Kalamazoo No. 3 City For Creatives in U.S.

Which cities present the best opportunities for today’s creative workers? Kalamazoo is No. 3 in the COUNTRY!

SmartAsset.com compared the cost of living in major U.S. cities to the concentration of creative workers in those cities. They also considered 28 different professions in the analysis, including jobs like graphic designer, choreographer and photographer.

They found that zero West Coast cities and just one East Coast city ranked in the top 10.  9 of the top 10 cities for creatives in SmartAsset’s study are located in one of these two regions. If housing prices and the cost of living in cities like San Francisco and New York continues to climb, more and more creatives may head that way.

No. 3. Kalamazoo, Michigan:

"In many cities, creatives have to take on a second job or a 'day job' in order to pay the bills, focusing on their art (or music or writing or photography) in the off-hours. In Kalamazoo, such a trade-off may not be necessary. The city’s cost of living is 15% lower than the national average and half the cost of living in New York and Los Angeles.  Nonetheless, the city still has a rich creative culture. With two local institutions of higher education (Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College), as well as the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, creatives in the area likely have no trouble finding support and inspiration in the local community."