Hot Markets: The Perfect Place to Start a Business

Are you looking to start a business or invest in a new market? Factors such as job opportunities, population growth, crime rates, housing affordability, quality of life, employment rates, higher education, and cost of living are crucial when choosing a new market to invest in as a business owner, tenant, or property owner. Additionally, it’s important to consider what’s driving growth in certain markets and why people are moving to or from other areas. In this article, we explore the hottest markets right now, what growth we are seeing in these popular areas, and the role higher education plays on a successful market.

Population & Job Growth

Population growth and job growth are amongst the most important factors to consider before investing in a new market. Your business or property has a much higher chance of being successful long-term if the job market is hot. “City growth is essentially driven by exports that bring ‘new’ money into the city’s economy,” says John Downen, senior research analyst at the University of Utah‘s David Eccles School of Business in Salt Lake City, the top city for 2021 job seekers. Downen continues by explaining, “To support growth, it’s important to have a workforce with the skills those exporting industries need and a regulatory environment that does not greatly increase the cost of doing business, whether through high taxes or restrictive regulations.”

According to MoneyGeek, the Top 5 U.S. Cities for Job Seekers in 2021 are:  

1. Salt Lake City, Utah
2. Birmingham-Hoover, Alabama
3. Jacksonville, Florida
4. Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Indianapolis
5. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The worst cities for job growth in 2021 are:

1. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut
2. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida
3. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York
4. Richmond, Virginia
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California

It’s hard to imagine that places like Los Angeles and New York City would be toward the bottom of the rankings for top U.S. cities for job growth in 2021, but they landed in those spots because they rank lower on employment growth, competition and housing affordability. This will likely raise red flags for anyone considering investing or starting a business in those markets.

Higher Education: Why is it so important?

Education markets with top colleges and universities, as well as research clusters do well, drive growth in a market, and improve the economy. According to Barron’s, colleges are directly connected to innovation via their research, and their innovative research is directly connected to job creation and America’s competitiveness and economic future. As further explained by Barron’s, when we think about the industries that we rely on to generate growth, jobs, and lead to a stable and hopeful future, information technology, healthcare, automobiles, and other manufacturers are high on the list. But few appreciate or understand the connection that all these industries and more have to investments in higher education. The knowledge and skills of workers available in the labor supply is a key determinant for both business and economic growth. Thus, areas with a strong education market are great for business and investing opportunities.

In this article, we discussed many of the important factor’s investors, tenants, and business owners must consider before investing time and money into a new market. We specifically dove into the importance of job growth and population, the most popular markets in 2021, and the importance of higher education in popular markets. The CBC team hopes we educated you on the hottest markets right now and why these markets are so popular, so you can make the best business decisions possible.