Two ‘booming’ NC towns rank among nation’s hottest suburbs. What makes them special?
Two North Carolina towns are “booming” — and rank among the nation’s hottest suburbs, a new report finds.
Cary ranks No. 6 and Wake Forest is No. 9 on a list of places where job growth and desirability are “well above national averages,” according to a Nov. 19 news release from moving and storage resource moveBuddha.
The towns, both in the Raleigh area, joined several other Southern cities in the top 10. The region “reigns supreme for its suburbs where people want to move in, and where far fewer residents considering a move-out,” moveBuddha wrote in its report.
To create the list of most popular suburbs, the moving website studied more than 500 cities across the country. It narrowed the places to suburbs, defined as “any city in each metropolitan region that was not the single, primary (first) city listed in a ‘metro’ name,” a spokesperson told McClatchy News via email.
Using search data from its website and figures from the U.S. government, moveBuddha discovered that 43 suburbs met the criteria of having year-over-year job growth “better than the national average” and a high ratio of people interested in moving in compared with those wanting to leave. Each of those suburbs also was evaluated for home values based on Zillow real estate data, results show.
What makes Cary and Wake Forest special?
Cary, west of Raleigh, is home to about 180,000 people. With an average home value of over $623,000, it ranked among the nation’s least affordable suburbs but got a boost for attracting potential residents, results show.
Also ranking in the top 10 was Wake Forest, a town north of Raleigh that has roughly 54,000 people. It was found to have an average home value that topped $520,000, the 12th most expensive among the towns considered.
“Relocations to Raleigh suburbs benefit from a metropolitan area with a strong job market,” moveBuddha wrote. “As of Aug 2023 to Aug 2024 job growth was 2.4%, almost a full point higher than the national 1.55% average.”
So, how did other North Carolina towns fare in the rankings? Here’s where they landed:
- Clayton at No. 11
- Mooresville at No. 17
- Apex at No. 21
The results come after Apex, a Raleigh suburb, received a streak of other honors, including being named one of the nation’s best small towns to call home. It also ranked as the state’s No. 1 “boomtown,” based on population, housing and income growth, McClatchy News reported.
This time around, moveBuddha said the nation’s top “job-magnet” suburb was Summerville, South Carolina, near the tourist hot spot of Charleston. Here are the other towns that rounded out the top five:
- Conway, South Carolina, at No. 2
- Beverly Hills, California, at No. 3
- Winter Garden, Florida, at No. 4
- Davenport, Florida, at No. 5
