SA VS RGV

Surprising South Texas city bests San Antonio as top place to live

McAllen Palms Crossing shopping center fountain

The Palms Crossing shopping center in McAllen is located near the convention center.

exploremcallen.com/

Four Texas cities were just hailed in U.S. News & World Report's new rankings of the best places to live for their high quality of life, and the Rio Grande Valley city of McAllen made the cut while San Antonio is nowhere to be seen.

This new list, published July 11, is part of U.S. News' Best Places to Live rankings, but the 25 cities that made the list were chosen solely based on quality of life factors such as education, healthcare, crime rates, air quality, resilience to natural disasters, and more.

The top two cities that are the best places to live for their top-tier quality of life are Brookline (No. 1) and Newton (No. 2) in Massachusetts. Bethesda, Maryland (No. 3), Bellevue, Washington (No. 4), and Malden, Massachusetts (No. 5) round out the top five.

McAllen is located near the U.S.-Mexico border, about 240 miles south of San Antonio, and boasts a population of more than 144,000 residents. U.S. News praised the city's constant sunny weather, plus its "vibrant business scene" that spans retail, international trade, and manufacturing industries.

La Plaza Mall McAllen La Plaza Mall has been expanding over time to bring in new retailers and restaurants.exploremcallen.com/

"...This bicultural community ranks No. 32 for college readiness and reports a shorter commute time, 18.3 minutes, compared with the national average of 22 minutes," the report's author wrote. "McAllen also is one of the most affordable cities, claiming the No. 9 spot for cost of living and No. 23 on the most affordable places to live list."

U.S. News says the median home value in McAllen comes out to $169,631, which also adds to its overall budget-friendliness. However, the report also mentions that McAllen's affordability does have a few drawbacks: The city's median household income of $59,255 is about $20,000 lower than the national average, and its unemployment rates are higher than the national average.

The report doesn't give a reason why San Antonio was snubbed, but McAllen's shortcomings seemingly don't compare to the poor livability of the Alamo City.

Austin is the best place to live statewide, plus other Texas cities
The Texas Capital ranked as the 13th best place to live nationwide for its quality of life, and it was the highest ranked city in Texas. U.S. News praised Austin's role as an innovative, tech-driven city with "a stronger job market than many similarly sized cities" that draws in major companies like IBM, Dell, Tesla, and more.

The report also touted Austin's contested reputation as the "Live Music Capital of the World," specifically citing the 200-plus music venues sprawling throughout the city, plus iconic events like South by Southwest and Austin City Limits Music Festival.

"Despite its urban setting, Austin ranks in the top 5 percent for air quality and offers nearly 20,000 acres of green space for residents to hike, swim and picnic," the report said. "Austin also scores in the top 20 percent nationally for both college readiness and overall health care access, making it a great choice for many seeking a high quality of life."

Earlier this year, the University of Texas at Austin topped U.S. News' separate rankings of the best graduate schools in Texas.

According to U.S. News, the median income for an Austin household comes out to $96,149 a year, and the median value of a home is more than $584,000.

Elsewhere in Texas, Houston ranked as the 15th best place to live for its quality of life, while Dallas ranked 20th.

U.S. News' top 10 best places to live for their quality of life are:

No. 1 – Brookline, Massachusetts
No. 2 – Newton, Massachusetts
No. 3 – Bethesda, Maryland
No. 4 – Bellevue, Washington
No. 5 – Malden, Massachusetts
No. 6 – Chapel Hill, North Carolina
No. 7 – Cambridge, Massachusetts
No. 8 – Kirkland, Washington
No. 9 – Rockville, Maryland
No. 10 – Passaic, New Jersey

best places to live us news & world report rankings real estate san antonio mcallen lists

Jobs report

Texas ranks as No. 7 best state to find a job, says new report

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

It's easier to get hired in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

job market texas wallethub jobs

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Jobs report

Texas ranks as No. 7 best state to find a job, says new report