Not only to residents in Fort Bend County enjoy the benefit of a community diverse in its cultures, cities, and lifestyles — they also enjoy a low cost of living and the second highest purchasing power in the Nation, according to a recent article by Houston Business Journal.

Financial technology company SmartAsset compared median income and cost of living nationwide and found that Fort Bend County residents have the second-highest purchasing power in the U.S., following Williamson County in Tennessee. In fact, of the top 10 counties for purchasing power in the U.S., half of them are in the Lone Star State: Fort Bend, Rockwall, Collin, Hemphill and Borden counties.

According to the report, Fort Bend residents with no children have a median income of $91,152 — the highest in the state — with a cost of living averaging about $43,451 per year. For comparison, the U.S. median income is $54,727, and the average cost of living is $33,092. 

Harris County was No. 68 in Texas — much higher than Dallas County (No. 129) and Bexar County (No. 84), where the city of Dallas and San Antonio reside, respectively. However, Austin's Travis County placed No. 34 thanks to its median income of $64,422 and average cost of living of $37,964. In Harris County, the median income was $55,584, while the average cost of living was $36,245. 

To create a purchase power ranking of the more than 3,000 counties in the U.S., SmartAsset first calculated two sets of the cost of living for a household with one adult and no dependents. Data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, the MIT Living Wage Study and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  

Take advantage of purchasing power in Fort Bend County and consider moving to one of these beautiful new homes.