re: SEC Metro GDP Growth

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That number will taper off, there isn't enough industry in the area to support that sort of sustained growth imo.

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It will taper but not soon. there are several major companies with operations in the AU-Opelika area. Mando, Wal Mart distribution, Briggs & Straton, and massive Kia plant 20 miles north in West Point, GA that several Auburn residents work at.

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There are plenty of great places to live and raise a family in this state.

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I agree. I live here, and I love living in this state.
But the from an economic standpoint, the state of Alabama is lagging way behind the rest of the South. Somehow Alabama has mostly missed the economic explosion that has taken off most everywhere else from Texas east to Virginia.

Here is how the metro areas of the state of Alabama have performed in terms of real GDP Growth rate from 2012-2015:

+28.1%- Auburn
+9.7%- Florence-Muscle Shoals
+6.8%- Daphne-Fairhope
+4.1%- Huntsville
+3.0%- Montgomery
+1.2%- STATE AVERAGE
-0.2%- Birmingham
-2.5%- Decatur
-2.7%- Gadsden
-4.2%- Mobile
-7.3%- Tuscaloosa
-7.9%- Anniston-Oxford

Only Auburn and the Shoals had a GDP that grew faster than the national average. Baldwin County at 6.8% was right at the national average. Yet the state as a whole lagged behind the rest of the country at a GDP Growth rate of just 1.2%.

That's bad.