Creative Class

Check out this chart over at Zillow.

Stan Humphries, Zillow’s vice-president of data and analytics, explains:

According to Zillow’s Zindex (median Zestimate or the middle estimated home value), the Red states (pro-Bush) have substantially lower home values than do Blue states (pro-Kerry).
Red states had a Zindex of $190,323 vs. a Zindex of $323,952 for the
Blue states as of the first quarter of 2007. …  In other words, while Red states were on the winning side of the election, the Blue states are on the winning side in terms of real
estate values, and by a substantial amount. … The correlation between the Zindex and Bush’s
share of the popular vote is -58%, indicating that the two measures are
fairly inversely related.

Interesting report over at Forbes (hat tip: Dean Alexander) on riskiest housing markets. Topping the list, not surprisingly, is Miami.

“Many of the cities on our list –like San Francisco and San Diego–are traditional high fliers where speculators can still make a lot of money if they pick the right neighborhood or hit the price trough. Of course, they might also take a serious bath. Others, like Chicago
or Phoenix, are generally stable markets that are currently under significant
strains. Finally, some, like Cincinnati or Kansas City, are precariously teetering and are not well equipped to handle further downturn. … The metros with the highest shares of ARMs, according to the National Association of Realtors, are in San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles, respectively. These three cities are also the most overpriced, according to our
price-to-earnings measure. And these areas are three of the four least affordable to the local population, according to the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo’s affordability index. If rates go up or lending tightens, fewer will be able to buy in, bringing the markets to a screeching halt. …Two larger cities that performed very well by this measure were
Los Angeles and New York, which ranked fourth and eighth for lowest vacancy rate. While both cities had high ARM shares and high P/Es, their low vacancy rates bode well for those markets.

Interesting stuff: and I agree with much of it (still waiting for that steal on a place in Miami Beach).But what what if much of the demand in places like San Francisco, San Diego and LA is not coming from local sources - what if it is increasingly global? Could that be what is showing up in the low vacancy rates in NY and LA, and continuously rising prices in Manhattan?  Is the super-star city phenomenon now shifting outward to the global level, as globalization brings  us a  small set of global super-stars where demand has gone truly global?

Richard has written extensively on the role of the University in the Creative Economy… (check out the library for pieces by Richard including The University and The Creative Economy by Richard, Gary, Kevin, and Brian). His work has informed my work on the benefits of starting new ventures on campuses.

A recent story in the WSJ by Thaddeus Herrick (available w/out a sub via AOL) shows that corporations are beginning to try new strategies in leveraging the benefits of the university in the creative economy. Express Scripts, Inc., a company that does $18 billion in pharmacy benefits management, is relocating its HQ to the University of Missouri’s St. Louis Campus. From the piece,

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Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of
FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of ‘heat maps’ that show
the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some
preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts
of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Getting Ahead Map

Come back Monday to see next week’s map: Starting a Family

And will cost a lot of money to up-grade.

Plus long commutes are not good for people and make for unhealthy cities. Riverside, Atlanta, L.A., Houston, and D.C. top Forbes’ list.

From Toronto’s National Post...

When Rana read me this comment from her blackberry by the smart and witty Bill Marshall who runs the Toronto Film Festival, I nearly busted a gut. We’re in Positano (one of my favorite places in the world) after an event in Rome, so it took me a little while to get to the computer.  And, no, seriously, I’m not running for anything. But I do appreciate the props on the hair.

Over at The Intangible Economy, Ken Jarboe elaborates on the concept which undergirds our new research center at the Rotman School.

According to Women’s Wear Daily, Banana Republic dubs its fall campaign “urban style for the creative class.”

[S]cience is moving away from the stereotype of men in lab coats. … [T]he new generation of scientists is an imaginative and creative
class of people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Jonathan McDowell a leading researcher of black holes, dark matter and extreme astrophysics at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says in an interview with Earth and Sky, here.

Kevin Stolarick of the Creative Class Group and Lisa Taber of FortiusOne have paired up to develop a series of ‘heat maps’ that show the hottest places in the country based on your lifestage and some preselected criteria.  The maps allow you to zoom in on specific parts of the country or see how your current city compares to others.

Money to Party Map

Come back Monday to see next week’s map: Getting Ahead