Happening downtown: more people live on top of each other as center cities gain popularity.

AuthorHughes, Leah
PositionStatewide: BUSINESS NEWS FROM ACROSS NORTH CAROLINA - Statistical data

North Carolina's population is surging, though you might need an inner-city zip code to notice. The state added more than 312,000 residents from April 2010 to July 2013, trailing only Texas, California and Florida, U.S. Census Bureau statistics show. About half of that growth was in Mecklenburg and Wake counties, while nearly half of the 100 counties lost residents.

Growth in Mecklenburg and Wake outpaces suburban counties, reversing a long-term trend, UNC Charlotte's Urban Institute reported in April. That's because newcomers want to avoid commuting and home-ownership hassles and enjoy nearby restaurants, bars and sports venues.

"I like that we can do anything without having to drive," says Scott Curry, 28, who last year bought the downtown Charlotte apartment he and his wife first rented in 2011. "We could have a lot more space for the rent if we went to University City or south Charlotte, but we didn't want to deal with the suburban-lifestyle junk that went along with it."

Downtown apartments accounted for almost a third of the 7,900 units built in the Raleigh-Durham metro since 2011, a quarter of the 4,200 erected in Greensboro and Winston-Salem and more than a fifth of the 8,300 that went up in Charlotte, according to Charles Dalton, owner of Real Data LLC, a Charlotte-based real-estate research company. Downtown apartments accounted for 10% or less of construction in those areas during the last decade. The share will increase as several thousand units open there over the next three years, he says.

Charlotte's downtown and neighboring South End district will have 25,500 residents by 2015, according to Charlotte Center City Partners, a nonprofit that promotes the area. That compares with about 9,800 in 2000, spokeswoman Lelia King says. In Raleigh, about 5,000 people live in the central business district, which will see 2,257 more units by mid-2016, according to Mike Stephens, operations director of Downtown Raleigh Alliance. Neighborhoods within a mile of downtown will have 15,000 people living there by 2017, the group estimates. In downtown Winston-Salem, where about 2,500 people resided in 2010, apartment building is accelerating, says Jason Thiel, president of the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership. "We've had 880 units built since 2005, while we have about 600 units under construction now--that's the telltale sign. The urban lifestyle is hot."

Most urbanites are young professionals, though empty nesters also are moving in from the...

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