Houston has many reasons for being called the best city in America: it’s ranked as one of the top small business friendly cities, it led in maintaining jobs during the recession, and it’s the country’s number one job creator. Houston is also home to the nation’s booming energy industry and is more diverse than New York City. In addition, you can stretch your paycheck farther than anywhere else in the country. Now add the city’s thriving restaurant and cultural scene, and you’ll understand why Houston is the best city in America.
Job creation
Houston was recently ranked as the number one city for creating jobs. As of March 2013, the jobs recovered in Houston were at 230.5 percent. The city’s unemployment rate is also way below the national level.
Stretching a paycheck farther
To live well you don’t have to have high pay. It’s more about how much everything costs. Houston can’t be beat here. After adjusting for cost of living, the city has the highest pay in the country at $75,256. This beats places like the San Jose area where the wages are high, but the cost of living is extremely high.
Housing is affordable
While the rest of the country was experiencing a severe housing bubble, Houston’s wasn’t as extreme.
Many Fortune 500 headquarters are located in Houston
With the exception of New York, Houston is home to more Fortune 500 headquarters than anywhere else in the nation. There are 22 Fortune 500 companies whose headquarters are located in Houston. This is twice as much as Dallas or Atlanta. These companies include Conoco Phillips, Marathon Oil, Sysco, Apache, Halliburton and many more.
Houston is home to NASA
The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is located in Houston, which is why it’s called the Space City. Houston is also home to America’s Astronaut Corps. It’s also the training location for international astronauts going to space.
Most exciting place to eat
In a recent article, the New York Times gave excellent reviews about Houston restaurants Oxheart and Underbelly. Pete Wells, the paper’s chief food critic, wrote that the city is becoming “one of the country’s most exciting places to eat.” The restaurants have a fantastic range of ethnic cuisine, spectacular seafood, and great barbecue. Vietnamese food is excellent because of the massive expatriate population. The Mexican food and Cajun food restaurants are also great.
Booming oil and gas industry
Houston is home to oil and gas corporations such as Conoco Phillips and Marathon. It’s also the center of the petrochemical industry. The energy sector is responsible for a large amount of the job growth and provides approximately 3.4 percent of all jobs.
