Durham makes Today show's list of top affordable cities

A nice little plug for the Bull City this morning, after our fair town the Today Show's list of the top five affordable cities to live in.

Cheap? Yes -- but that wasn't it. Today Show correspondent and real estate guru -- we are not making this up -- Barbara Corcoran (any relation to our downtown street?) said that good schools, quality of life, jobs and income factored in, too.

Our hometown of Durham got props for everything from the high percentage of health care jobs to the presence of major universities to a revitalized downtown. To say nothing of being between mountains and the coast.

Fortunately, Durham's #4 ranking was low enough to actually get photographs and video into the show, before Al Roker or a producer got impatient and pulled the rug out from Ms. Corcoran after Great Falls, MT, before Pocatello, Idaho and Wichita could get their props in.

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No word on whether the new ranking will lead Mr. Roker to revisit his "Al Roker Investigates: Menace on Main Street" special 'investigation' a few years back looking into gang problems in our fair city. I know, I'm still laughing at the idea of a show called "Al Roker Investigates," for my part.

At any rate, Al managed to call Durham beautiful this time around. Hey, you take progress where you can get it.

Comments

[Will]

I think I enjoyed the absence of "Raleigh-Durham" most in this piece. It's so rare that Durham gets to stand on it's own. At least when crime figures aren't the focus.

[Sarah]

Thanks for the post, Kevin! I thought I was finally scooping you when I learned of this - and then saw I was a day late. You amaze me yet again. Thank you for providing such an incredible source for Durham's info...

[Bass]

Thanks for the post Kevin. Yeah I'm still upset with Al Roker's piece. Some weather guys should just stick to.... umm well, weather.