The Early Bird

by Zack O’Malley Greenburg Thursday, May 14, 2009provided by FORBES. com

 Try these places if you want to get the most for your money

We assigned points to metro regions across four data sets: Average salary for workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher, from PayScale.com; annual unemployment statistics, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics; cost of living, from Moody’s Economy.com; and the Housing Opportunity Index, from the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo, which measures the amount of homes sold in a given area that would be affordable to a family earning the local median income based on standard mortgage underwriting criteria.

Austin earned high marks across the board.

“They have the triple-whammy of being a university town, a state capital and a technology center,” says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale.com, a salary data aggregator based in Seattle. “It makes for a very robust economy and a great place for people to work.” 

Lone Star Constellation :

While the capital of Texas graced the top of our list, the rest of the state’s large cities performed admirably too. All five of Texas’ biggest burgs– Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Ft. Worth –were among the top 10 best bargains. Not a single city in Texas ended up on our list of most overpriced places.  Part of the reason is that Texas offers some of the best incentives for entrepreneurs looking to start or move a business, according to Eduardo Martinez, a senior economist at Moody’s Economy.com. Like Phoenix, Texan metros “have picked up a lot of California companies that have left because of high operating costs,” he says. Still, the state’s future is far cloudier than its big blue skies. Martinez warns that Texas is vulnerable because of its exposure to America’s foundering auto industry via manufacturing. The Lone Star State may also be aversely affected by the expected decrease in defense spending as contracts won in the Bush years begin to expire.  Back in Austin, though, residents are facing a different sort of challenge: To keep the city weird–and to themselves.

It’s not really surprising – but it is great news.  It’s even GREATER when the numbers support what the experts are saying, and it doesn’t appear to be realtor puffery.  And, for anyone’s who either bought, or considered purchasing real estate and reading all of the doom and gloom out there- this is a nice reminder why such investments are so important.  As our population grows, jobs grow, and as our city becomes increasingly more desireable – our real estate prices will as well.  Just be glad you were the EARLY BIRD, and caught this worm.

Unemployment is on the rise, credit is tight and consumers aren’t spending — which means they aren’t picking up and moving much, either. Very few places in America saw significant population growth in 2008. Despite the overall economic slowdown, some parts of the country keep on moving ahead, attracting more and more newcomers — even if it’s at a slower pace than in more sound economic times. These places still offer a semblance of stability, as well as great weather, cultural life and, in many cases, affordability. Behind the numbers To determine the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, Forbes used 2008 population estimates for metropolitan statistical areas with a population of more than 1 million, released March 19, 2009, by the U.S. Census Bureau. MSAs are geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics.  Read more here.