Cary North Carolina is back in the news, in a big way! Just last month, Money magazine named Cary, North Carolina as the best place to live in North Carolina, and the 37th best place to live in the US. Now, Cary has been named the Number 1 boomtown in the entire country on SmartAsset’s list of the “ Top 10 Boomtowns of 2016.” Cary North Carolina scored a 100 percent based on such factors as: net migration rate, housing growth, unemployment, 2015-16 change in unemployment, and GDP growth. Raleigh was also included in the list and ranked 10th, scoring an 87.05.
SmartAsset is a personal finance technology company headquartered in New York, NY that uses financial modeling to power advice on major financial decisions. According to SmartAsset, while it is smaller than most of its neighbors, Cary is becoming a force to be reckoned with. Cary’s housing growth rate of 9.1% is among the highest rates in SmartAsset’s analysis. For many years, the presence of strong research institutions has drawn tech companies and entrepreneurs to the region.
Key Factors
For this study, SmartAsset collected data on 572 of the largest cities in the country. They utilized these five factors to identify the top 10 boomtowns of 2016:
- Net migration rate: The number of people who have immigrated to a city minus the number of people who have emigrated from that city between July 1, 2014 and July 1, 2015. The net migration rate includes all population growth that isn’t related to births or deaths.
- Housing growth rate. The percent change in the number of housing units between 2014 and 2015.
- Unemployment rate. The number of unemployed people who were actively looking for work in August 2016, as a percentage of the total labor force.
- Annual change in the unemployment rate. This number was based on preliminary labor force data from August 2015 to August 2016.
- GDP growth rate. The annual growth in total output for the period ranging from 2010 to 2015.
Data Sources
- GDP growth rates were obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
- Unemployment rates were obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Net migration rates and housing growth rates were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Cary North Carolina On Top of SmartAsset’s Top 10 Boomtowns of 2016
Below is the entire list:
- Cary
- Fort Collins, Colorado
- Fort Myers, Florida
- Longmont, Colorado
- Bend, Oregon
- Orem, Utah
- Kissimmee, Florida
- Midland, Texas
- Bismarck, North Dakota
- Raleigh