2010, and a 54% rise in house prices since 2006, the most of the 50 metros ranked. Relatively lower living costs than tech centers like the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, along with a combination of satellite offices of larger tech companies, a burgeoning startup scene and no state income tax all contribute to Austin’s change leadership. The lowest-ranked element of Austin growth, building permits (No. 25 of 50), explains some of the outsize housing price appreciation.
• Dallas-Fort Worth (89.7). Dallas isn’t tops for change in any of the nine categories we looked at, but it ranks high because it’s in the top 10 for five categories, and ranks no lower than No. 19 (growth in rent, at 31% since 2006) for any single category. Dallas-Fort Worth’s top rank is for the decline in its crime rate, No. 4 (and down 43% from 2006).
• Houston (86.2). Houston rounds out the trio of big Texas cities at the top of the change list, led by housing factors. It ranks No. 2 for house price appreciation, at 38% from 2006, and No. 3 for building permit expansion. It lags on crime rate change (-27% from 2006), on which it ranked No. 23 of 50 metros.

San Antonio also made the list of most-changed cities, ranked eighth with an overall change score of 82.9 in the MagnifyMoney study.

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>>> Graphics courtesy of MagnifyMoney