Business

Sunbelt dominates America’s biggest boomtowns

Most of the top boomtowns in the U.S. are in the sunbelt, and these are some of the best places to consider moving to, especially for your children.

Published

7 years ago

September 6, 2018

Harry Dent

I’ve never read so many good articles and rankings on cities by growth, affordability, and desirability. Especially during a time when the real estate market is crazy. This is the last one I’ll bring you for now.

This study rates the market on three measures, population and housing, workforce and earnings, and business growth. So, you can decide which of these are most important to you or your kids.

The only surprise in the top five is Provo, Utah.

Austin is on top with its hip culture and restaurant scene.

Then Provo comes in after Austin, with its dry, sunny weather. It’s less than an hour from Salt Lake City.

Raleigh’s third with its research triangle and universities, followed by Charleston with its booming restaurant scene and massive tourism.

Nashville, the country music capital, falls in right behind Charleston with strong tourism. Both of which are always bachelorette destinations, making them busy nearly year-round with their mild climates.

We had our last Irrational Economic Summit in Nashville. This year it’s in Austin. Maybe in the future we’ll host it in Charleston.

Out of the top 12, five of the boomtowns are in Texas. None of them are in Florida. And 11 of those 12 are located in the sunbelt.

No surprise there!

Out of the top 36 boomtowns, 28 are tucked along the sunbelt.

The top boomtowns for population and housing are Austin (100), Raleigh (84.1), Provo (79.9), Houston (77.7), and Charleston (66.9).

Those that lead in workforce and earnings are Austin (70.3), McAllen in Texas (a southern border town) (62.2), and Charleston (66.9).

And the top areas for business growth are Provo (95.1), Austin (93.0), Nashville (72.9), Charleston (71.1), and Raleigh (70.8).

The boomtowns that stand out most to me Austin, Charleston and Raleigh. These are some of the best places to consider moving to, especially for your kids.

But the best strategy is to rent for a few years to make sure you love it, and to look for better buy opportunities when the next real estate decline sets in.

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation for writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.

Harry Dent

Harry S. Dent Jr. studied economics in college in the 1970s, receiving his MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar and was elected to the Century Club for leadership excellence. Harry grew to find the study of economics vague and inconclusive and became so disillusioned by the state of his chosen profession that he turned his back on it. Instead, he threw himself into the burgeoning new science of finance which married economic research and market research. Identifying and studying demographic trends, business cycles, consumers’ purchasing power and many other trends empowered Harry to forecast economic and market changes. Over the last three decades, he’s spoken to executives, financial advisors and investors around the world. He’s appeared on “Good Morning America,” PBS, CNBC and CNN/FN. He’s been featured in Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, Entrepreneur, Fortune, Success, U.S. News and World Report, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, American Demographics and Omni. He is a regular guest on Fox Business’s “America’s Nightly Scorecard.” Harry has also written numerous best-selling books over the years, such as The Great Boom Ahead, The Roaring 2000s, the Roaring 2000s Investors and The Demographic Cliff. In his most recent book The Sale of a Lifetime: How the Great Bubble Burst of 2017 Can Make You Rich (2016), Harry looks at the upcoming economic crisis and reveals how it could be the single greatest chance to build wealth we’ll ever see and how we can capitalize on such a unique and historical opportunity. He explains how many of the richest Americans in history have used this same kind of opportunity to quickly accumulate incredible amounts of money, in a short period of time.