Miami ranked worst market for recent college grads in report by Trulia, LinkedIn

Millennials are moving to Miami in large numbers, but a new report by online real-estate company Trulia and LinkedIn suggests they might struggle when they get here.

The study analyzed 40 of the county’s strongest job markets for recent college graduate-friendly factors such as housing affordability and the number of entry-level jobs.

Miami ranked last.

The cities were compared based on three criteria: the share of job openings suitable for recent college grads; the share of rental units considered affordable (less than 30 percent of monthly income) compared with the median income of graduates ages 22 to 30; and the share of the total population in that age range that has a college degree.

Miami was at the bottom of the list, just behind Los Angeles, Sacramento and Orange County, California, and Portland, Oregon. Cities on the west coast generally scored lower than cities on the east coast.

“The only non-western metro — Miami — had the lowest score due to few graduate jobs, only moderate affordability and few recent college grads,” Trulia’s chief economist Ralph McLaughlin said in the report.

Topping the list as the best job markets for recent grads are Pittsburgh; Indianapolis; Kansas City, Missouri; Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Columbus, Ohio, in that order.

Still, put in context, the cities included in the report have strong job markets overall, including jobs for all levels and incomes, McLaughlin said.

“The lesson here for recent grads is that although it may be tempting to seek out places with the highest wages, doing so may not necessarily lead to a better quality of life because those areas also have high rents and a lower share of entry-level jobs,” McLaughlin said in the report.

In Miami, only 43.4 percent of rental listings are considered affordable for recent college graduates. The average rent in Miami is $2,000 a month, and the average college grad’s income is about $24,000, according to Trulia.

About 3 percent of the local population is composed of 22- to 30-year-olds with a college degree.

By comparison, in top-ranked Pittsburgh, 91.8 percent of homes are affordable for millennials with college degrees and 5.3 percent of the population is young and college-educated.

This story was originally published May 26, 2016 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Miami ranked worst market for recent college grads in report by Trulia, LinkedIn."