What does southeast NC look like?

[Chris Martin]

I used sensus and NC commerce data to try to get a handle on what the counties in the southeast NC forum look like. If you are looking for population growth, southeast NC is not the best overall place to be. Housing overall, as expected, is less expensive than the urban centers like Raleigh and Charlotte. I plan to post later (separate post) on the overall housing stock, which has aged because of low building volumes in many counties. The data (in OpenCalc spreadsheet) is basically just a summation of individual county data. (The vacancy numbers are weighted by county specific vacancy counts, not a numeric average of county vacancy rates.)

I put a link to the source of the data at the end.

2019 Proj Total Population (& annual growth)	1,255,325	+0.86%
2014 Proj Total Population	1,203,735
2010 Census Total Population	1,162,386
July 2015 Certified Population Estimate (NC only)	1,190,473
2010 Census Total Population: Urban	627,872	54%
2010 Census Total Population: Rural	534,514	46%

As for housing, the 2010 vacancy numbers reflect the impact of the Great Recession. For people traveling through the southern most counties, it is clear that there really isn't much of an economic recovery.

2019 Proj Total Housing	546,966	5.18%
2014 Proj Total Housing	520,009
2010 Census Total Housing	442,211
2010 Census Occupied Housing	389,064	88%
2010 Census Vacant Housing	53,147	12%
2014 Est Median Value of Owner Occupied Housing	103,585
2014 Est Median Gross Rent	690
2014 Est Owner Occupied Housing	268,898	62%
2014 Est Renter Occupied Housing	166,974	38%
2014 Est Owner Occupied Housing Vacancy	2.44%
2014 Est Renter Occupied Housing Vacancy	8.07%
2010 Census Total Households	495,358

The biggest employment sources are: government, manufacturing, health care, retail trade, and accomodation/food service. The numbers don't all add up to 100% since some sectors appear to not be represented (agriculture/farming?) I can post the occupations If anyone is interested.

Sources:

Columbus, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37047.pdf
Robeson, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37155.pdf
Scotland, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37165.pdf
Hoke, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37093.pdf
Cumberland, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37051.pdf
Wayne, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37191.pdf
Sampson, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37163.pdf
Bladen, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37017.pdf
Lenoir, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37107.pdf
Craven, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37049.pdf
Jones, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37103.pdf
Duplin, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37061.pdf
Harnett, http://accessnc.commerce.state.nc.us/docs/countyProfile/NC/37085.pdf