* The April issue of Money magazine, which includes its “Real Estate Guide 2014, prominently features Tampa. According to Money: “Impressive job creation and low unemployment rates are expected to drive up home prices in growing cities like Tampa this year.”
An accompanying chart lists five metro areas where employment and prices will exceed the estimated national average of 1.8 percent job growth and 4.2 percent price gain. Tampa’s projections are 2.3 percent and 8 percent, respectively. (The five metros, in order: Fort Worth, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Tampa and Indianapolis.)
The aerial-shot, photo layout was impressive–even if the two-page spread on Tampa was really Tierra Verde with a distant Tampa skyline. Close enough.
* While it didn’t come with aesthetic, panorama optics, another report touted Tampa as third among 60 major cities for strength of job market and “long-term financial security.” According to Wallet Hub, an online personal finance tool, Tampa trailed only Fort Worth and Washington, D.C. The next-highest Florida city was Miami at No. 30.
Among the metrics factored into the final rating: unemployment rate trend, number of job openings, cost of living, prevalence of employer-provided health benefits and industrial-mix diversity.
* Not that it was a complete surprise, but Tampa International Airport once again soared near the top of the Airports Council International’s 2013 Service Quality Awards rankings. ACI ranked TIA third among international airports serving between 15 to 30 million passengers. TIA, which handles about 17 million passengers yearly, finished behind top-ranked Gimpo International Airport in South Korea and Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in China. TIA finished fifth in 2012.