C&W Debuts Its Top Tech US Cities List

Theo Slagle

WASHINGTON, DC–For the better part of the past six months, Cushman & Wakefield researchers have been working on C&W’s inaugural top Tech Cities list.  To be sure, other firms have studied the impact of technology in a city or region’s real estate operations. C&W’s national report differs slightly, however, in that it has focused on what the firm calls a market’s “tech stew” — that is, the technical orientation of the local universities, capital, workers and overall entrepreneurial spirit or vibe. As C&W writes in its report:

Certain cities have the tech feel in the air, on the signage, in the conversations at the bars, in its population’s habits and preoccupations. In certain cities, tech is more deeply woven into the fabric of the city itself, and it’s dramatically shaping those local real estate markets.

For this first report, C&W came up with 25 cities that met its criteria [see chart for complete list] with the top five being:

1. San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley) 2. San Francisco, CA 3. Washington, DC 4. Boston/Cambridge, MA 5. Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC