Progress seen in downtown's revival DOWNTOWN Population, wages growing, but city must add jobs as it adds people, CSU study says from A1

People are illuminated by car lights as they walk down East 4th Street in Cleveland.

(Tracy Boulian)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Young adults across the country graduated college this month. Some of them may want to look at Cleveland as a place for the next phase of their lives.

Last month, SmartAsset, a personal finance website, ranked 100 U.S. cities based on job availability, affordability and fun activities for 20-somethings. The report yielded the list of the "25 Best Cities for New College Grads."

Kicking things off at No. 25 is Cleveland. SmartAsset's report lists Cleveland as one of the most affordable cities in the country, which helped overcome average job availability and "life outside of work" ratings.

Street.com also points out that Cleveland has several Fortune 500 companies located in the area, including KeyCorp, Sherwin-Williams and Progressive in Mayfield Village.

Still, Cleveland was not the highest ranked city on the list. The top-five cities (in reverse order) were San Antonio, Kansas City, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati at No.1.

While Cleveland scored just as high in affordability, Cincinnati and Columbus were praised for "life outside of work" and having higher job availability ratings. And, unlike Cleveland, the unemployment rate in Cincinnati is lower than the national average.