Charlotte Real Estate Recovery: The Queen City is the Second-Best Value City In America!
Great news for Charlotte’s Real Estate Recovery: Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine has named Charlotte as the second-best value city in America. According to Kiplingers, “value” is defined as a low cost of living with a strong economy and personal amenities. Charlotte ranks second only to Omaha, Nebraska!
While banking brings more than 50,000 jobs to Charlotte, healthcare, manufacturing, and textiles are strong components of our job market. The nation’s top bank (measured in total deposits), Bank of America, is headquartered here in Charlotte as well as another large national bank, Wells Fargo.
As a growing energy hub, Charlotte’s own Duke Energy is poised to become the largest utility company in the Nation. Toshiba and Siemen’s are also bringing many new jobs to the Charlotte area this year and many more planned during the projected 5-year plan. Green energy has also become a growing business as well as the increase in small business start-ups being drawn to the Charlotte metro area. Other major area headquarters also include large companies such as Lowe’s and Family Dollar, both headquartered in or near Charlotte.
Charlotte also boasts a strong educational system with over half of Charlotte area high schools ranking in Newsweek’s top 100 schools across the nation. Average home prices are in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, whether it be a loft in Charlotte’s Uptown area or a home in a swim and tennis community in the suburbs such as Willowmere. Charlotte also earned high marks in the Kiplinger study for its low taxes and her residents enjoy wallet-friendly utility rates. New construction costs are extremely reasonable with a stock of cheap local materials holding housing costs to just 80% of the national average.
From vibrant gallery crawls in Charlotte’s NoDa to ‘Alive After Five‘ in the Uptown area, Charlotte’s energy is contageous! Charlotte’s real estate recovery as well as our economic viability is a strong draw for newcomers to the area. Here are a few Charlotte trivia items for 2011:
- Population (metro): 1,641,257
- Unemployment rate: 10.4%
- Cost-of-living index: 93.0
- Median household income: $53,168