CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The growth in Charlotte is on full display from the cranes up high to the workers down below.
“I feel like I always see, like, the new construction coming up and I always want to know what they’re doing," Merideth Turney, who was walking through Uptown, said.
A big driver of the new builds is the number of people coming. New research from the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance found that 113 people a day are moving to the region, the highest level in more than a decade.
“They tend to skew a little bit younger than the people who live here already," Antony Burton, the Alliance's principal researcher, said. "They're slightly more educated, in general. Slightly wealthier than the people who are already here.”
Burton said the cost of living and quality of life compared to other major cities are significant contributors to the growth.
“We're really seeing a broader trend of people leaving the Northeast, some in more expensive markets on the West Coast as well, and moving to markets like Charlotte," Burton said.
And it's not just Charlotte feeling the effects.
“You have places like Cabarrus, Iredell, Gaston, York counties, they've been growing for a while," Burton said. "We've seen increased growth in some of the outer-ring counties, like a Catawba County, like a Rowan County, like a Stanly County.”
He said, accommodating the growth is the city's focus with a tight housing market at play and infrastructure, like roadways, already busy.
But the interest from developers is already clear.
According to Charlotte Center City Partners, thousands of residential units and hotel rooms are already on the way, along with new office and business space in and around Uptown.
A step toward a busier future for the Queen City and surrounding areas.