Which Bar Cities are Best for Living?

IRVINE, CA—Austin, TX; Springfield, MA; and Detroit are some of the best markets to do a St. Patrick's Day pub crawl since they are the top three cities for most bars per capita, according to RealtyTrac. The firm has partnered with analytics firm Acxiom to discover the top seven US zip codes in which to find a bar and has also ranked them on rental and home-payment affordability and number of Millennial residents, among other factors.

The report shows the top seven zip codes in which to find a bar are 78701 (Austin), 01103 (Springfield), 48226 (Detroit), 06510 (New Haven, CT), 32502 (Pensacola, FL), 80202 (Denver) and 70130 (New Orleans). There are a total of 88 bars in Austin, which works out to one bar for every 67 people. Springfield boasts a bar for one out of every 122 people, and Pensacola offers one bar for every one out of 148 people.

Perhaps more germane to the real estate industry are the statistics on rental and home-payment affordability and the percentage of Millennial residents (between ages 21 and 35 in 2015) in each of these markets. Zip code 15222 (Pittsburgh) offers the best rental affordability at 28.6% of median income, followed by zip code 32502 (Pensacola) at 29%, 70130 (New Orleans) at 30.7%, 20036 (Washington, DC) at 32.4% and 19102 (Philadelphia) at 32.6%. Pensacola's 32502 also ranked high for best home-payment affordability at 27.2% of income, followed by 75226 (Dallas) at 33.4%, 01103 (Springfield) at 34.2%, 48226 (Detroit) at 37% and 20036 (Washington DC) at 37.6%. Zip codes with the highest percentage of Millennial residents were 06510 (New Haven) at 58.5%, 30303 (Atlanta) at 58.3%, 68102 (Omaha) at 54.1%, 19102 (Philadelphia) at 47.5% and 23219 at 46.8%.

Daren Blomquist, VP for RealtyTrac, tells GlobeSt.com, “For this report, we were not saying there is a correlation between affordability and bars per capita, but we were simply providing that affordability data as an add-on to show which of these markets with a high per-capita rate of bars are most affordable to live in. For investors, the per capita rate of bars is certainly one factor among many they should look at when deciding whether to invest in a market. A high density of bars per capita can be a good indication of a neighborhood that is dynamic and growing and has a lot of potential renters—possibly who will eventually also be first time buyers. Investors who can find the combination of relatively affordable neighborhoods with a good nightlife should be in good shape when purchasing rental properties in those neighborhoods.”

For a complete list of the zip codes with the highest number of bars per capita, click here.

As GlobeSt.com reported last week, RealtyTrac recently released a report on a new study on Normcore neighborhoods and has applied the concept to real estate by identifying US neighborhoods that are the most normal or average when it comes to home values, home size, schools and year built.