Thursday, February 2, 2012

Raleigh-Cary Housing Market: #1 Metro Area To Outshine In 2012

Raleighcaryhousingmarket

Raleigh-Cary NC is the #1 metro housing market in the nation that is expected to outshine all the rest.

Despite a steep drop in sales, the Raleigh-Cary market saw considerable price appreciation last year, with its median sales price for single-family homes jumping 7.3 percent from third-quarter 2010 to third-quarter 2011.

At $224,300, the Raleigh-Cary metro had the highest median sales price among the 10 markets on this list and was the only market with a median sales price above the U.S. median. Nonetheless, its affordability rate stayed above the national level, with 73.6 percent of its homes affordable to households earning the area’s median income, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index.

The Raleigh market is buoyed by a young, educated population that grew a whopping 41.8 percent from 2000-2010, making it the fourth fastest-growing metro in the nation during that period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Forbes Ranks Raleigh Number 4 In Nation For Technology Jobs

Technologyjobs
Forbes 
magazine has named Raleigh number four on its 2011 list of the top cities for technology jobs.

The Forbes article states that technology jobs have outpaced the overall rate of new employment by four times.  Number one on the list is Seattle, followed by Baltimore, Columbus, Ohio, and Raleigh.  Salt Lake City, Utah, rounds out the top five.

Seattle is home to Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Boeing, and, according to the article, “has enjoyed the steadiest and most sustained tech growth over the past decade.”

Forbes used the latest high-tech employment data collected by EMSI, an economic modeling firm, for creating the list.  An outside analysis group then charted cities that have gained the most manufacturing, software and services jobs over the past 10 years.  They allowed for factors such as concentration of tech employment and used the definition of high tech industries from TechAmerica, a large technology trade association.

Raleigh was one of only 11 of the cities Forbes analyzed which had overall tech growth in the last decade.  The article says cities like Raleigh, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Columbus which have major research universities have somewhat of an edge, but “it’s one thing to produce scientists and engineers; it’s another to generate employment for them over the long term.”  San Jose and San Francisco are cited as areas with large academic centers but weak tech job growth.

While Raleigh had job growth of 2.8 percent over the past decade and 6 percent over the past two years, other southern tech hubs such as Houston, Dallas and Austin lost between 6 and 25 percent of their technology jobs over the past 10 years.  Detroit and New Orleans are seen as possible up-and-coming tech regions.

~ Raleigh Ranks #4 In USA For Technology Jobs

 

 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Scotty McCreery - Garner's American Idol 2011 - I Love You This Big

Garner NC's Scotty McCreery, American Idol Winner 2011, continues his dream today as CMT premieres his new video "I Love You This Big".  Scotty McCreery sang the song during the American Idol finale this past season.  Congrats to Scotty and his family, we are very proud of you. 

Source: Scotty McCreery - I Love You This Big - Garner's Idol Winner

 

Monday, July 18, 2011

North Carolina Mortgage Closing Costs - 2nd Lowest In U.S.

North Carolina Mortgage Closing Costs Are Lowest In NationNorth Carolina is the second cheapest state for mortgage closing costs even though they are going up nationwide, according to a new survey from Bankrate Inc.

The Bankrate 2011 Closing Costs Survey shows that nationwide the average origination and title fees on a $200,000 mortgage are up 8.8 percent from a year ago for a total of $4,070.

In North Carolina, the total cost is $3,410, which includes $1,839 in title and closing costs, as well as $1,571 in origination fees. Origination fees include lender charges for services such as underwriting and processing. Only Arkansas, at $3,378, had a cheaper total.

New York is the most expensive state with total fees of $6,183, followed by Texas ($4,944) and Utah ($4,906).

Check out the Bankrate 2011 Closing Costs Survey here.

Source: North Carolina Mortgage Closing Costs - Lowest in USA

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Forbes : Raleigh NC Top U.S. City For Young Professionals

Raleigh Ranked No. 2 USA City For Young Professionals

youngprofessionals Forbes : Raleigh Is Tops For Young Professionals

Forbes loves Raleigh, really!  Following a No. 1 ranking among the 50 Best Places for Business and Careers, and a No. 2 ranking on its list of the Next Big Boom Towns in the U.S., the magazine ranked the Raleigh region as No. 2 on it’s list of America’s Best Cities For Young Professionals.

Forbes wrote, “With an abundance of colleges and universities in the area such as University of North Carolina and Duke University, and Research Triangle, a major center for high-tech and biotech research, more than 42% of the local population touts BA degrees, making it the most educated of the cities we looked at.”

To determine the best cities for young professionals, which they define as adults aged from 24 to 34 who hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher, Forbes started with the 100 largest U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas (cities and the suburbs surrounding them) as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

Forbes assessed these cities based on seven factors, weighting them evenly:

  1. Local unemployment rates
  2. 2010 to 2012 job growth projections
  3. Census Bureau data on the number of small businesses (defined as less than 500 employees) per capita
  4. The number of large businesses
  5. The median salaries for 24- to 34-year-old employed college graduates
  6. Moody’s cost-of living index, to gauge how far those paychecks will go
  7. The percentage of the population aged 25 and older with college degrees in the area

The college town turned boom town is garnering a lot of love, just another reason why we “love” calling Raleigh NC home!

Source: Raleigh Is Tops For Young Professionals

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Raleigh NC Ranked #2 Next Big Boom Town

Raleigh Next Big Boom Town

Raleigh NC Ranked No. 2 "Big Boom" Town In Next Decade According To Forbes

Raleigh NC has experienced the 2nd-highest overall population increase and the 3rd-highest job growth over the past two decades in the United States. It also ranked among those regions seeing the biggest jump in new immigrants and is the No. 1 city for families with young children. The area is a magnet for technology companies fleeing the more expensive, congested and highly regulated northeast corridor. Affordable housing & short commute times are no doubt highly attractive to recent college graduates and millennials looking to start families.

To determine the next boom towns in the U.S., Forbes took the 52 largest metro areas in the country (those with populations exceeding 1 million) and ranked them based on various data indicating past, present & future vitality.

POSTEROUS_MORE
They started with job growth, not only looking at performance over the past decade but also focusing on growth in the past two years, to account for the possible long-term effects of the Great Recession. That accounted for roughly one-third of the score.

The other two-thirds were made up of a a broad range of demographic factors, all weighted equally. These included rates of family formation (percentage growth in children 5-17), growth in educated migration, population growth and, finally, a broad measurement of attractiveness to immigrants -- as places to settle, make money and start businesses.

Source: The Next Big Boom Towns in USA : Raleigh NC

   

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