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Which Sunbelt state do you see emerging as a competitor to Florida and Texas where rising costs of living are already showing signs of pricing many out of the market in terms of housing costs and other factors?
Anyway, out of the whole southern US, Texas and Florida are by far growing the fastest. I don't see that changing any time soon. NC maybe it has alot of cities, but it can't compete with houston, dallas, miami, etc. Virginia outside of NOVA is growing modestly. Georgia, maybe, Atlanta is booming. For Tennessee, Nashville is booming, but the rest of the state has modest growth.
North Carolina and Virginia have been showing significant growth for awhile, as has Arizona. The point was to identify "what's next".
North Carolina.
It has the clear foundations in place to absorb growth accelerations. For one, it is a state based off of multiple major metropolises, it has three that are over 1 million people already and can potentially bloom even more decades in the future from now.
The other major attributes it has going for it are;
1) Location: it is located in between the Northeast and Florida and isn't that far off from the Midwest either, making it a likely destination for migrants from the Northeast and Midwest whom are looking for a change in pace and scenery with a move to the Sunbelt. For Floridians, there is the halfback phenomena.
2) Name recognition: North Carolina is one of the most famous and highly thought of states in the United States to foreigners. My family is from a foreign background and we come from a very academic based background, the region of the world we derive our origins, in that area of the world North Carolina has a great reputation primarily attributed to its stellar collection of colleges and universities, but also its knowledge based economy. This will prove worthwhile for North Carolina in attracting immigrants.
3) Economics: As briefly illustrated in the paragraph above, the economy is well rounded in North Carolina. From trade, logistics, finance, healthcare, research and analysis, politics, administration, defense, tech, and the like it is all there. It helps that all the major cities have their own composition to base their economy off of.
4) Variation: North Carolina is a varied state which will work much to its advantage. It has forests, mountains, hills, valleys, ocean coastline, rivers, islands, lakes, and pretty much everything except desert.
5) As trade with overseas territories continue, especially with regard to imports, it benefits states and/or territories with a coastline, especially in the Post-Panamax era of global trade.
6) Demographics: The population of the state currently is fertile enough to expand respectably and the variations in skill level is prominent in the state.
I think North Carolina will be the #3 state of the South if it can tap into its true potential.
You might think it would be North Carolina next up to blow up. But NC is being torn asunder by politics in a way that deep red Texas (at the state level) is not. And even purplish Florida seems to have a less ideological/cultural/political battles going on. I wonder how the ugly politics will affect the state going forward. The hard right legislative initiatives (even beyond the bathroom law) are not attractive to a lot of people and businesses who might want to settle there -- so much so that NC's best days may even be behind it. I don't know.
On the other hand, if the Tarheels win tonight, maybe all bets are off!
Sunbelt: Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina
Arguably sunbelt: Utah, Colorado, California
Not sunbelt, but rivals: Oregon, Washington
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