What Makes the Southeast Different?

ORLANDO—While the national story about jobs and GDP may be about a slow-down, that's not what the Southeast is experiencing. What makes the Southeast different?

We asked KC Conway, credit risk manager and chief valuation officer at SunTrust Bank, for his thoughts on this topic. He also recently chimed in on the unintended impacts of the Basel Accords.

As Conway sees it, the Southeast has several distinct advantages at this point in time and stage of the economic recovery. He ticks off a few of them, like labor, transportation and logistics infrastructure, and affordability.

“While the South's right-to-work policies are certainly helpful, the region's universities and primary education systems are also important,” Conway says. “Whether engineering at Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, medical schools like Emory and Duke, or IT and robotics at a number of Southeast universities, the region is providing highly skilled labor that is in demand at a price much more competitive than highly regarded universities in California and New England.”

Regarding transportation and logistics infrastructure, Conway says the Southeast has many advantages. There's the strong presence of class I railroads with access to ports and intermodal centers for e-commerce. There's the more efficient and modern ports without the risk of labor disruption. Then, of course, there's the more modern and branched interstate system that can reach 70% of the US population.

“Affordability remains a key selling point for the Southeast as well,” Conway says. “Housing, the cost of occupying commercial real estate, energy and electricity costs, and taxes—corporate, individual and property—are all comparatively more affordable than other areas in the US except parts of the Midwest.”

As Conway sees it, this means companies like Pulte Homes, Mercedes, Boeing, Nike, BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo and more are finding the Southeast an attractive place to expand or relocate. This is why, he concludes, Georgia placed high in CNBC's annual Top States for Business survey. Georgia ranked first and fifth in 2014 and 2015, respectively.