Why?
We could talk for days about the benefits and highlights of living in the Raleigh area, but what about our town actually entices new residents and businesses?- RTP – Although our office isn’t headquartered here, we have to give some credit to Research Triangle Park. RTP, located right in the middle of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, and is recognized as one of the most prominent high-tech research and development centers in the US. As of 4 years ago in 2007, RTP was home to over 130 research and development facilities with about 40,000 employees working for a total of 157 organizations. RTP has won Raleigh many accolades including Smartest City in the US.
- Education – If RTP wasn’t enough, the Raleigh area is home to an incredible number of Colleges, making Higher Education a staple of the booming economy. Raleigh’s downtown is home to 5 colleges, itself, including NC State, with about 30,000 students. Throw in UNC Chapel Hill and Duke, and Wake Forest University and you have a huge pool of highly intelligent young adults and educated faculty.
- Housing Market – Raleigh’s Housing is one of the most attractive features at the moment. In fact, the Raleigh-Cary housing market ranks as America’s #1 Healthiest Housing Market by Builder Magazine. These rankings are based on quite a few different factors, including home price fluctuation, household income growth, building permit activity and unemployment rates. The icing on the cake is that the Durham-Chapel Hill area came in close behind at #3, making the Triangle area a wonderful place to buy or build a home.
- Economic Stability – Combining all of the above, and you can guess that Raleigh is seeing the benefits of a stable economy or as stable as one can be in the midst of a recession. The well-educated workforce helps with this title, as 41% of Raleigh adults hold a bachelor’s degree, which is the sixth highest percentage in the country. 44% of Raleigh’s workforce holds management or professional positions, which surpasses all but three other markets. A Qualified workforce, high population of educated young-adults, an affordable real-estate market and exceptional growth are all reasons on why Raleigh’s economy has continuously ranked highly.
- Positive Growth – Overall positive growth is moving Raleigh forward, creating a bigger and better city for all of its residents. Last year, Portfolio.com ranked Raleigh the major metropolitan area that offers the best quality of life in the US. Now, that is quite a bold statement, but we have to agree. We love living in Raleigh. Downtown is in the midst of its own renaissance with a huge influx of quality dining, nightlife, arts influences, and new venues that draw business. Just in the past few years we have seen the addition of the RBC Building, Raleigh Convention Center, City Plaza, Hillsborough St. Reconstruction and the Downtown Amphitheater.
What This Means for Raleigh?
It’s safe to say that all of these accolades mean positive things for our city, but what sort of changes may come with these high titles?- Jobs – We can expect the job market to continue to improve in Raleigh. So far, our unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country, and with so many incentives for businesses to open in Raleigh, such as the growing population, affordable real-estate, moderate cost of living, we can look forward to new businesses opening in our area, providing more job opportunities for residents. Already, Raleigh is home to the headquarters of many huge corporations, including IMB, Red Hat, SAS, Progress Energy, and more.
- Development & Growth – There is no doubt that Raleigh is moving in the right direction. Over the past five years we have seen downtown Raleigh transform into a living, cultural and inviting place. In the next five years we can expect to see an influx of residents and retail businesses make their way into downtown to further grow our city.
- Growing Economy – With everything else moving in the right direction, we can expect our economy to do the same. More businesses means more jobs, which equivocates to more spending and currency being pumped into our local economy, which circles around, stabilizing our financial future.
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