AreaProfile

Places That Don’t Have to Trade One Thing for Another

Strong job markets and affordable housing are close to independent of each other nationally, so nothing makes them go together. Here is how many cities clear a high bar on both at once, with good schools besides, and which ones do it best.

AreaProfile ResearchPublished September 11, 2026Updated October 8, 2026Data as of Current AreaProfile signal calculation, v1

Opportunity and housing affordability correlate only weakly across 1,543 published cities of 30,000 or more — a correlation of 0.25, close enough to independent that knowing a city's job-market signal says almost nothing about its housing-affordability signal. So nothing forces the two to go together, and clearing a high bar on both is a matter of how many cities happen to. Reaching the top fifth nationally on each, with a schools percentile of 70 or higher besides, 43 cities do — 3% of them. The table shows the 25 with the highest combined percentile.

Key findings

  • Bentonville, AR leads at the 100th percentile on opportunity, 99th on affordability and 98th on schools.
  • 12 states are represented across the 25 cities shown.
CityOpportunityAffordabilitySchools
Bentonville, AR100th99th98th
Bethel Park, PA99th94th98th
Chesterfield, MO95th96th97th
Morrisville, NC93rd96th96th
Milton, GA99th90th95th
Ankeny, IA98th89th95th
Madison, AL98th90th94th
Carmel, IN96th88th97th
Zionsville, IN98th87th94th
Rogers, AR99th96th81st
O'Fallon, MO95th88th94th
Blue Springs, MO92nd90th94th
Brookfield, WI87th93rd95th
Dublin, OH98th91st85th
Ballwin, MO94th85th93rd
Bella Vista, AR88th98th86th
Mason, OH97th89th85th
Greer, SC99th90th81st
Fulshear, TX84th98th87th
Upper Arlington, OH98th89th82nd
Urbandale, IA97th94th78th
Wildwood, MO98th92nd78th
Bettendorf, IA84th86th96th
Fishers, IN93rd89th85th
Westfield, IN98th84th86th
The 25 highest of 43 qualifying cities, by combined percentile. Higher means a stronger job market, more affordable housing, or better-performing schools. Download this table (CSV)

Opportunity, affordability and schools are all AreaProfile’s own computed signals, each built from several underlying measures rather than a single raw figure. A city can move on or off this list as any of the three refreshes, since all three are recalculated on the same schedule as the rest of the site.

Methodology

AreaProfile’s opportunity, affordability and schools signals — schools combining math and reading proficiency with students per teacher, not a single raw figure — are each computed nationally for every published city. This lists cities of 30,000 or more ranking in the top fifth nationally on both opportunity and affordability at once, with a schools percentile of 70 or higher — thresholds set high enough that clearing any one of them individually is unremarkable, but clearing all three at once is not.

Sources

Related

Every figure here is recalculated from the same measurements the profiles use. See the methodology for how the underlying data is collected and normalized, and the editorial policy for how these reports are written.