Phoenix is one of the top markets in North America for develop technology firms, according to a new report from CBRE.
The commercial real estate firm had Phoenix come in sixth among U.S. and Canadian cities for technology growth.
Phoenix had a 58.1 percent technology talent growth rate, according to the research report. That put it ahead of Austin and Seattle. Charlotte is first with a 75 percent gain in tech talent. Nashville is second at 67.9 percent.
Overall, the San Francisco area again comes in as the top technology market in the U.S. Washington D.C., Seattle, New York and Austin round out the top five.
CBRE ranks cities on the size, growth and expected growth of their technology sectors as well as operating and real estate costs.
Phoenix come in 11th as an overall technology market behind Dallas (sixth) but ahead of Toronto (12th) and Chicago (13th).
Absent from the top 15 on both lists are Denver and Los Angeles.
Tech talent markets share several characteristics, including high concentrations of college-educated workers, major universities producing tech graduates and large millennial populations, said Colin Yasukochi , who authored the report on behalf of CBRE.
Phoenix is also among the top U.S. and Canadian cities for producing technology graduates.
Phoenix comes fifth for students completing new tech degrees, according to CBRE.
The Phoenix market has a large college student population via Arizona State University and Maricopa Community Colleges. It’s also the base for University of Phoenix and Grand Canyon University.
But Arizona’s economy isn’t creating enough technology jobs to keep all those students here. Phoenix had 12,400 fewer jobs for those graduates, according to the CBRE data.
San Francisco and Dallas, for example, had job surpluses of 89,600 and 25,500, respectively, compared to their number of local tech grades.
Here’s CBRE’s list of the U.S. markets producing the most high-tech grads:
- New York,
- Washington
- Los Angeles.
- Chicago
- Phoenix
- Boston
- San Francisco
- Atlanta
- Columbus, Ohio,
- Detroit.
Here’s the top 15 overall tech markets
- San Francisco
- Washington
- Seattle
- New York
- Austin
- Dallas-Fort Worth
- Boston
- Raleigh-Durham
- Atlanta
- Baltimore
- Phoenix
- Toronto
- Chicago
- Orange County, California
- Minneapolis
Here’s the top technology growth markets (2010 to 2015)
- Charlotte 74.7%
- Nashville 67.9%
- SF Bay Area 61.5%
- Baltimore 61.4%
- Oklahoma City 59.0%
- Phoenix 58.1%
- Austin 51.8%
- Tampa 50.9%
- Seattle 50.2%
- Vancouver, BC 50.1%
Mike Sunnucks writes about residential and commercial real estate, government, law, sports business and workplace issues.
