RALEIGH, N.C. (WLOS) — Five Western North Carolina counties have moved to a more distressed tier in the N.C. Department of Commerce’s latest economic development rankings.
According to a news release, those counties are Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison and Yancey. The others moving to that ranking are Burke, Granville, Jones and Pasquotank.
The rankings are based on an assessment of each county’s unemployment rate, median household income, population growth and assessed property value per capita. The law calls for 40 counties to be designated as Tier 1, 40 counties to be designated as Tier 2, and 20 counties to be designated Tier 3, the release said…