Once Again the Triangle Tops Forbes Best Places to Live List
Either way, we are in better shape than most places with regards to employment, real estate and other factors. Sure the North Carolina unemployment is the 4th highest in the country at just over 10%, but our local area is much lower than the national or state average. Why? Because of the diverse industry that makes up our area. We have a medical community based on the colleges in the area, government jobs as the capital of the state, the tech sector of RTP, among other industries. The problem is not the market here. People are still coming here for employment and a great quality of life. The problem is that people cannot sell their homes where they are coming from and in turn, they cannot buy here which affects our market.
In most economic down turns, you do not realize they have begun until they are really bad and it is only then when you look back and see when they actually started. The same is true of the recovery. It usually begins to happen when things are at their worst, and people do not realize the recovery is underway until it has already started. Could the recent rebound in the market signal we are almost there? Who knows – trying to time anything is tough, and I feel that things cannot get much worse, so they have to get better right?
Back to Forbes list. According to WRAL, Forbes magazine cited the Triangle's strong job growth – both past and projected – low business costs and highly educated work force.
The region's unemployment rate jumped to 7.9 percent in January, losing 12.200 jobs, and IBM laid off several hundred workers in Research Triangle Park on Thursday.
Forbes said the number of jobless will likely continue to grow this year after five years of 4 percent annual job growth. The employment picture is expected to brighten in 2010 and 2011, however, and Moody's Economy.com projects a three-year annual employment gain of 1.4 percent, which would be the 15th-best in the country.
"Raleigh is holding up better than any other place in North Carolina," Matthew Martin, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Va., told the magazine.
North Carolina placed six metros among the top 20 on Forbes' list. Asheville finished sixth, Wilmington was 13th, Winston-Salem was 18th and Charlotte was 19th.
I am glad I am in the Triangle and I am glad I am selling real estate here!
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