Sammamish College Grads Have Lowest Student Debt Rates In U.S.

SAMMAMISH, WA There's a student loan debt crisis in the U.S., but college graduates living in Sammamish appear to be almost immune to it.

Sammamish college graduates had the second-lowest amount of student debt out of over 2,500 cities in the U.S., according to the personal finance site WalletHub. The survey found that Sammamish residents with a bachelor's degree had about $16,500 in debt, but were earning a median of $99,229. That means their debt-to-earnings ratio is just 16.5 percent.

The ranking was created by comparing TransUnion data on student loan debt to the median income for a person over age 25 with a bachelor's degree in each city on the list.

By comparison, the city with the highest debt-to-earnings ratio in the nation was Sun City West, Ariz. Graduates living in that city left college with about $18,000 in debt, but went on to earn only about $21,000.

Most other cities in the region fared well in the rankings, with all cities below the 48th percentile. Here's where other cities in Puget Sound ranked for debt-to-income ratio:

Seattle
Median debt: $22,899
Median income: $61,139
Debt-to-income ratio: 37.45

Redmond
Median debt: $19,386
Median income: $88,682
Debt-to-income ratio: 21.86 percent

Woodinville
Median debt: $15,239
Median income: $68,542
Debt-to-income ratio: 22.23 percent

Kirkland
Median debt: $20,952
Median income: $75,239
Debt-to-income ratio: 27.85 percent

Bellevue
Median debt: $20,525
Median income: $74,785
Debt-to-income ratio: 27.45 percent

Issaquah
Median debt: $20,699
Median income: $81,094
Debt-to-income ratio: 25.52 percent

Mercer Island
Median debt: $24,012
Median income: $76,060
Debt-to-income ratio: 31.57 percent

Renton
Median debt: $16,900
Median income: $57,260
Debt-to-income ratio: 29.51 percent

Shoreline
Median debt: $20,037
Median income: $54,517
Debt-to-income ratio: 36.75 percent

The only city that did better than Sammamish was Santa Paula, Calif., which is in a rural area northwest of Los Angeles. The loan-to-debt ratio for graduates there was 15.2 percent.