RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Money Magazine may have given the Triangle’s chances of landing Amazon HQ2 with its latest “Best Places to Live in America” list.

Or the list may help doom North Carolina’s hopes.

How?

By listing Cary as No. 5.

And Chapel Hill came in at No. 33.

Not bad.

But … there’s bad news, too.

HQ2 rivals come in No. 1-4.

Bummer.

“When we crunched the numbers for this year’s Best Places to Live ranking, we (as always) valued locales with good schools, flourishing economies, vibrant communities, and low crime.,” Money says.

“We teamed up with realtor.com to leverage its knowledge of housing markets throughout the country. We sought out diversity, taking note of the economic and cultural benefits it gives a community. And we added a new metric that directly compares home prices with income—emphasizing the kind of balance that makes a community a good fit for working families.”

All those are good points in favor of Cary serving as a possible HQ2 magnet as Jeff Bezos and Amazon management continue to deliberate about where to locate HQ2 and its 50,000 jobs as well as $6 billion in investment. Bezos recently reiterated that a decision among 20 finalists (the Triangle is one of those) will be announced before the end of the year.

Unfortunately for those who want HQ2, the Money list doesn’t just favor the Triangle.

  • Winner Frisco, Texas is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
  • No. 2 Ashburn, Va. is in suburban Washington, D.C.
  • No. 3 Carmel, Indiana is just outside Indianapolis
  • And No. 4 Ellicott City, Maryland is near Baltimore.

Amazon has cited a wide variety of factors in determining which metro area will be chosen for HQ2, from diversity to mass transit, cost of living, tech talent, and more. With the exception of mass transit, the Triangle scores pretty well.

And Cary has much to offer as part of the Triangle, such as being the headquarters location for SAS, a global leader in analytics software and services.

Chapel Hill’s cracking of the top 50 adds a bit more gravitas to the Triangle’s image. But is that enough to help sway Bezos & company?

If not, there’s still Apple’s new campus.

Assuming, of course, a decision is ever made on that one.

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