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Forbes has released the results of its annual ranking of the best big cities for jobs. Topping the list for 2015 are the metro areas of San Francisco, San Jose, Dallas, Austin, Nashville, Houston, Denver, Orlando, Charlotte and San Antonio.
Job creation momentum is the strongest in tech-oriented metropolises and Sun Belt cities with lower costs, particularly the still robust economies of Texas.
The rankings are based on short-, medium- and long-term job creation, going back to 2003, and factor in momentum – whether growth is slowing or accelerating.
Venture capital and private-equity firms keep pouring money into U.S. technology companies, lured by the promise of huge IPO returns. Employment expanded 4.8% in the San Francisco Metropolitan Division in 2014, which includes the job-rich suburban expanses of San Mateo to the south, and employment is up 21.2% since 2009. San Jose which, like San Francisco, was devastated in the tech crash a decade ago, has also rebounded smartly.
Other metro areas have something Silicon Valley lacks: affordable housing. Most of the rest of the top 15 metro areas have far lower home prices than the Bay Area, or for that matter Boston, Los Angeles or New York. And they also have experienced strong job growth, often across a wider array of industries, which provides opportunities for a broader portion of the population.
What is most remarkable about the top-performing cities is the diversity of their economies. Most have tech clusters, but several, such as Houston, Nashville, Dallas and Charlotte, have growing manufacturing, trade, transportation and business services sectors. The immediate prognosis, however, may be brightest in places like Denver and Orlando, where growth is less tied to energy than business services, trade and tourism. Nashville, which places fifth on the list, has particularly bright prospects, due not only to its growing tech and manufacturing economy, but also its strong health care sector.
If you’re planning to sell your home, and have never been through the process before, this article from Bankrate offers seven tips that experienced sellers would tell you – from pricing and marketing to fixer-upping and decluttering your home.
Memo to first-time home sellers: This is not your father’s housing market.
Today’s buyers are pickier and have more tools in their tool belts. Consequently, sellers may have to spend more time and cash making their homes camera-ready.
One of the most important tips for first-time home sellers is to price your home realistically from the start.
“Your largest number of showings will occur in the first two to three weeks,” says Mark Ramsey, broker with the Ramsey Group/Keller Williams Realty in Charlotte, North Carolina. One reason: “The (multiple listing service) systems and the Internet tend to drive the majority of showings,” he says. Many buyers are plugged in electronically. So the minute something new pops up that meets their criteria, they want to see it.
Take advantage of that sweet spot by pricing the house competitively right out of the gate, he says.
One question to ask yourself and pose as you interview agents: How will you reach the home’s target market?
Don’t neglect the modern version of curb appeal: using lots of photos on real estate listings’ websites. However you market your home, you need a good number of clear, well-lit, professional-quality pictures that show your home at its best.
This week, the Commerce Department released the results of its annual Characteristics of New Housing report, highlighting a shift in recent years toward larger homes. This article from The Wall Street Journal also reports that as entry-level homebuyers return to the market in the coming years, smaller homes are expected to make a comeback.
Commerce Department data released this week show unprecedented demand in 2014 for homes with four or more bedrooms, three or more bathrooms and three-car garages. The report found that 46% of single-family homes constructed last year had four or more bedrooms, up from 44% in 2013 and from 34% in 2009. Thirty-six percent of the homes built last year had three or more bathrooms, up from 33% in 2013. Meanwhile, two-car garages remain the norm, but they’re receding in popularity – to 62% of homes built last year from 64% in 2013 – while three-car garages increased to 23% from 21%.
Lately, builders and other observers say they’re starting to see life in the entry-level market. Median new-home sizes had declined slightly for three consecutive quarters before taking an upward turn in this year’s first quarter.
Robert Dietz, an economist with the National Association of Home Builders, predicts new-home sizes will plateau this year as builders start constructing a greater number of smaller, less expensive homes.
Homes built with patios rather than porches or decks increased to 20% of new construction in 2014 from 17% in 2013. That reflects the broad preference among builders and buyers for patios that serve as outdoor kitchens, accessible through large sliding doors that often make the patio appear to be part of a home’s living space.
Across the nation, lower interest rates and home prices are giving a boost to housing affordability. This article from the National Association of Home Builders highlights some of the reasons why now is a great time for more Americans to become homeowners.
“Now is a great time for consumers to buy homes,” said NAHB Chairman Tom Woods. “Both first-time and move-up buyers can take advantage of these favorable market conditions and start building their American Dream.”
According to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index, 66.5% of new and existing homes sold between January and the end of March were affordable to families earning the U.S. median income of $65,800. The national median home price declined from $215,000 in the fourth quarter to $210,000 in the first quarter. Meanwhile, average mortgage interest fell from 4.29 percent to 4.03 percent in the same period.
As housing affordability continues to improve, more consumers can discover the benefits of homeownership, including the fact that it is a primary source of net worth for many Americans, and is an important step in accumulating personal financial assets over the long term.
Coinciding with the peak of the Spring home buying season, and kicking off the busy Summer home buying season, June is once again National Homeownership Month. In this article from Builder, Tom Woods, Chairman Of The Board for the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), highlights the advantages of homeownership for families, for communities, and for our national and local economies.
Owning a home provides families with a sense of security and well-being. It also can help create wealth and provide financial security. For many, owning a home is a cherished dream – one they will work hard to fulfill. When they do purchase a house, these families often are committed to improving their neighborhoods and the community.
Homeownership also boosts the local and national economy by creating jobs and generating revenues for government. Construction of 100 new homes creates almost 300 jobs, generates $28 million in wage and business income, and produces $11.1 million in revenue for state, local and federal governments.
Thirty-nine percent of American job seekers are looking to relocate to a new city, according to data from TheLadders.com. The job-matching website determined which cities are most desired for job seekers on their site who are considering a big move to a new city.
More populous metros are more attractive to out-of-towners–and their own current residents. Just 29% of residents of the 10 most populous DMAs (“designated market areas”) were sending job applications out of town. Outside to top 10, the percentage of residents applying for jobs out of town rises to 50% and above, even in major cities like Phoenix, Seattle, and Detroit.
New York remains the most desired relocation for job seekers looking to pack their bags, though it received a smaller share of overall out-of-town applications than last year – just over 15%, vs. 22% last year.
Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and Chicago all gained traction this year, while Dallas and San Francisco held strong.
Other cities that topped the list for relocation destinations were Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.
When choosing a place to call home, it’s common to start by thinking in terms of the type of city you want to live in. Do you prefer an urban location? Or something more suburban? And in today’s fastest growing cities, what do those terms really mean?
Technically, cities are legal designations that, under state laws, have specific public powers and functions. But many of the largest American cities – especially in the South and West – don’t feel like cities, at least not in the high-rise-and-subways, “Sesame Street” sense. Large swaths of many big cities are residential neighborhoods of single-family homes, as car-dependent as any suburb.
Cities like Austin and Fort Worth in Texas and Charlotte, North Carolina, are big and growing quickly, but largely suburban. According to Census Bureau data, the population of the country’s biggest cities grew 0.99 percent in 2014 – versus 0.88 percent for all metropolitan areas and 0.75 percent for the U.S. overall. But city growth isn’t the same as urban growth. Three cities of the largest 10 are more suburban than urban, based on analysis of how people describe the neighborhoods where they live.
Official government data obscures how suburban America really is. There’s no definition of “suburb” or “suburban” in the census’s otherwise exhaustive list of geographic terms and concepts. The census definition of urban areas amounts to the 81 percent of the U.S. population that is not rural, but this definition lumps together urban and suburban neighborhoods.
The new census population data shows that the fastest-growing large cities tend to be more suburban. Among the 10 fastest-growing cities with more than 500,000 people, five – Austin, Fort Worth, Charlotte, San Antonio and Phoenix – are majority suburban, and a sixth, Las Vegas, is only 50 percent urban. Only one of the 10 fastest-growing, Seattle, is at least 90 percent urban.
Adults who live alone now make up the second most common type of household in America. The economic and demographic reasons behind the rise of the single-family household are explored in this report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Perhaps nothing speaks greater volume about changes in modern American life than the rise of the single-person household. A recent paper authored by Census Bureau researchers shows that a hundred years ago, fewer than six percent of all households consisted of people who lived alone. By 1940, that share had only inched upward to 7.8%. By 2013, at 28% of all households, it is now the second most common household type just behind married couples without minor children, and well ahead of marrieds with minor children in the household. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, single-person households consisted mostly of men, but the greatest gains in living alone during the past 50 years have been among women. Today, women head 54% of all single-person households.
According to the 2013 American Housing Survey, single-person households are spread across all ages. About 28% of all single person households are under the age of 45, another 36% between the ages of 45 and 64, and 36% are over the age of 65.
As recently as 1940, 61% of single-person households consisted of renters, but today owners are in the majority, with 54% of single person households being owner-occupied.
In the past, when living alone might have been a short-term condition, for many it is now a long-term situation, the result of a number of broad demographic and economic forces at work over the past half century: greater affluence, longer lives, later ages of marriage, higher divorce, smaller family sizes, greater labor force participation and financial independence of women, and stronger government safety nets across a wide spectrum of social programs.
With pending home sales on the rise for the fourth straight month – and reaching their highest level in nine years, according to Thursday’s pending home sales index from the National Association of Realtors – this article from Reuters examines housing’s affect on the outlook for the overall U.S. economy.
While other data on Thursday showed an unexpected increase in new applications for unemployment benefits, filings remained at levels consistent with a tightening labor market.
The jobless claims and housing data joined upbeat reports on consumer confidence and business spending plans that have hinted the economy might finally be gaining steam as some drags on growth in the first quarter either fade or ease.
April data on retail sales and industrial production had pointed to modest growth early in the second quarter.
Firming housing and the tightening jobs market will likely keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates this year.
Housing is being supported by the strengthening labor market, which is encouraging young adults to move out of their parents’ basements and setting up their own households.
While tight inventories are pushing up house prices and constraining activity, there is hope higher home values will encourage more homeowners to put their houses on the market and builders to break more ground on new projects.
