No. 4 Charlottesville, Virginia
By Stacy Rapacon, Reporter
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, July 2009
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Population: 190,560
Income Growth:4.8%
Cost of Living Index: 106
Median Household Income: $53,076
Percentage of Workforce in Creative Class: 38%
Thomas Jefferson would be proud of how his hometown has grown up. The Renaissance man laid the foundation for what has become a well-rounded city. From his University of Virginia's hollering Hoos to the artists on the downtown promenade, the Charlottesville community is an unexpected blend of Southern charm and liberal edge, with a strong business base.
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At the heart of it all is Jefferson's university, and its concept of an "academical village." The village is built around an architecture meant to foster lifelong learning and ensure interaction between students and faculty. Today the university spreads that intellectual spirit to its surrounding city, and the school employs 18,000 people -- one-fourth of the local workforce.
But UVA provides Charlottesville with more than employment. The faculty's research, especially in biotechnology, often results in private spinoff companies, such as former professor Martin Chapman's Indoor Biotechnologies, which develops allergen-detecting products. And UVA produces fine employees, too. Graduates "provide good intellectual talent," says Michael Latsko, chief talent officer for SNL Financial, a global financial-research firm headquartered in Charlottesville.
The city is a two-hour drive from Washington, D.C., and three hours from the Norfolk naval base. This proximity helped it draw in the U.S. Army National Ground Intelligence Center, which employs 750 people in a variety of fields, including engineering and foreign affairs. Next year the center will add 800 to 1,600 jobs.
Big, stable employers plus the UVA student body add up to paying customers for the small businesses that give Charlottesville its spunk. An eclectic mix of more than 150 shops, galleries and restaurants line the historic downtown pedestrian mall. For example, one-year-old Siips Wine and Champagne Bar has already become a hot spot with its ballroom-dancing and tango nights. Just a block away, Sharon Nichols opened her Dog and Horse Lovers Boutique a year earlier. She chose Charlottesville for her dream store because it's a "vibrant city surrounded by horse country."
Reader Comments (16)
Posted by: Thomas J at 05/26/2009 10:40:08 PM
Charlottesville is a fine place to live. Everybody loves it here. And people keep quiet about the downsides, so nobody told you: A. Those NGIC jobs are not new; NGIC is bringing their own employees from the DC area. Their presence will certainly help out in these hard times. B. UVA is having a two year wage and hiring freeze due to the Recession and the fact that the endowment just lost 25% of its value. The U doesn't use a big chunk of the endowment for operating costs, but still, that kind of loss hurts.
Posted by: Ben at 05/27/2009 09:53:52 AM
The population of Charlottesville is not 190,000. Maybe that is the population of the town and surrounding Albemarle County. Charlottesville is closer to 50K. Just wanted to point that out.
Posted by: Sean at 05/27/2009 12:00:43 PM
Charlottesville is actually controlled by flesh-eating zombies. Don't move here, please. For your own sake. Real estate prices are just now getting back down to a reasonable level...
Posted by: Beth at 05/27/2009 12:43:42 PM
These numbers definitely include far more than just Charlottesville. According to the Virginia Employment Commission, with numbers through March of 2009, there is a civilian labor force of 21,672 with 20,326 employed for an unemployment rate of 6.2% in Charlottesville. Lower than that nationally and lower than Virginia generally, but by no means the lowest even in the State. Median household income for the latest year the VEC has numbers shows a much lower $37K, not the $53K listed above. And the university, while yes, providing employment, also causes some rather serious issues for the average resident. The rental market is squeezed to the point of making housing very expensive. Demand is high. Four students sharing an apartment are more able to afford the inflated prices than an hourly worker able to share only with his or her children. The job market, too, is hit by the student effect. There is a plentiful labor pool for hourly work during the year and an annual crop of newly minted eligible salaried employees at the end of each school year. Wages are low here if you look at comparable jobs in other locations. Yet costs are high. And our "downtown promenade," known as the downtown mall to those of us who live here, has an empty storefront on virtually every block. It's a nice place to live, but only if you can afford it.
Posted by: Mike at 05/27/2009 02:55:36 PM
The defense jobs listed are not new; the NGIC/DIA is transferring these employees from elsewhere. Minimum wage rules, and "underemployment" is rampant. Every other waiter has a PhD. Or used to be a realtor.
Posted by: luke at 05/27/2009 09:37:34 PM
The funny thing about the video is how accurately the dog shop of all things captures what's happened to Charlottesville...If it employs anyone but the owner, it certainly doesn't pay much. Lots of that sort of thing all lumped together downtown while most of Main Street between the university and downtown has been vacant lots for nearly 30 years. When the kids in the white T-shirts start beating people again this summer there will probably be more vacancies downtown. At least it will match the rest of Main Street then. If that's what living in the 4th best city in the U.S. is all about, then this country is in some serious trouble.
Posted by: norm at 05/27/2009 11:59:05 PM
Charlottesville is a great place to live -- if you can afford it, and many people are finding they cannot. Real estate prices are sky high despite a huge and growing inventory of unsold homes. Wages are more aligned with Lynchburg and Roanoke, than Washington, DC. There are very few job opportunities, no new businesses on the horizon, and no room for expansion or development even if there were. Sorry, but your analysis is seriously flawed.
Posted by: Todd Hawkins at 05/28/2009 07:10:32 AM
We're all full. Sorry you can't stay. Have a nice day!
Posted by: Wahoova at 05/28/2009 04:25:29 PM
Live here, love it and well employed. The rest don't want you to know because they're quaint little hidden gem is no longer hidden and they don't want anymore displaced Yanks. Every "Best Place" survey has had CVille in the top ten in the last 5 years for a reason. I've lived up and down the east coast and nowhere else compares for the diversity of life and leisure. Unless, of course, you are the big city type and then you would hate our lifestyle.
Posted by: Happy Yank at 05/28/2009 08:27:22 PM
Moved here from Connecticut 2 years ago. Lots of folks from the northeast moving down here for the university town vibe, affordability (relative to NY, NJ, CT) and the natural beauty. I love it - it doesn't feel like "The South" at all. So keep on coming down Yanks - you'll have lots of like company...:)
Posted by: Bob Frick at 05/29/2009 02:37:11 PM
This is Bob Frick, a senior editor at Kiplinger's Personal Finance and the editor of our Best Cities project. Interesting discussion -- thanks to all who are posting. I'd like to add a few comments myself: The population numbers and the salary data are for the metro area, which is much larger than the city of Charlottesville, fyi. And as we say throughout the Best Cities package, we're looking for stability and growth in "creative class" jobs -- people who are paid to think and create, which are the kind of jobs our readers are interested in. As for cost of living and housing -- by national standards, they are still very reasonable. That housing prices have plunged as they have in many places reflects the strength of the Charlottesville area economy. No city is perfect, especially in these hard times, but I'll have to side with the folks here who say Charlottesville is a great place to live.
Posted by: Adam at 05/29/2009 10:14:06 PM
Respectfully have to disagree w/some of your points. Your methodology seemed to be computer generated. Yup, we look great on paper. As a job opportunity, nope. Check any area job listings. The jobs aren't here. They MAY be here in the future. But the "metro" area that you refer to does *not exist.* It's rural counties. Unless somehow Charlottesville managed to secretly annex the City of Richmond 65 miles away. 1. Even minimum wage jobs are drying up. Commercial RE vacancies are staggering. 2. There are no "jobs" in the surrounding counties of the MSA that have anything to do w/a creative class. It's manufacturing. All manufacturers in area have had furloughs or layoffs. More coming. 3. There's a 2 YEAR oversupply of unsold residential real estate here. And yet, Charlottesville remains one of the two most expensive areas in the State. Translation: due for a big crash OR lots of unsold RE for years to come. You should look into what the VA Housing Development Authority says about the place. There probably won't be a "next time," but if there is, more on-the-ground data might help out.
Posted by: LouCostello at 05/30/2009 01:29:40 AM
Moved to CVille from Silicon Valley. Lived all over East Coast growing up. I can understand easterners liking it. Clean, quiet, well educated, with the usual east standoffishness. Westerners will quickly notice remnants of racism and bigotry, lack of diversity, snobbishness, and a true island community - nothing outside of town but trees and mountains. If you have money, are well educated and white, you'll enjoy it. If not, try before you buy.
Posted by: Beth at 06/02/2009 11:36:39 AM
I'd very much like to know what numbers are used to make up the Charlottesville metro area. According to the 2006 estimated US Census Bueau material, Charlottesville had a little over 41K residents (probably a bit larger now, but given the employment figures from March of 2009, listing about 20K people employed, can't have grown much). A 2008 Census Bureau estimate for Albemarle County lists 94K residents. That only brings one to 135K residents in the normally accepted definition of what Charlottesville is considered to be. Which means that if you really believe that the population here is 190K, there are 55K residents coming from a nonstandard definition of "Charlottesville." My guess is that the figures include (and these are 2008 numbers) Greene County (18K in a largely rural, agrarian area) and Fluvanna County (25.5K in a bedroom community area for commuters, with much rural area as well; no jobs to speak of). Which gets you to about 178.5 residents. If you are going to include such a wide area of ground, you would do well to tailor your article toward what the majority of the area is like. The downtown mall is less a symbol of life in the area than is a Walmart in a strip mall. Being only about 7 or 8 blocks long, at the center of a 3 county plus 1 city area, the downtown mall is the huge exception to life here and not the rule. Even then, just look at the empty storefronts. Check the want ads. Yes, the city has plenty to offer. Even the surrounding area does. But you do a disservice to people not familiar with the area when you describe a vibrant scene existing in a very minute area and imply it is a fair description of the entirey.
Posted by: MJ at 07/05/2009 11:33:22 AM
I'd like to weigh in as another resident-there seems to be a great deal of nit picking about semantics in regards to the article. First off, I'd like to point out that article states that $53,076 is the median HOUSEHOLD income, not per capita, and the numbers are quoted from the last census. Most estimates of population also include the counties of Greene, Nelson, and and Fluvanna, since that is where much of the working population lives, and yes, the population of the combined area as of the last census is around 190,000. As far as the downtown mall being the only "vibrant" scene in the area, I must respectfully disagree. There are a number of vibrant neighborhoods in the city itself, including the Corner district near the University, with it's wide array of shops and restaurants supported not only by the students but by UVA hospital. Don't forget Belmont, which has a growing population of eclectic wine and coffee bars. There are myriad of wineries in every direction leading out of Charlottesville in every direction, including Barboursville Vinyard, which hosts live theater every summer. If you truly see Walmart in a strip mall as symbolic of Charlottesville, I have to think you must not be looking very hard. As far as unemployment here- yup, just like EVERYWHERE else in the country- we have it. The job market right now is tough, I ought to know, my husband has been out of work for months. Relatively speaking, however, it is not nearly as bad as many other places. As far as the creative workforce is concerned, we have TWO hospitals, one a major research center, the publisher Lexis Nexis, Video Game Technologies, GE Faunc, Wintergreen Resort, General Dynamics, PRA International, Sperry Marine, as well as the aforementioned bio-technology firms and SNL Financing, just to name a few. Now having said that, I must agree with Shawn that Charlottesville is controlled by flesh-eating zombies...please stay away :)
Posted by: Ellen at 10/04/2009 11:43:38 AM
C'ville has undeniable charm, a great climate and surrounding landscape, but it is under economic stress... the job pool is limited and even the facilities at UVA, since I last visited, looked horribly underfunded. It stunned me that the Commonwealth was letting historic UVA structures, where current students and faculty reside, get so run down!--bad paint, decrepit wood, broken bathroom fixtures-a general lack of repair inside the buildings!...Coming from the Midwest (which Virginians often presume to be inferior), I surely thought that UVA would be comparable to my campuses in Ohio & Indiana...In fact, the facilities and grounds at both my Midwest private college and my Midwest state university were a MILLION times better! That said, I'm not taking away from the historic value and total genius of Thomas Jefferson one bit. They just need to improve the quality of upkeep there! Also, losing the only public rest stop on 64 between Richmond and C'ville due to the VDOT budget crisis is very telling! (not to mention the drifters there seeking rides to C'ville)...They boarded-up that nice rest stop and it has been slated for demolition, but they still can't make a dent in the multi-billion dollar deficit!