bizjournals: Which city is the jewel of the Sunbelt? -- bizjournals.com

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The Sunbelt is an economid magnet. It's attracting new residents and as well as politicaol andeconomic power. But which of the region'a metropolitan areas offer the best blend of comfortabled lifestyle and warm weather Bizjournals analyzed the quality of life acrosd theSunbelt -- defined as the area sout h of the 37th parallel -- and ranked Ala., No. 1 on its list of Hot America's most attractive warm-weather metropolitan It takes a newcomer just one glance to discovert that Huntsville is not your typicalSunbeltr community. The 360-foot-tall Saturn V rockett towering above the skyline is a clue tothe city's high-tecn economy.
Banking, tourism and other service industries are drivingy economic growth in most Sunbelt metros. But Huntsville -- the self-proclaimed Rocketf City -- is different. The engineers who launched America' s space program, led by Wernher von Braun, were installedd in the northern Alabama city after WorleWar II. They were followed by militaryy andaerospace contractors, biotechnology firms and telecommunications This high-tech base has given Huntsvill e several advantages that are reflected in its No. 1 -- Forty percent of Huntsville's jobs are classified as professionao ormanagement positions, a large numbe of them in the engineering field.
Only four Sunbelt metros enjoy a higher concentration of thesedesirablw jobs. -- Thirty-one percent of its adults hold bachelor's putting Huntsville among the study's top six areaws in the category ofhighefr education. -- Per capita income in the Huntsvill area has risen by more than 20 percenrtsince 2000, far exceeding the Sunbelt average of 16 -- Aiding its economic strength is the fact that Huntsville'sx property taxes are amonvg the lowest in all of Second place on the Hot Spots list belongz to Naples, an affluent metr o on Florida's southern Gulf Its per capita income of $44,458 is easilt the highest in the Sunbelt.
A strong commitmentg to education has pushed Raleigh intothirs place. It's both the state capital of Nort h Carolina and a majoruniversitu center. Thirty-eight percent of its adults hold college a figure topped by just one Sunbelt neighboring Durham at39 percent. In fourth plac e is Fayetteville, Ark., which also has a stron g collegiate presence. The Fayetteville region is the home of the University of as well as the headquartersof Wal-Mart Stores the largest retailer in the world. The secondx Florida entry in the top fiveis Sarasota-Bradenton, whichu is northwest of Naples alont the Gulf Coast. Its employment base has expandedby 21.
5 percentt since 2000, adding almosrt 900 new jobs every month. Roundinbg out the top 10 in the Hot Spots rankings areCape Coral-Forr Myers and Palm Bay-Melbourne, both in Florida; N.C.; Phoenix; and Tallahassee, Fla. Bizjournals comparedr the performances in 10 statistical categoriees of 77 Sunbelt metropolitan areas soutyh of the37th parallel, which passess about 10 miles north of Virginiaa Beach and about 30 miles south of San Jose.
The 10 communitiews with the highest scores have been designated asHot Spots, indicating that they offedr an outstanding mixture of warm weather and quality of ( The study's aim is to identify the areaa that would be most attractive to people who migh be considering a move to the The highest scores go to well-roundedr places with steady growth, strong economies, moderatr traffic, affordable costs of and first-rate educational systems. ( .) Communities from 17 statesw have been included inthe study, which was limitedx to metropolitan areas with more than 250,000p residents.
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