{"id":1004212092,"date":"2015-02-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-20T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/cpe-uncategorized\/julia-georgules-and-phil-ryan-new-year-new-office-nerds-markets-offer-new-opportunities-to-harness-innovation-talent\/1004212092.html"},"modified":"2021-05-15T06:57:17","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T14:57:17","slug":"julia-georgules-and-phil-ryan-new-year-new-office-nerds-markets-offer-new-opportunities-to-harness-innovation-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commercialsearch.com\/news\/julia-georgules-and-phil-ryan-new-year-new-office-nerds-markets-offer-new-opportunities-to-harness-innovation-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Julia Georgules and Phil Ryan: New Year, New Office? NERDS Markets Offer New Opportunities to Harness Innovation, Talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Silicon Valley and San Francisco are prime locations for tech companies and millennials, but it comes at a premium price: Office space rents are triple the national average in Palo Alto, up 75 percent over the last four years. And employees can expect to pay a hefty $2,700 per month in rent.<\/p>\n

So where else can you find the talent and innovative culture needed to help a company grow, without the price tag? The answer: look to expand or relocate in the \u201cNERDS\u201d markets.\u00a0 Namely, Nashville, East Bay, Raleigh-Durham, Denver and Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

These five markets stand out as having rents and vacancy levels below \u2013 but absorption rates above \u2013 the national average.<\/p>\n

In addition, the NERDS markets have been growing at nearly double the national rate since 2010, according to JLL research<\/a>. Gross metropolitan product has more than tripled in these areas since 1990, and the job market for tech work is strong. The professional and business services industry in the NERDS markets \u2013 which includes jobs in engineering, scientific research, computer systems and the like \u2013 has added 41,000 jobs in the last year. That\u2019s generating 31 percent of job growth in these markets.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the private sector, either. Universities, which are a critical lynchpin in creating the right tech culture, are there as well \u2013 Vanderbilt University, Duke University, the University of California, Berkeley, Brigham Young University and University of Colorado Boulder are among the top-ranked schools that anchor these markets.<\/p>\n

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Also, the price is right: the cost of living is an average 36 percent less than in San Francisco and 16 percent less than in Austin. Housing in the NERDS markets can cost as much as 75 percent less than near Silicon Valley in some cases.<\/p>\n

Each of these cities has its own selling points:<\/p>\n