Forbes publisher touts lavish living in Huntsville

Rich Karlgaard was a popular guy last week. At least he was with city leaders and media from more than 100 towns across the country.

Karlgaard, publisher of Forbes magazine, touted 150 small- and medium-sized cities in his book, "Life 2.0: How People Across America are Transforming their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness." The book was released in August, but the media blitz apparently began last week; Karlgaard stayed busy fielding phone calls from reporters across the nation who work in the towns he mentioned in the book.

His premise is this: Thanks to technology, there's no need to shoehorn yourself into big, crowded, expensive cities such as New York or San Francisco.

"There are 8 million people in New York City, and I think a good percentage of the people in New York City are mismatched to New York City," he said in a phone interview last week. "A lot of people in New York are making sacrifices of their health, their family or their quality of life."

His list of appealing places for those looking to dodge the rat race include Lincoln, Neb., Hendersonville, N.C., Flagstaff, Ariz. - and Huntsville.

Huntsville is listed as an "I.Q. campus" - a town where universities are active in the science and engineering fields. He noted that the aerospace industry and research taking place at area universities positions Huntsville for prosperity in the future.

"The best thing these cities can do is continue to make a commitment to education," he said. "The future is best for those who are bright and able to learn."

Karlgaard defines lavish living as "something better than a middle-class lifestyle.

"The focus of my book was where you could live well at a price that won't kill you," he said. For example, he noted the price of a 2,500-square-foot home in Coastal California or New York is roughly $1.5 million, more than six times the national average of $260,000 (Huntsville's average price for that size is $188,466, according to Coldwellbanker.com)

Indeed, many people have moved to the Huntsville area from California, Chicago and other parts of the country and been pleased with the housing prices they saw.

Karlgaard said he noticed after the tech bubble burst, stock market dropped and Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks occurred, "a lot of people were deciding they'd had enough of it." Their stock options weren't appreciating. They were struggling to make their mortgage payments.

They shook the "dismissive prejudice" that people who live on the urban coast tend to have about the American Heartland, he said.

The biggest challenge for some of the towns listed in "Life 2.0" will be to welcome the changes that these new residents bring.

"Some of the older residents aren't real keen for the rest of the country to find them out," Karlgaard said. "You're going to get discovered - the question is, do you want the kinds of jobs that will provide opportunities for your children, or do you want low-paying jobs?"