Charlotte Booms Amid Bust

City is second-largest financial center in US, with $2 trillion in assets
By Rebecca Smith Hurd,  Newser User
Posted Sep 28, 2008 6:15 PM CDT
Charlotte Booms Amid Bust
Panther Statue at Carolina Panthers stadium entrance in Charlotte, NC.   (Shutterstock)

As the rest of the nation struggles through the mortgage bust, Charlotte, NC, is experiencing a boom, Time reports. The pro-business Southern city—home of Bank of America and eight other Fortune 500 firms—manages $2 trillion in assets, making it the second-largest financial center in the US behind New York. Though Charlotte isn’t as sexy a metropolis as Manhattan, the city is quickly shedding its image as a sleepy backwater town.



In recent years, Charlotte has enjoyed the nation’s lowest office-vacancy rates, healthiest urban housing market, and fastest-growing airport. Its climate and quality of life are luring a new generation of workers. And businesses not only bankroll growth, building everything from a NASCAR Hall of Fame to an African-American cultural center, but also help write civic policy. "We don't mind when the competition thinks we're Mayberry," the mayor says. "We're happy to be America's best-kept secret." (More Charlotte stories.)

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