You've packed up your dorm room, you're armed with a freshly minted college degree and now it's time to move on.
Leaving campus, getting a job and a finding place to live has never been easy. Despite the strongest job market in years, college grads this year are finding that a good job offer often lands you in a very pricey housing market. But an area with cheap housing is still unaffordable if you can't find a job.
The sweet spot, then, is a place with a wide choice of entry-level jobs, plenty of affordable housing — and lots of other college grads like you to hang out with.
Call them starter cities.
To find out where they are, researchers at Trulia and LinkedIn mashed up metro-level data on local housing affordability and current job listings to see where recent grads face the best prospects of getting started.
The list includes some often overlooked locations.