Next Boom City?

[ColonelJLloyd]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

According to the Googles, East St Louis, IL has the highest murder rate in the US, 2017.

i say the next boom city is there. the cinderella story of 2017, from the murder capitol of America to the next big thing.

you heard it here first.

$5? For directions?!

[false_Aest]

Originally Posted by seanile

Pittsburgh - If Uber doesn't implode, they're paving the way for others. Carnegie Mellon and U Pitt right next to downtown. Large confluence of major rivers, and great forests a short-distance away in all directions. Extremely inexpensive housing, but limited transit capabilities.

Pittsburgh is already booming. I started at CMU in 2002. At that time I could buy a 3 story building on the North Side for $30-40k. My roommate bought a house in Squirrel Hill for $150k. In 2008 (right before the collapse) my buddy bought a house in Highland Park (4 bedrooms, basement, etc) for $150k. Right down the street a similar house just sold for around $400k.

Hell, at one point I lived in a 3-floor 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment in the Strip for $750/mo including utilities. That's just not possible these days.

I should've bought.

We have a few dealers in Bend. They've said that the population growth over the past 6 years has been astounding.

[Clean39T]

Originally Posted by Wasatch

Salt Lake City seems to check all of the boxes, with the exception of perhaps a large enough tech-centric workforce already here.



That said, Utah is consistently rated among the best for business-friendly environment, educated workforce, and has seen remarkable growth (both business and population) in the past 10-15 years.



Lots of companies are moving to/building in Utah (eBay, Adobe, Netflix, Amazon just announced a new distribution center).



Plus quality of life is high, with close access to the mountains, and cost of living is still low. Even housing, which has seen phenomenal pricing growth in the past decade, remains very affordable when compared to similar municipalities across the country.

Wish I could get my wife interested in Utah or Idaho...

[Matthew]

Check out Grand Rapids, Michigan.

[soupless]

@matthew
Right on. Every time I go back I'm so excited about what I see there. Just wish they had more ad agencies.

[ojingoh]

Cincinnati.

Good marketing, grocery and B&M retail companies there.
Marketing - home of P&G, tons of CPG marketing companies
Grocery Management - Kroger
B&M Management - Macys/Federated Stores

It's a Red state, and if you're trying to guarantee survival of your company it's not a bad idea to have job centers in both D and R districts. Red states historically give the fattest tax incentives too.

Cheap as hell to live there too - a lot of my family is from there, and I can tell you that it's far far cheaper to have a suburban home in Cincy/N Kentucky than in Seattle.

[glepore]

FWIW Philly has a great bike culture and is a nice easy to navigate real city. The population decline has as much to do with gentrification as anything else. However, cold its not, except in the dead of winter. Summers are typically high 80's low 90's with beaucoup humidity. Real skiing is not nearby, but if terrain snowboarding is your thing then yeah, it can be had within 2 hrs. Beach and bay nearby as well.

[mecse]

Originally Posted by seanile

I've been passively playing speculator on this subject for a while, and am wondering what others think. Especially with all of the hubbub the Amazon HQ2 is causing re: its location.
Watching SF, Portland, Austin, Seattle, Boulder/Denver grow and then hit a high cost-of-living milestone that is making them no longer appealing/reasonable, I'd like to know where people think is coming up next?

My speculative short-list of personally appealing cities would be:
Pittsburgh - If Uber doesn't implode, they're paving the way for others. Carnegie Mellon and U Pitt right next to downtown. Large confluence of major rivers, and great forests a short-distance away in all directions. Extremely inexpensive housing, but limited transit capabilities.
Providence - Boston's housing growth is limited and its transit is at capacity..which'll become even more apparent as GE's new HQ settles in. The suburbs are already wealthy and populated, so there's nowhere really to go except northeast. The best commuter train lines expand north to Lowell & Lawrence, west to Worcester, and south to Providence. Providence has Brown U, coastal property, and proximity to Boston (45 mins away), and it's still cheap.
Buffalo - Got a billion-dollar investment boost from Cuomo. Have been putting hard effort into courting new business, and seems to be succeeding. Niagra Falls has consistent tourism, upstate NY has tons of recreation. SUNY Buffalo. They're going to use the HQ2 bid to show that they can be competitive as a proof of concept for any other companies looking to relocate.
Philadelphia - Still a minor city by some standards. Lots of universities and top-teir private secondary and high schools. It's location is hard to beat. Has history, housing, activity. But it's going through a consistent population decline, worse than Chicago...
Tuscon - has been seeing a lot of activity as of late, but is still a sleeper on the national attention level. I don't know much beyond it being a haven for outdoor activity lovers.

Pretty unlikely, but would be interesting to consider:
Bend, OR
Eugene, OR
Spokane, WA
Boise, ID
Missoula, MT
Portland, ME

This list is what has my attention because I need a colder climate..there's certainly a lot of activity in the south..Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas, but none of that appeals to me.

Google has built a reasonable sized office in pittsburgh and that could buffer any problems that happen if Uber doesn't work out.

Portland Maine is lovely and had an exceptionally reasonably priced housing stock when I looked 2+ years ago. Work seemed odd: a number of people described it as a bedroom community for Boston, which sounded insane to me. Amazing downtown, and it seemed like a bunch of people are snowbirds.

[avalonracing]

Baltimor... never mind... who am I kidding?

[MesiJezi]

Bellingham, WA.

Mountains, lakes, rivers, salt water, forest, decent roads... if there's an outdoor sport, it happens in bham. 2 hours from Seattle. Oh yeah, easy access to BC, Canada and all those outdoor opportunities. Only downside is the overcast skies and rain. Winter average highs in the low 40s, summer average highs in the low 70s.

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by glepore

FWIW Philly has a great bike culture and is a nice easy to navigate real city. The population decline has as much to do with gentrification as anything else. However, cold its not, except in the dead of winter. Summers are typically high 80's low 90's with beaucoup humidity. Real skiing is not nearby, but if terrain snowboarding is your thing then yeah, it can be had within 2 hrs. Beach and bay nearby as well.

Some of this is true. It's got a great bike culture. The summers are miserable unless you like swelting heat, the smell piss and trash. Winters suck too. Spring and fall are nice for about 2 months. There is no beach near by just a shore if you plan to be in traffic hours.

[cat6]

Is the primary goal of speculating a boom city for you to move there and buy a house before the boom?

[Black Dog]

Originally Posted by texbike

Reno. Fantastic access to great outdoor activities. Not too hot. Not too cold. Decent cost of living. Numerous companies moving that way.

Texbike

Reno!!! Yikes, have you heard about the sherifs Dept there?

[saab2000]

Originally Posted by Matthew

Check out Grand Rapids, Michigan.

It's crazy. I just moved back.

I lived here from 2007 until 2013. During that time it was pretty stagnant but towards the end of that time there were signs of life.

A job change meant I was able to return to the area and get to work in Chicago once per week pretty easily. I didn't really want to live in Chicago so I opted to move back to Grand Rapids. It's astonishing the amount of change and the vitality of the area compared to a decade ago.

As a cyclist I notice massively more traffic and I was incredibly lucky to get into a house through a private transaction that never made it to the market. Had it been listed to the public it's extremely likely I would have been outbid rapidly.

This is not a glamour area by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure has turned around in the past decade.

[Birddog]

Boise for the win! Boise has been on my list for 30 years. It's a little Albuquerqueish climate wise, and the like Albq, the mountains are close. Reno is also a candidate IMO. The worst thing about Boise is the blue turf at BSU's stadium.