* The estimated price tag for Tampa Bay upgrades to keep the area safe from rising seas and storms over the next 50 years is $13.4 billion. According to the Tampa Bay Partnership Resilience Task Force, the region could lose some $17 billion in property values by 2070.
* According to a national report by the real estate brokerage firm Clever, home prices in the Tampa metro area have increased by 223 percent over the last 22 years. That’s the eighth largest jump in the country. Topping the list is San Francisco—with a 290 percent hike. Miami was 9th at 220 percent.
* U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings show that 13 of USF graduate programs ranked in the top 50 of all public and private higher education institutions. USF’s industrial and organizational psychology program ranked number three, and public health came in at 16.
* Seattle-based Avanade, a Microsoft partner that provides tech solutions and cloud services to a number of Fortune 500 companies, has announced plans to build its first U.S. engineering hub in Tampa. It will entail bringing 500 new entry- and senior-level engineering, data and software development jobs to Tampa over the next three years.
* “It comes back to buildings and transportation. That’s where we are creating the majority of our greenhouse gases.”–Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard.