Four weeks into recovering from a serious motorcycle accident, I can personally attest to the importance of physical therapists.

These angels may seems a little devilish as they inflict what seems like torture as those with injuries or chronic conditions work to get their bodies back into pre-accident shape. But their positive spirit, intimate knowledge of the body, and skills at pushing their clients to be their best leave no doubt that they deserve a special place in heaven for the work that they do.

In Texas, we're lucky, because three cities in the Lone Star State are on the list of the 10 best for physical therapists, according to the Austin-based startup SpareFoot. Houston ranks No. 2, San Antonio comes in at No. 4, and Dallas lands at No. 7 on the list.

To find the 10 metro areas with the most job listings for physical therapists, SpareFoot teamed up with job site Indeed.com and then looked at such factors as job availability, average annual salary, median home price, and median annual rent. They combined the rankings, giving double weight to job availability, to determine the overall score.

San Antonio scores well on measures of affordability, despite having the ninth lowest average salary — $80,000.

Houston comes in near the top because it has the most affordable rents on the list and boasts an average salary of $100,000. Dallas gets points for rental affordability (it's fourth among the cities), although it comes in eighth on job availability, making it a bit tougher to find a job there than in other cities on the list.

Nationwide, physical therapists are in demand as the baby boomer generation ages and everyone lives more active lifestyles. U.S. News & World Report ranks physical therapy as No. 14 in its list of America's 100 Best Jobs, with employment expected to grow 34 percent from 2014 to 2024.

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