One bright spot of news for Durham amidst the blustery, blundering economy -- compared to the rest of the country, things haven't gotten quite as bad here.
The Triangle Business Journal reported late last week that Durham ranked 11th in job growth among the 88 MSAs that have 250,000+ non-agricultural jobs. The Durham MSA -- which includes Durham County as well as Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Person Co., and most of the western half of the Triangle -- saw a net gain of 1,700 jobs in 2008.
The Raleigh MSA ranked 15th, netting 200 jobs for the year.
Charlotte? Not so lucky, ranking 65th on the survey with a loss of almost 16,000 positions.
Meantime, if you were tuned into CNBC last week, you got to see our own Mayor Bell interviewed on the network, which became the latest media outlet to plug Durham as a place that is riding out the recession.
Health care and education were key to Durham's recognition; CNBC also had picked out similar big university towns of Columbia, Mo. and Morgantown, W.V.
"We're driven primarily by the HC industry, here at Duke University and the V.A. Hospital. Research Triangle Park [has] a lot of biotech firms, pharmaceutical firms, and they depend very heavily on a very education workforce," Bell said, noting the work that Durham Tech, Duke and NC Central play in driving an educated workforce.
Asked about the City's own cashflow, Bell noted that property taxes have held up well, while sales taxes have dropped.
"We haven't had the issues with foreclosures that you've seen across the country," Bell said, "primarily because we haven't seen the large increases in house prices that have pretty much kept a stable economy."
"It's not that we haven't had foreclosures, but not to the extent that you've seen around the rest of the country," he added.
See the full video recap over at CNBC's web site.
http://www.dukechronicle.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=d523ec36-3572-42c0-a92f-3391357c5ac8
I think you fit well in the "Durham Blogs" category :P
Posted by: Former Durhamite | February 09, 2009 at 12:07 PM
In this context, "ekes" and "eeks" seem awfully related. If Self-Help can fund more growth in 2009, we can add "Eakes" to the mix.
Posted by: Phil | February 09, 2009 at 04:50 PM
So.... because Durham's housing prices have always been low, we're riding out the biggest collapse in housing prices ever? Makes sense.
Posted by: mehmattski | February 09, 2009 at 07:01 PM
Housing prices are huge factor. People did not get 105% mortgages on houses that are now worth 75% of what they bought. So when they cannot make principle payments, the house can sell to get out of the debt. Also, the payment's are $5000/month. It is by no means the only reason, but a stable real estate market is a huge help in riding out this mess.
Posted by: S Gwaltney | February 09, 2009 at 07:29 PM