As 2009 draws to a close, the Triangle finds itself honored in many ways. Here is just a sampling of our latest triumphs.
Triangle Among Forbes’ Best Bang for a Buck
The Raleigh-Durham Metropolitan Statistical Area finished 21st among Best Bang for a Buck Cities listed by Forbes magazine. The publication reviewed the nation’s largest MSAs and measured their foreclosures as a percentage of housing units; vacancies; unemployment rates; a three-year job growth forecast; a three-year home price forecast; housing affordability; median real estate taxes; and median travel time to work. Factoring in other leading indicators, Forbes then averaged these scores to arrive at a final ranking of what provided the best investment.
Raleigh-Durham led all MSAs in North Carolina, outperforming Greensboro-High Point at #30 and Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord at #56. What really helped the region was its #10 placement among job forecasts.
Durham and Raleigh Among Top 10 Best Performing Cities
In another economic ranking, last month the Durham MSA finished #6 and the Raleigh-Cary MSA #10 in the Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best-Performing Cities Index, which ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. The components included job, wage and salary and technology growth, as well as includes both long-term (five years) and short-term (one year) measurements of employment and salary growth. Both MSAs finished in the top five for at least one category surveyed.
UNC Women’s Soccer #1 Again
For the 20th time, the women’s soccer team at the University of North Carolina won the NCAA title game on Dec. 6. This was also the third time out of the last four years where the Tar Heels claimed the championship. Impressive indeed.
All of these accomplishments in basically a three-county area is worthy of note and celebration in this holiday season. We look forward to adding even more honors in the Triangle in 2010.
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