First off California's housing costs are WAY too expensive. California needs a complete reset on it's zoning. However I will say that looking at housing costs alone doesn't give you the full picture. Income - Don't think I really need to explain how this relates to housing. Transportation - Most people don't think about it, but how much it costs you to get to work and everywhere else is a factor of where you live. This should be calculated into housing but most people don't. Calculate how much you spend on vehicles, insurance, gas, tires, oil changes, etc. etc. in a year, depending on where you live that could be large chunk of change. My wife and I pay ZERO a month to get to work (both have employer provided transit passes) and very little to go other places, this is because we chose to live in a dense part of the city where most daily needs can be walked to and where jobs are just a train ride away. Utilities - How much does it cost to heat or cool your home? Multifamily dwellings are inherently more efficient (less external walls), also tend to be smaller and more compact. Also when talking about Southern California or even Seattle cooling costs are zero and even up here heating is minimal.
Agree to an extend. Florida has always been God's waiting room, but much less so than in the past. The traffic migration into States like FL and TX isn't being made up primarily of retirees like it was on the past.
That's fair. The fact remains that most of the people moving are indeed in the lower end of the state's income spectrum. It's not, as Romney and other Republicans have claimed, the wealthy moving out (because the wealthy move into these areas because they can afford it and want to live the good life) and instead it is mainly the poor and lower middle class who leave to find affordable housing. Basically blue collar folks without college degrees. Anc is spot on when he says California needs to review its zoning laws and really put focus on affordable housing but I don't see it happening largely due to political dynamics. Those who have houses generally become NIMBYs who don't want their quality of life effected by new more densely planned development, they don't want their housing values going down due to the market getting lots of new building, developers own most local city governments around here and they can maximize their profits while minimizing their risks by making McMansions for the wealthy and so they fight affordable planning rules tooth and nail.
I hear North Carolina is getting a lot of "half backs" now. Meaning retirees who originally retired to Florida but who found it was too far from family, too humid, too hot, what ever, and so they move half way back to the north by settling in North Carolina.
A lot of different industries have been moving to NC and SC too. You've got tech and entertainment, not to mention Charlotte is growing fast and is a major banking center.
Something to remember in all this, is a place like Charlotte has room to grow. A place like Philadelphia, not so much. So it makes sense for some new/hot locations to be strong draws, while more established areas follow a much more gentle slope. It's actually quite impressive the way crowded, expensive places like NYC and SF continue to grow at a steady clip.
The stupid height laws on buildings in SF really do hold it back though because without them it would go vertical and look like Hong Kong in a couple of decades.
What sort of height laws does SF have? I'm only familiar with LA's issues in that regard. And SF as Hong Kong would be really cool -- imagine towers on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena. Of course they would need a subway line out to those islands.
That guy needs to get the fuck out of here. He thinks the skyline won't change in 300 years? I mean, look at how much it changed between the 18th and 21st centuries!
It's the country's biggest banking center outside of New York. It's also right on the South Carolina border so I have little doubt Charlotte's a major driving force in SC's population growth as well. A shit ton of people live in York county SC for the lower taxes and good schools and work in Charlotte.
Well, I'm sure I'm not alone in the fact that I chose to move out in the deep stink when I moved here. I accepted my job in Charlotte while I was living in Memphis....so I could have gotten a place in the city if I'd wanted to, but I didn't. I got what I think is a nice size house on an acre of oand in the next county over. The commute's about 40 minutes, but that's actually on par with commutes for people who live in Charlotte because I avoid most of the traffic. True, I'm at leas 15 minutes from the nearest Wal-Mart, but I wouldn't have it any other way. No city taxes, I could own some goats and chickens if the wife would let me, and I've got no traffic anywhere near my house. I prefer it that way. BTW: I pay around $100 a month for power, and 10 bucks of that is for the street light next to my house.
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/financialcareers/top-10-financial-career-cities.asp If you want a career in Finance & Banking those are the world's ten largest financial centers. You'll notice Boston, Chicago, New York, and San Francisco made it but Charlotte didn't. Yeah, Charlotte has attracted a lot of the hum drum back of the house activities for large banks due to low regulation and taxes, and there are jobs related with that, but no a financial center that does not make. Basically, it's mainly just the place where BoA moved operations to avoid paying taxes.
It's counting just BoA who has most of their operations in other cities. BoA was actually founded in San Francisco and for a brief period was based out of Boston before officially moving it's headquarters to Charlotte basically so it could not pay taxes and get away with practices which are considered criminal in other states. Most of the execs continue to live primarily in either MA or CA. http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2013/09/26/the-top-50-u-s-banks-by-assets/ That's a list of the 50 largest banks in the US and you'll notice NY has 10 while CA has 8. NC has just one and the bank really is an out of state bank which just uses NC for tax purposes and to do mid level stuff. I wish I could find a list of BoA employees by state and type because that would make this even clearer. The vast bulk of the actual action in finance and banking is actually happening in the ten global financial centers listed above with those four northern cities being where it actually happens and where most of the employees actually work.
There's a couple of you that continually beat your chest that your more awesome. What you don't realize is while you know a bit more than others, instead of teaching what you know, the way you talk is down to people. Even people you know are smart, you talk down to. (People don't listen to this) And a few of you need to realize while you talk a big game you can't teach worth a shit, so what real use are you.
So does that somehow make Charlotte not the second largest financial center by assets following New York City?
It's just misleading when they say the bank is based there but it was founded else where, has most of its operations else where, has most of its employees else where, most of its executives live else where, actually makes most of its money else where, and the only thing the city or state actually gets is a tax filingfrom a P.O. Box and a few back end jobs. Other than that, no.
I believe he's saying that as metrics go, that is one that doesn't really mean anything. Liberia has the second largest merchant fleet in the world by number of flagged ships. Now does that really tell you anything about the shipping industry in Liberia, or just that it is a flag of convienence?
Except it's not a flag of convenience. Dinner is mistaken about BofA moving to Charlote to dodge taxes. BankAmerica was bought by Nationsbank (which was founded in Charlotte), which created Bank Of America...in Charlotte. In other words, Bank of America has only ever been headquartered in Charlotte. As for the other stuf, is it that uncommon for huge multinationals to have most of it's employees and make most of it's money outside the city that it's headquartered? I mean corporate headquarters are pretty much always overhead as far as income goes aren't they?
Charlotte is a fast growing place, BofA does have a large presence there, but when it comes to Finance, it's very much a one company town, and the particular company has major operations in other places, too. My father-in-law moved to Charlotte, and loves it down there. He says that more and more it's run by New Yorkers. Some people look at that and say it's a sign that Charlotte is more attractive than New York. But the guys going down there see it as untapped opportunity with less competition. If you were half ass in New York, you'll be a big success in Charlotte. I don't know why that would be seen as a good thing.
So California is loosing people because it's too awesome, and NC is gaining people because it's so crappy. You guys are making me dizzy.
Technically it's part of the South, but it's gotten pretty cosmopolitan. Its not your typical Southern city by a long shot.
I don't know the history, but I know in the present it is a tax and regulatory dodge. Not many Elliot Spitzers in NC. Having the assets parked there in a near completely digital industry means absolutely nothing. So when you keep repeating 'second largest by assets' that means about as much as 'second largest by flags'. Neither does having a headquarters make something a center. Chicago has the headquarters of either the largest or second largest aerospace firm in the world, depending on the year, but no one would claim it an aerospace center. I've got nothing against Charlotte, just explaining why others don't see your stats as being ad important as you do.
You do know the history...unless you quit reading right there. The company that bought BankAmerica was born in Charlotte. How is that a tax dodge? How is that any different from any other banking headquarters? But pretty much everyone claims that Charlotte is a financial center. Give me a little credit. I know EXACTLY why others don't see my stats as being all that important.
That's a substantially different claim from the one you've made about assets. The asset claim is a verifiable fact. Whether it's an important fact is more subjective, as is the question of whether Charlotte is a major financial center. If I were you, I would look for signs of activity in other segments of financial services. Is it happening? To what extent? If there's a pattern of substantial involvement in other things, that would bolster the claim. Also, this is somewhat inside info, but a good place to start would be re-insurance.
I don't even know what re-insurance is...I'm just telling you what I read on the Wikipedia. Would this help? Same link as above.
Nope, doesn't help at all. Ancalagon and Dinner have already explained why. I'm giving you something else to use in asserting your claim. Wiki re-insurance instead of Charlotte. That article you keep citing was written by civic boosters, not financial analysts.
