Drive along the 240-mile stretch of the Atlantic coast from Charleston, South Carolina, through the grassy marsh land of southern Georgia and down into northern Florida, and you性视界传媒檒l see one of the most profound economic shifts in the U.S. today.
Welcome to the New New South.
Electric-vehicle factories and battery plants are overtaking pine forests in this region of antebellum architecture and shrimp and grits. More broadly, the entire South from here, north to Kentucky and west to Texas is where businesses are moving to, jobs are being created and homes are being bought. The uplift isn性视界传媒檛 happening equally everywhere, or equally for everyone. But the implications for the entire country are enormous.
The numbers tell the story. For the first time, six fast-growing states in the South 性视界传媒 Florida, Texas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee 性视界传媒 are contributing more to the national GDP than the Northeast, with its Washington-New York-Boston corridor, in government figures going back to the 1990s. The switch happened during the pandemic and shows no signs of reverting.
A flood of transplants helped steer about $100 billion in new income to the Southeast in 2020 and 2021 alone, while the Northeast bled out about $60 billion, based on an analysis of recently published Internal Revenue Service data.
The Southeast accounted for more than two-thirds of all job growth across the U.S. since early 2020, almost doubling its pre-pandemic share. And it was home to 10 of the 15 fastest-growing American large cities.
Corporations are also flocking there, with a record number of firms moving south after the pandemic, Census Bureau data show.
Dun & Bradstreet was one of them.
The company, founded 182 years ago by abolitionist Lewis Tappan, was until recently headquartered in Short Hills, New Jersey, its location a major plus for a financial-information firm with close ties to Wall Street.
But in 2021, the company decamped for Jacksonville, Florida, on the southern edge of that 240-mile coastal band.
Jacksonville lacks the money and star-power of Gable Estates, Fisher Island and other elite South Florida enclaves. Part of downtown is vacant and lifeless. Surrounding Duval County suffers from the state性视界传媒檚 highest crime rate. And, despite locals性视界传媒 fondness for steel-truss bridges, they and the big seaport give Jacksonville an industrial feel not found in Florida性视界传媒檚 more glamorous cities.
What Jacksonville does have is a powerful lure for companies and people looking to work for them. In Dun & Bradstreet性视界传媒檚 case, that included a $100 million package of cash and tax incentives.
Chief Financial Officer Bryan Hipsher said the firm would性视界传媒檝e gladly stayed in the New York area. But the offer in Florida was too good to refuse.
性视界传媒淵ou feel very wanted, right?性视界传媒櫺允咏绱綑 Hipsher said in an interview from the new palm-fringed headquarters, minutes from the beach. 性视界传媒淵ou feel very welcomed, clearly.性视界传媒
The average employee here has an annual salary of $77,000, 25% above the national level, and well outstripping most local salaries. Still, many roles pay roughly 15% below the average at the former New Jersey headquarters.
Jacksonville grew so fast that it surpassed San Jose in population last year. Good schools, including University of Florida an hour and a half away, help provide a high-quality employee base, Hipsher said. Today the firm is still busy hiring 性视界传媒 it性视界传媒檚 a little less than halfway to its goal of 500 workers.
Not far away, the Jacksonville branch of the Mayo Clinic, the world-famous medical center based in Rochester, Minnesota, is growing along with the city. A new oncology building is going up and last year, it added 2,400 employees, bringing the total here to 9,000.
The company性视界传媒檚 move highlights the forces that have sent 2.2 million people migrating to Florida and across the Southeast in the past two years 性视界传媒 roughly the size of Houston.
The term 性视界传媒淣ew South性视界传媒 was coined after the Civil War during a time of economic transition for the formerly slave-owning region. 性视界传媒淭he South has always been reinventing itself,性视界传媒 said Gavin Wright, an economic historian who studies the southern economy. 性视界传媒淓very generation seems to have its 性视界传媒楴ew South.性视界传媒 性视界传媒
In recent decades, the warmer weather, lower taxes, looser regulation and cheaper housing lured companies and retirees. But this pandemic-era Sun Belt economic upswing is wider in scope.
性视界传媒淵ou could throw a dart anywhere at a map of the South and hit somewhere booming,性视界传媒 said Mark Vitner, a retired longtime economist for Wells Fargo who now heads his own economic consultancy, Piedmont Crescent Capital, in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Nashville, where the asset-management firm AllianceBernstein relocated a few years ago, has become the country性视界传媒檚 top real estate 性视界传媒渟upernova性视界传媒 in surveys by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Urban Land Institute. Houston, Atlanta and Charlotte, longtime home of Bank of America Corp., rank among the top 10 moving destinations nationwide by Penske Truck Rental 性视界传媒 all ahead of boomtown Austin.
And no one beats Fort Worth, Texas, near Dallas, the country性视界传媒檚 fastest-growing big city in the latest Census Bureau data.
性视界传媒淲e now have more employees in Texas than New York state. It shouldn性视界传媒檛 have been that way,性视界传媒 JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said to Bloomberg TV on a swing through the South earlier this year.
Back on the South Atlantic coast, signs of the explosive growth are everywhere along the Interstate 26 corridor that leads to Charleston, South Carolina, a 150,000-resident city with a rich, 350-year history. On this vital link to the port, sandwiched between sensitive environmental lands, electric-vehicles plants and master-planned communities are replacing the forests managed by timber companies for decades.
On a March Friday evening, a couple dozen empty-nesters sipped chardonnay and bourbon at a newcomers club party in the Charleston suburb town of Mount Pleasant. Almost everyone seemed to be from New Jersey.
Beth Woods, 47, and her husband were eager to escape the COVID-19 shutdowns and shuttered stores up north, so they started making bi-weekly trips from Mount Olive, New Jersey, soon after the pandemic struck. Before long, they decided to make the move permanent.
性视界传媒淵ou could get your hair done, your nails done, you could basically live your life. And it has lower property taxes here, too,性视界传媒 Woods said.
A few feet away, Rosemary Taibi, 59, concurred. She and her husband slashed their property taxes to $2,000 from $16,000 after moving from Randolph, New Jersey: 性视界传媒淚t性视界传媒檚 a big difference.性视界传媒
Northeasterners are moving here, but, more surprisingly, so are Californians. Employment in the Charleston metro area grew by 5.9% last year, twice as fast as the U.S. average. A Nevada company, Redwood Materials, is building a $3.5 billion EV-components plant 40 minutes northwest of Charleston, following a Volvo plant that opened five years ago.
Whether the growing conservative tilt on issues including reproductive rights could chip away at the influx of people willing to move to some southern states remains to be seen. There性视界传媒檚 no evidence that it has slowed the flow of migration.
For now, more people translate into more congressional seats and more political power on the national scene. Over the past five decades, 12 states in the Southeast including Texas collectively added 33 more congressional seats, roughly the same number that the Northeast and Midwest each lost over the same period.
And Southerners now chair 11 of the 21 most important committees in the U.S. House, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Government.
At the 2022 midterm elections, Republican governors handily defeated nationally known Democratic opponents in Florida, Georgia and Texas, a blow to Democrats hoping that a more diverse mix of people moving south would turn the region purple, if not blue. That may still happen over the long term because shifting politics in states as big as Florida and Texas can take 10 or 20 years, said James Gimpel, government professor at the University of Maryland.
It性视界传媒檚 not surprising, Gimpel said, that so many top Republican candidates are based in the South, including former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as well as Nikki Haley and Tim Scott, both in South Carolina.
For now, though, Maurice Washington, who recently stepped down as chairman of the Charleston County Republican Party, likes what he sees. Over coffee and croissants in Charleston性视界传媒檚 historic district, he said followers on his party性视界传媒檚 social media sites jumped from 4,700 before the pandemic to almost 26,000, and he attributes much of it to all the transplants flooding here.
性视界传媒淭hey don性视界传媒檛 want raise their kids in places like New York and California. You get a lot of that,性视界传媒 Washington said.
