Many people assume the words “tech hub” are synonymous with big cities such as San Francisco and Seattle. Over the past few years, however, smaller towns such as Austin, Baltimore, and Raleigh have made concerted efforts to attract tech firms. The lower cost of living in those small- and medium-sized towns has managed to pull in a growing number of tech pros, suggests researchers at CBRE Group, a commercial real-estate firm. The organization recently crunched the numbers on some of the nation’s top tech hubs and discovered that a number of smaller cities are officially “momentum markets,” with a high tech-talent growth rate between 2010 and 2015. Those “momentum markets” include:
- Charlotte, NC (74.7 percent)
- Nashville, TN (67.9 percent)
- Bay Area, CA (61.5 percent)
- Baltimore, MD (61.4 percent)
- Oklahoma City, OK (59 percent)
- Phoenix, AZ (58.1 percent)
- Austin, TX (51.8 percent)
- Tampa, FL (50.9 percent)
- Seattle, WA (50.2 percent)
- Vancouver, BC (50.1 percent)