Fast Facts: Raleigh, N.C.
POPULATION: 405,791*
MEDIAN AGE: 30.9
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $51,969*
AVERAGE ASKING RENT: $633 (one-bedroom)
OCCUPANCY: 5.35%†
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 7.9%
NOTABLE: Raleigh was founded in 1792 as North Carolina’s capital and was known as the “City of Oaks” by its founders, who sought to preserve the area’s 1,000 wooded acres. Well-known for its education and research sectors, the Greater Raleigh region is home to nine universities and colleges. This past July, Raleigh was ranked No. 4 among the “Top 100 Places to Live in 2011” by RelocateAmerica, and Forbes that same month named the Raleigh/Cary area No. 2 in its list of “Next Big Boom Towns.”
*As of 2009
† Projected for 2011
Sources: ARA; Bureau of Labor Statistics; Carolina Real Data; Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau; Maximus Advisors; RentVine.com; U.S. Census Bureau; U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Located on the border of Durham and Wake counties, RTP houses approximately 170 companies that employ 70,000 full-time employees in 20 million square feet of office space. Major tenants in the Park represent a virtual “who’s who” of industry stalwarts and include GlaxoSmithKline, the EPA, IBM, Nortel Networks, Cisco Systems, Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, and Motorola, among many others. The combined estimated annual salaries in the RTP total nearly $3 billion, placing the Triangle area within the top 25 highest-per-capita-income markets in the nation.
Recent new employment announcements by a diverse range of professional services and IT firms, including EMC Corp., Affiliated Computer Services, Red Hat, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., Merck & Co., and many others, could add as many as 2,600 jobs to the Triangle area in the near term. Most recently, Consert, a Raleigh-based smart grid technology developer, announced plans to hire 50 employees to fill sales and marketing, installation, and engineering positions. The firm will use $17.7 million from investors to pay the salaries of the new employees.
Additionally, the Triangle area is home to three large universities: North Carolina State University, Duke University, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This high concentration of academic resources and research facilities continues to attract new and expanding industries largely due to the area’s highly educated labor pool.
