Money magazine ranks Charlotte No. 1 Big-City Bargain

If you're looking to move and want a city that will give you good housing and cost-of-living value, Money magazine highly recommends Charlotte. Its newly released 2014 Best Places to Live rankings list has Charlotte pegged as the Best Big-City Bargain in the country.

The magazine ranked Charlotte No. 1 in that category. Phoenix, Fort Worth, Tx., Boston and Chicago rounded out the top five. The magazine created the list by studying metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 in population, and by analyzing housing affordability, economic strength, home price forecasts and livabililty data. The researchers also, in each city, singled out several "promising, well-priced" neighborhoods.

In Charlotte, they pointed out Plaza Midwood, calling it "an interesting mix of the gritty and the pretty" for its mix of tattoo parlors and antiques shops. Mountain Island Lake also earned a mention for being what local Realtor Francine Dupont called "a thrifty alternative to Ballantyne."

Charlotte didn't make the overall top 50 best places to live list, though. Cary came in 19th, Chapel Hill 36th.

Where will Bubble Wrap maker's offices go?

Now that the big news is out about Sealed Air Corp. relocating its headquarters to Charlotte, the biggest unanswered question seems to be: Where exactly in the city will the Bubble Wrap manufacturer's offices go?

At yesterday's press conference at the Charlotte Chamber, CEO Jerome Peribere said only that the firm will build a new office campus somewhere in the city, likely in its southern section. The Observer late Wednesday obtained a PowerPoint presentation on the project that City Council reviewed last month. It contains some clues.

It says the company plans to built a 250,000-square-foot office building for its nearly 1,300 employees, with room for future expansion. Sealed Air at that time was considering LakePointe Corporate Center, Whitehall Corporate Center, Ballantyne -- presumably Ballantyne Corporate Park -- and University Research Park.

Peribere said the company hopes to be done with the move by 2016. It's unclear (at least to me anyway) whether some of those possible landing spots mentioned in the PowerPoint might be temporary locations, to be used while the company's permanent offices are built.

Charlotte makes top ten among best cities to start a career

Charlotte has landed at No. 9 on a new list of best cities to start a career in. Wallethub, a personal finance social network, released the list today. Wallethub analyzed 150 cities to come up with the list, studying everything from entry-level pay and job opportunities to "mating opportunities" -- i.e., the share of the population that has never been married. Charlotte ranked No. 7 in quality-of-life factors, No. 63 in professional opportunity factors, and came in at No. 9 overall, just below Dallas and above Houston.

Here's the top 10:

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Denver, CO.
3. Irving, TX.
4. Seattle, WA
5. Minneapolis, MN
6. San Francisco, CA
7. Austin, TX
8. Dallas, TX
9. Charlotte, NC
10. Houston, TX

Let's hear what you think. Is Charlotte one of the top cities to start a career in, based on your experience?

Boeing deadline day arrives

Today's the deadline for Charlotte and the dozen or more other interested states and cities to submit applications in hopes of landing the Boeing plant that will build the new 777X airliner. It's perhaps the biggest job recruitment prize to come up for grabs around here in years. If Gov. Pat McCrory and Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker feel good about the locations the state is submitting for Boeing's consideration, they weren't saying yesterday when my colleagues and I asked about it during a Charlotte Chamber event.

Several people I've talked to in N.C. economic development circles privately question whether North Carolina really has a fighting chance. They speculate that Boeing is just shopping the plant around to get the union there in Washington state to accept concessions. (If this letter from an upset Boeing machinist is any guide, the company's ties to the Puget Sound region run extremely deep, and yet union sentiment is strongly against the deal). Judging from this New York Times report, and other things I've read, it appears the machinists feel their experience and expertise in building airplanes make it a risky proposition for Boeing to go elsewhere. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee went so far as to use the words "potential disaster" to describe the kind of delays Boeing has seen at its Charleston, S.C. plant.

Clearly Washington's not letting its largest private employer go without a fight. Lawmakers there last month passed an $8.7 billion incentives package that some call the largest in U.S. history. Is Boeing worth that high a price? I guess we'll see soon enough what North Carolina and Charlotte have to say about that.

Twelve ways Charlotte is superior to other cities

So I was over at the Charlotte Chamber the other day and picked up a handy sheet listing all the "Top 10" -style lists Charlotte has made this year. Since we're always wondering how we fare compared to other places, I thought it'd be an interesting item to share. So, here's 12 lists where Charlotte (and North Carolina) ranked in the Top 12 this year:

• No. 12 Top State for Business. (CNBC ranking of all states).
• No. 11 Top Boomtown (Bloomberg ranking of all large metro areas).
• No. 9 Most Job Openings per Capita (Beyond.com May 2013 ranking of 50 cities).
• No. 9 Top Moving Destination (Penske Truck Rental).
• No. 8 Best City for Jobs (Forbes.com, May 2013).
• No. 7 Top Cities for Small Business (Nerdwallet.com, August 2013).
• No. 7 Spring Break Destination for Families (Livability.com list of 500 cities).
• No. 6 Hot Cities for IT Jobs (Modis, Inc., ranking of 10 cities).
• No. 5 Most Installed Solar Power Generation Capacity (SNL Energy ranking of all states).
• No. 5 Fastest Growing Metro 2000-2012 (U.S. Census ranking of 52 metro areas).
• No. 4 Fastest Growing City Since Recession (Forbes.com).
• No. 2 Best Airport for Making Connections (Travel Leaders Group ranking of U.S. airports).

Our little Top 12 list would've been more tidy and complete if we could've filled in slots No. 10, No. 3 and No. 1.  Just for kicks, if you were compiling your own list of the Top 12 things Charlotte ranked highest in among cities, what would you pencil in for those spots?

Look who made the Top 5 hiring companies in Charlotte

With the unemployment rate still too high for comfort in North Carolina, it's always nice to get a glimpse of any data on who's hiring. The folks at Simply Hired, one of the many online job search services, have been sending me monthly updates on the job openings they see in their database for Charlotte. The one for August is interesting. Here's their top five hiring companies in town for the month:

1. Carolinas Healthcare System -- 743 jobs

2. Harris Teeter -- 711 jobs

3. Novant Health -- 617 jobs

4. Bank of America -- 580 jobs

5. Great Clips -- 542 jobs

Let's say it together, shall we? GREAT CLIPS??!! I imagine the hair-cutting chain is pretty popular. (I see about two dozen locations on a quick white pages search). But Top 5 hiring popular?? I've asked the Simply Hired folks to tell me whether these are all hairstylist jobs or if the company just announced some new corporate relocation to the city that I haven't heard about. Will update if/when I hear something.