The Most, And Least, Affordable Cities To Live In
The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index recently released some interesting info. The page has links to several excel documents that list the most, and least, affordable cities to live in. I’ll just discuss the metro areas over 500k people.
The most affordable cities
- Indianapolis, IN
- Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI
- Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
- Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI
- Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
- Syracuse, NY
- Dayton, OH
- Akron, OH
- Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
- Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA
I can speak for many of the Michigan cities since I lived there for 27 years. Warren is a hole and is generally lumped in as Detroit. Troy and Farmington Hills are a different story (and quite frankly I don’t know why they are listed together with Warren). Troy and the surrounding cities were positively booming in the 80s and 90s, and though their economy is struggling like the rest of Michigan, they are doing relatively well. In fact, CNN Money has Troy listed as the 22nd best place to live. I grew up in Shelby Township, which is a couple miles east of Troy, and it’s 62nd on CNN’s list. Sterling Heights, also near Troy and adjacent to Shelby Twp, is 61st on the list. West Bloomfield Twp is, again, just west of Troy and 36th on the list.
These cities boomed in the 80s and 90s from people leaving Detroit looking for better neighborhoods and schools; and they found em. Detroit’s population has plummeted, but they’re all still there… just not in the city limits.
I suppose my point is that you need to thoroughly investigate your possible geodomain investments. Most people would be immediately turned off by hearing the word Detroit or finding out that a geodomain they are about to purchase is near Detroit. Look a little deeper and you may find opportunity.
The least affordable cities
- New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ
- San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA
- Nassau-Suffolk, NY
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA
- Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL
- Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA
- El Paso, TX
- Newark-Union, NJ-PA
- Honolulu, HI
- Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
It wasn’t surprising to see this list cluttered with New York and Cali.
Ultimately, looking at the complete list I find myself questioning the accuracy. They have Ann Arbor, Michigan listed as the 22nd most affordable. Now, Ann Arbor is a major college town; home to the University of Michigan. My brother has lived there for about 10 years now and I can say that the community absolutely rapes the students of their money. While going to school, my brother rented an apartment which was really just a sectioned off room in a house. It was probably about 500 square feet, tops. Rent was $900 a month. Sound affordable to you? It’s disgusting.
So, the list has quite a few college towns in it and I’m guessing many larger college towns are similar to Ann Arbor. This is a direct conflict of facts. What am I missing?
As usual, this info is valuable to geodomainers. Arming yourself with this kind of knowledge will always pay off in the long run.
Subscribe to TrendDomaining.com using your favorite reader!
Copenhagen Is The Next Kyoto
Americans don’t really know about the Kyoto Protocol, as the U.S. isn’t a part of it. Well, technically we are; we just didn’t ratify it. So it’s not in the every day vocabulary of regular Americans. Anyways, the treaty, ratified by 183 countries, legally binds the signatories to higher emissions standards in an effort to solving the global warming issue.
It’s been a sore spot really, as nearly everyone is pissed that the U.S. refuses to participate. Would you like to know why we won’t ratify it? Bush was upset that China, the worlds second largest carbon emitter after the U.S., was given an exemption. And that wasn’t fair!
So… because we aren’t participating, most Americans don’t even know about Kyoto.
Enter: Copenhagen.
The Kyoto Protocol effectively expires in 2012 and needs a replacement. 15,000 officials, advisors and diplomats from 200 countries will meet for 2 weeks this December for the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their primary goal is to create a new protocol to replace Kyoto. Now, they don’t have a name for it, and they aren’t even guaranteeing one will even be signed. But lets face it, there is absolutely no way they are leaving there without a replacement for Kyoto.
The Copenhagen Protocol has not been made the official name, but you can almost count on it. The reason why it will blow Kyoto out of the water is that the U.S. will ratify it, and it’s a possibility China will too. Because of that, it will become a monstrous keyword in the environmental industry.
CopenhagenProtocol was already registered under .com, .net and .org. I picked up the .us and .info. I know, I’m not a big fan of these two either. But for $8 total at Name.com I figured it was worth a shot.
Keep a close eye on this conference. I have a feeling it will spawn some great green keywords.
Subscribe to TrendDomaining.com using your favorite reader!
The Top Internet Cities And The $6 Billion Broadband Stimulus
According to Forbes, Seattle is the new Internet King, replacing two-time winner Atlanta. Recently, Forbes published America’s Most Wired Cities, ranking the top 30 U.S. cities in several internet access categories. Seattle also took the top spot in availability of wi-fi access.
San Francisco had the largest percentage of internet users. Forbes claims the residents to be the most tech-savvy in the U.S.
The top city as far as high-speed options goes is Minneapolis. Some neighborhoods have as many as 20 high-speed providers! That’s sick!
The stimulus package that’s being floated around in the House and Senate has $6 BILLION in broadband and wireless infrastructure grants. Cha ching! Though industry experts were disappointed in the small number (They were expecting around $44 billion), an Obama advisor said this wasn’t the whole enchilada. There will be more to come. The exact wording of the broadband part of the stimulus:
Wireless and Broadband Grants: $6 billion for broadband and wireless services in under-served areas to strengthen the economy and provide business and job opportunities in every section of America with benefits to e-commerce, education, and healthcare. For every dollar invested in broadband the economy sees a ten-fold return on that investment.
So what does this mean for us domainers? More people on the net means more customers for us. Yea, sure, you won’t see a big boom in the next couple months, but it certainly appears to be a brighter near to distant future.
The Wall Street Journal says this stimulus is primarily aimed at rural and mountainous areas in the west. If that’s the case, I suppose you can expect residents of states like Idaho, Utah and Nevada to begin connecting at a fast pace, once the infrastructure is built of course. If you own some geosites in the areas largely targeted, you have plenty of time to prepare for your highly targeted surge of customers.
On to the lists. The following lists should be read if you are a geodomainer. They will be helpful in choosing the right cities if you are looking to purchase a geodomain related to the broadband/wireless industries. Who knows? you may just run into a HonoluluWireless.com at an auction or drop. While people may blow it off thinking it’s just Honolulu, you will know that it’s the 3rd best wireless city in America.
Overall
- Seattle
- Atlanta
- Washington, DC
- Orlando
- Boston
- Miami
- Minneapolis
- Denver
- New York
- Baltimore
Wi-fi (Public wireless internet hotspots per capita)
- Seattle
- Washington, DC
- Honolulu
- New Orleans
- Pittsburgh
- Portland
- Boston
- Los Angeles
- Minneapolis
- Atlanta
Broadband Adoption (Percentage of home internet users with high-speed)
- San Francisco
- San Diego
- Atlanta
- Boston
- Miami
- New York
- Phoenix
- Orlando
- Washington, DC
- Seattle
Access Options (Number of companies providing high-speed access)
- Minneapolis
- Seattle
- Atlanta
- New York
- Denver
- Baltimore
- Charlotte
- Nashville
- Raleigh
- Orlando
Noticeably absent was Houston, San Antonio and Dallas; they weren’t in the top 30. Austin was 30th overall.
Subscribe to TrendDomaining.com using your favorite reader!
Geodomain Shopping? 10 Cities Packed With Recession-Proof Jobs
What a month it’s been for me. After a nasty case of bronchitis followed by a fun case of sinusitis- neither pass quickly for an asthmatic- we made some big steps towards purchasing our first home. We’re having one built, which has been an exciting and scary process what with selecting materials and options.
On to some news!
Yahoo Hotjobs has posted their 10 great cities for salary growth. You know how I feel about these lists, and if not you can read about it here.
With the recession on, many have been watching the unemployment rate as an indicator on how bad it is, or how bad it is going to get. The article refers to the book “150 Recession-Proof Jobs” by Laurence Shatkin, who points out that health care, education, transportation and government jobs are industries that often remain healthy in a recession. This list consists of cities strong in said industries:
- Austin / Round Rock, TX
- Bakersfield, CA
- Charleston / Summerville, SC
- Huntsville, AL
- McAllen / Edinburg / Mission, TX
- Orlando / Kissimmee, FL
- Provo / Orem, UT
- Raleigh / Cary, NC
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Seattle / Tacoma / Bellevue, WA
If you caught the Top 100 Places to Live for 2008 by CNN Money (as well as my related post), you would notice that McAllen / Edinburg / Mission were ranked 11th in fastest job growth and Round Rock was the 7th overall best place to live.
As a domainer, the obvious way to capitalize on this is to plop the keyword “jobs” at the end of the city.com, or beginning- whichever your taste. But in general, lists like these will help you in your geodomain search. You never know what you will see at an auction or on a droplist.
Subscribe to TrendDomaining.com using your favorite reader!
Looking To Buy Some Real Estate Domains? Avoid These Cities
According to the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, California is in for a rocky 2009. Overall, the 2008 Q3 report shows a 16.6% drop in the index, continuing the trend of it falling every quarter since 2006 Q2.
As for their forecasts for 2009, 8 of the 10 cities with the worst forecasts are in California. The top slot goes to Los Angeles, with the median home price projected to drop 24.9%. Here are the remaining 91 cities and their projected drops:
- Los Angeles, CA -24.9%
- Stockton, CA -14.7%
- Riverside, CA -23.3%
- Miami, FL -22.8%
- Sacramento, CA -22.2%
- Santa Ana-Anaheim, CA -22.0%
- Fresno, CA -21.6%
- San Diego, CA -21.1%
- Bakersfield, CA -20.9%
- Washington, DC -19.9%
Subscribe to TrendDomaining.com using your favorite reader!