10 Best 'Launch Pads' for Grads

A new study finds the 10 best cities for new graduates to live, work, and play. Most of the places Realtor.com advises grads to go are in the Midwest and Rust Belt.

Ali Wolf, director of economic research for data firm Meyers Research, tells the real estate platform, "As graduates consider where they should move for that first job, they need to consider if that place has a good level of real affordability," and many smaller cities have better conditions than do hyper-expensive markets on the West Coast.

A near-record number of college graduates are set to walk across that long stage to pick up their degrees and kick off their lives in earnest. But this first wave of Gen Z grads—most born after 1996—face some unprecedented challenges on their hops, skips, and jumps to adulthood. It's a classic good news, bad news story. The good: a supercharged economy with low unemployment. The bad: boundary-breaking levels of student debt, monthly rents, and real estate prices. Yikes!

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