Blacksburg and Roanoke are among top US job markets (Christiansburg: real estate, house)

[Watchful]

This was a pleasant surprise to see both Blacksburg-Christiansburg-Radford (#6) and Roanoke (#10) in this survey of the top ten U.S. job markets for 2018:

https://www.zippia.com/advice/these-...kets-for-2018/

[843904]

Nice...but very surprising. What's driving this growth? VT & Carillion can't be the only ones?

[Rabrrita]

Originally Posted by 843904

What's driving this growth?

The report has nothing to do with job growth. It's based solely on unemployment reporting. Those numbers primary purpose is for selling an area for economic development purposes, not necessarily a snapshot of an area's gains.

If you use the exact same BLS report data and looked at the job growth number, Roanoke had a low of Point Zero Four percentage job growth, well below the national average. Additionally, it shows that with the exception of health care providers, wages were stagnate. There were as many new Jobs being created as their were existing jobs being eliminated. The good news is Roanoke has done an excellent (top notch) in how they portray new jobs and business creation to the area while masterfully downplaying job losses. So, by BLS numbers (same data used for the article) for about every 100 jobs created, about 99 jobs were lost for the period of March 2017 to Mar 2018. However, it's important to understand that even through 99 jobs may have been lost, the net gain of 1 job means the reality is 100 jobs were created to absorb the 99 loss plus the one gain.

[Watchful]

Based on what I can tell, job volatility is more of a US thing than a Roanoke thing, but I am sure there are plenty of exceptions. These are interesting times.

Also discouraging that the metro area with huge opportunities tend to be the metros with high priced residential space.

[sregorat3]

Originally Posted by Rabrrita

The report has nothing to do with job growth. It's based solely on unemployment reporting. Those numbers primary purpose is for selling an area for economic development purposes, not necessarily a snapshot of an area's gains.

If you use the exact same BLS report data and looked at the job growth number, Roanoke had a low of Point Zero Four percentage job growth, well below the national average. Additionally, it shows that with the exception of health care providers, wages were stagnate. There were as many new Jobs being created as their were existing jobs being eliminated. The good news is Roanoke has done an excellent (top notch) in how they portray new jobs and business creation to the area while masterfully downplaying job losses. So, by BLS numbers (same data used for the article) for about every 100 jobs created, about 99 jobs were lost for the period of March 2017 to Mar 2018. However, it's important to understand that even through 99 jobs may have been lost, the net gain of 1 job means the reality is 100 jobs were created to absorb the 99 loss plus the one gain.

True...these stories tend to be more about marketing than reality on the ground.

[RC Guy]

I can see Blacksburg becoming a future job creator although its so isolated and there are deep pockets of rural poverty.
Roanoke has great hopes for future medical research jobs with Techs deep pockets, the region does have potential at least.
Lets hope Virginia wakes up to see we need to bring the Apples, Amazons here, even if they must be located in NoVa.

[ExAustin]

Roanoke has huge potential. Very happy to be here and hoping for steady economic gains versus a sudden influx of prosperity... which would ruin it with billboards, overpriced housing, clogged traffic, etc.

Real estate agents tell me housing supply is nearing a 10-year low. Wonder what's going on?

[Rickcin]

Yes, the housing supply is scarce! It’s definitely a sellers market and it is due to the continuing popularity of this area, for many reasons, one of which is employment. Several large companies have decided to locate in the Roanoke area while the Carilion/Virginia Tech medical research continues to expand. All of these good happenings lead to growing pains and the housing market is just one of them.

[Watchful]

Originally Posted by Rickcin

Yes, the housing supply is scarce! It’s definitely a sellers market and it is due to the continuing popularity of this area, for many reasons, one of which is employment. Several large companies have decided to locate in the Roanoke area while the Carilion/Virginia Tech medical research continues to expand. All of these good happenings lead to growing pains and the housing market is just one of them.

We are house hunting now with an extremely broad amount of time to decide. Having said that, we have noticed that the asking prices in Southwest City are up quite a bit from what they were 5-10 years ago, and as noted above, things are selling pretty quickly!

If we find the "right thing" we may have to pounce on it fast.