Photo via WalletHub
Photo via WalletHub

In Seattle, the summer of 2015 will go down as one of the hottest on record for many reasons. The hot job market, fueled by Amazon’s record job growth. Our even hotter real estate market, though slightly cooling off, that’s being driven by all those techies coming to town. And, of course, the record-breaking actual temps.

According to WalletHub’s latest survey, Seattle is hot when it comes to being one of the best U.S. cities to live in, too.

The report on “2015’s Best & Worst Large Cities to Live In” puts us at No. 5, behind other hot growth markets like Austin, Texas, Raleigh, N.C., Colorado Springs, Colo., and San Jose, Calif.

According to WalletHub, large cities continue to be a big draw, helped by the fact that they are becoming “increasingly livable,” filled with amenities, activities, jobs and shifting demographics.

“Big cities continue to grow considerably faster than in the previous decade and earlier,” according to a recent Brookings Institute analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data,” WalletHub reports. “In 2011, the rate of urban population growth actually outpaced that within suburbs for the first time in nearly a century.”

WalletHub weighed 31 metrics to develop the list of the best and worst cities with populations more than 300,000, taking into account livability, quality of health and education systems, economic growth and taxes.

Seattle dominated in the job market growth category, coming in No. 1. See chart below:

Photo via WalletHub
Photo via WalletHub

 

And in the activities category:

Photo via WalletHub
Photo via WalletHub

See the Top 10 list of best cities here:

photo via WalletHub
photo via WalletHub

This is a good time to remember, if you haven’t already, to vote in tomorrow’s primary. It’s a big one that will help determine the finalists for Seattle’s City Council. These folks are going to have a huge impact on affordable housing, zoning, transportation and other key factors that can make or break a city.

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