Raleigh In The News around the country/world

I am currently living in the Charlotte area Monday-Thursday. I miss Raleigh everyday, so I go back home every weekend!

10 Likes

Hey we were just talking about this on here recently.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2023/03/31/raleigh-durham-michelin-star-restaurant-economy.html

Interesting read. Bottom line is it’s probably a long way off, if at all, and would likely include the whole state with Asheville, Charlotte, Wilmington, etc. But they’re at least starting the conversation now.

1 Like

Greensboro underrated. Not a bad place. Everything in place there just needs good quality growth, it’s coming though .

2 Likes

Yeah I really like Greensboro now. When I moved here about 14 years ago, I was very unimpressed visiting there. Now we take the train once or twice a year just to spend the day there. Lots more to do, and tons of potential for growth still.

6 Likes

The state has invested a lot in the Triad (especially roads) over the years. It’s thriving but growing slowly compared to the other regions of the state. I think that the state envisions a more advanced manufacturing hub for the state in the Triad since Charlotte has the financial economy and the Triangle has a tech/biotech/pharma economy.

3 Likes

It’ll be interesting to see how much that slow growth pace remains whenever the Toyota plant and Boom Supersonic factory get off the ground (pun intended).

1 Like

Yep last trip I made to charlotte I could not wait to get out.

1 Like

Completely random, but the main villain in Netflix’s Night Agent was born at St. Mary’s Hospital in Raleigh. It isn’t mentioned out loud per se, but is shown a couple times on screen a few times. Rex was located on St. Mary’s Street for half a century before moving to Lake Boone in the 80s.

9 Likes

Which episode? I watched it all but didn’t notice

Maybe episode 7 and 8. It was on the computer when they narrowed it down to two suspects, it showed his hometown. And then the next episode it showed his birth certificate and listed Wake County, Raleigh, and then St. Mary’s hospital. I couldn’t see a connection between the writers and Raleigh.

Just looked, and it appears their home address is a 27610 zip code, so somewhere in East Raleigh.

1 Like

Be careful what you wish for - if the 10-to-30 year fixed mortgage disappears in the U.S., you can bet the finance industry will try to sneak something in like the Canadian mortgage model where the amortization period may be 30 years but there are ‘mortgage terms’ included within that require the homeowner to renegotiate the interest rate every five to ten years! :astonished: We have friends up in the Great White North who have mortgages coming due for renegotiation in the coming year and to say that they are freaked out by the current interest rate environment would be putting it very mildly. Any future program to change mortgages in the U.S. to ‘help’ homeowners should be looked at very skeptically.

3 Likes

Yeah I remember reading on the BBC how all these homeowners in the UK were so upset by rising interest rates affecting their mortgages, and at the time I was like, well why did all those wankers get variable rate mortgages?? Turns out, like you said about Canada, that’s basically the norm in some countries. I can’t imagine having done that here. If anything, here you get whatever fixed rate is available, and refinance when it drops enough at some point.

2 Likes

Agree - I just learned this last fall when I was in London with UK colleagues and everyone was freaking out. I couldn’t really get a good answer as to why people sign up for variable rate mortgages other than “I guess people didn’t think the rates would go up so fast.”

1 Like

Mortgage types change all the time. My first house (*) in 1980 had a variable rate that changed every 3 months. The payment was fixed and only adjusted every 5 years. The interest adjustment had no limits up or down. The payment adjustment was limited to 25% up or down and prepayments where not allowed. The result of this is that in 1981 when the interest rates jumped to 21% and payment was based on 8%, the payments were only paying around 1/2 of interest. When the 5yr payment adjustment come around, monthly payment jumped the max 25% but by then interest rates had dropped back to sort of normal. This made my payments be same as making over two payments each month. End result was when I sold the house in late 80’s it was almost paid for.
Sorry for the long post, but point of this is, be happy that there are a lot more regulations on mortgages now so this type does happened now and be happy you do not have to basically requalify for your mortgage every 5 years like Canada and England.
Just think of mortgage as a 30 year lease with no adjustments and at end of lease you get keep resident.

(*) I took over the mortgage from the first owner who had bought the house new 3 years before. Being there was no qualifying required I was able to take it over by just promising to make the payments. At time I had just started doing contract software development so did not have stable income (make a lot on project and then sometimes months before got started on new one). There was no way I would be able to qualify for new mortgage, but I felt confident I could make the payments.

2 Likes

Saw both of these today on LinkedIn. Raleigh ranks #1 for the hottest housing market in 2023 and #5 in the US job market. Looks like the growth in this area definitely isn’t stopping anytime soon.

The Hottest Housing Markets in the U.S. | U.S. News Housing Market Index | U.S. News (usnews.com)

Raleigh is No. 5 U.S. job market; thousands more jobs could be coming – here’s why | WRAL TechWire

5 Likes

Great read.

13 Likes

ESPN tv series 3 day weekend is in Raleigh to highlight popular eateries in ACC college towns.

14 Likes

3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Community Potpourri

The quality of public education here in Wake County is a very attractive quality to people looking for a place to move to.

https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article274699006.html

2 Likes

https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live?src=usn_pr

Another Best Place to Live list, another Raleigh mention. #3 here.

5 Likes