Best Cities For Graduates to Repay Student Loan Debt

With the average borrower owing $28,565 in student loan debt, repayment after college can be an uphill struggle lasting for over a decade.

This means that many young adults have to put other life milestones, like getting married, on hold after college until they are free from substantial monthly student loan payments.

For student loan debtors, the city that they call home after graduating can make a big difference in their effort to repay student loan debt. Factors like the median student loan debt, unemployment rate, average salary, and cost of living for a specific city will impact how difficult it is to repay student debt.

In our new report, LendEDU considered these factors in determining the best and worst cities for graduates to remain in after college to have the easiest time repaying student loan debt.

10 Best Cities to Remain In After College to Repay Student Loan Debt

Please note that because we considered the median student loan debt for a specific city, this list ranks the best cities for a graduate to remain in after college to repay student debt as opposed to the best cities for a graduate to relocate to. For example, students that attended the University of Texas at Austin should consider remaining in Austin, Texas after college, while students that attended New York University should consider moving out of New York City.

Also note that a complete ranking featuring all 100 cities can be found below this top ten list.

1. San Jose, California

• Ease of Repayment Score: 87.28

• Median Student Loan Debt: $15,723
• Unemployment Rate: 2.3%
• Average Salary: $99,000
• Cost of Living: 49% above national average

2. Salt Lake City, Utah

• Ease of Repayment Score: 85.46

• Median Student Loan Debt: $15,165
• Unemployment Rate: 1.9%
• Average Salary: $66,000
• Cost of Living: 6% below national average

3. Provo, Utah

• Ease of Repayment Score: 84.40

• Median Student Loan Debt: $15,244
• Unemployment Rate: 1.7%
• Average Salary: $59,000
• Cost of Living: 2% below national average

4. Ogden, Utah

• Ease of Repayment Score: 84.04

• Median Student Loan Debt: $15,244
• Unemployment Rate: 1.8%
• Average Salary: $60,000
• Cost of Living: National average

5. Des Moines, Iowa

• Ease of Repayment Score: 82.13

• Median Student Loan Debt: $16,806
• Unemployment Rate: 2.1%
• Average Salary: $61,000
• Cost of Living: 10% below national average

6. Springfield, Massachusetts

• Ease of Repayment Score: 80.73

• Median Student Loan Debt: $14,615
• Unemployment Rate: 3.1%
• Average Salary: $61,000
• Cost of Living: On par with national average

7. Greenville, South Carolina

• Ease of Repayment Score: 80.16

• Median Student Loan Debt: $18,296
• Unemployment Rate: 1.9%
• Average Salary: $60,000
• Cost of Living: 5% below national average

8. Madison, Wisconsin

• Ease of Repayment Score: 80.12

• Median Student Loan Debt: $16,880
• Unemployment Rate: 2.2%
• Average Salary: $63,000
• Cost of Living: 7% above national average

9. Boise City, Idaho

• Ease of Repayment Score: 79.84

• Median Student Loan Debt: $17,744
• Unemployment Rate: 2.3%
• Average Salary: $61,000
• Cost of Living: 8% below national average

10. Grand Rapids, Michigan

• Ease of Repayment Score: 79.51

• Median Student Loan Debt: $17,024
• Unemployment Rate: 2.5%
• Average Salary: $58,000
• Cost of Living: 9% below national average

Complete Rankings

Methodology

The data used for this report came from a variety of sources. To find the median student loan debt for each of the 100 cities, the most recent data from Lending Tree was used. Student loan debt data was aggregated from MyLendingTree’s 8 million plus users and broken down by the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. Unemployment rate data was pulled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and also represents the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. Both average salary and cost of living data was pulled from PayScale, which can be accessed by creating an account with the website.

The calculations to complete the rankings took into account the median student loan debt, unemployment rate, average salary, and cost of living for each city relative to all cities in the study. Components for each factor were created where one is the lowest median student loan debt, lowest unemployment rate, highest average salary, and lowest cost of living while 0.5 is the highest median student loan debt, highest unemployment rate, lowest average salary, and highest cost of living. Each score for a city is the product of those components and was multiplied by 100 to normalize the results.