Is Ann Arbor the only area in that area doing good?

[Frank the Tank]

Originally Posted by magellan

True, and I don't know what the demographics are of the people who are moving to places like Fayatteville-Springdale-Rogers.

This area in Arkansas has two huge factors going for it: the Wal-Mart world headquarters and, to a lesser extent, the University of Arkansas. Since Wal-Mart is the largest customer for nearly every type of consumer product in the country (ranging from soft drinks to DVDs to clothes to electronics), it has spurred a lot of top tier companies to open up offices near the Wal-Mart headquarters (just as lobbyists flock to DC to lobby government officials, consumer sales people and marketing professionals flock to Bentonville, Arkansas to sell to Wal-Mart). Hence, the presence of one corporate behemoth has spurred a ton of satellite jobs. This is a major factor (if not the most important factor) in why this Arkansas area is an anomoly. Add in the presence of a flagship public university, which provides relatively steady employment regardless of economic conditions and you have a pretty unique situation that isn't easily duplicated.