Other cities' struggles highlight North Texas' appeal
Michael Cox, director of the William J. O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom in ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½'s Cox School of Business, talks about the economy and the appeal of North Texas.
By Cheryl Hall
Business Columnist
Economist Michael Cox has a slogan to suggest if you're trying to attract talented workers from either coast: Move here and get a free BMW.
It's not false advertising, says the former chief economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, who's now at ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ University.
Most professionals working in the Northeast and California pay the equivalent of a year's worth of expensive car payments in annual personal income tax – which we don't have.
But we don't need an ad campaign to encourage immigration to North Texas.
Every year for the last three years, Dallas-Fort Worth has added a Little Rock to our population, Cox says. Maintain that annual increase of 165,000 for three years, and we will have "annexed" a San Jose, Calif., since 2007.
"Every six years, we add a million people," says Cox, who heads the O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½. "That's unbelievable. When they lose their jobs in Cleveland, they say, 'OK, let's pack up and move to Dallas.' "
If population trends continue, we'll replace Chicago as the third-largest metropolitan area in 20 years, if not sooner, Cox says.
Why here? Why now?
"The world has fallen in our lap," he says. "We're a service-based economy. We're perfectly poised for growth domestically. Now we have global growth through technology that enables us to be the 'it' economy."
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