1 year after Amazon launched its HQ2 Hunt, here is where it is

Willy Wonka would be delighted: a year ago, Jeff Bezos announced the search for a second seat of Amazon, triggering a surge of advertising and an interest frenzy of cities hoping to get a ticket in gold. The 238 HQ2 candidates were reduced to 20 finalists in January.

Amazon (amzn) promises to invest more than $ 5 billion in the city it chooses for its second headquarters and create 50,000 well-paying jobs over the next decade. Its effect on its current hometown of Seattle has been staggering: the company employs more than 40,000 people and says every dollar invested in Seattle has generated an additional $ 1.40 for the city's economy.

The e – commerce giant has announced that it will make its final decision on the HQ2 by the end of the year.

So where is the research today? While Amazon oscillates around a market capitalization of $ 1 trillion, the list of candidate cities remains at 20 in the United States, plus Toronto, Canada.

Geekwire has been trying to guess QG2's location by analyzing recent Amazon job postings. The metropolitan area of ​​Washington, DC, had the most open positions this summer, and three finalist cities are found in this region: the same District of Columbia, northern Virginia and Montgomery County, Md.

An analysis by CNBC revealed that Texas was the most attractive location, with Dallas and Austin among the top 20 finalists. Earlier analysis by ATTOM Data Solutions ranked Raleigh, N.C. and Atlanta at the top of the list. Atlanta was one of the first favorites, and Wells Fargo Securities predicted that Boston would be the favorite,

CNN reports that details of the economic climate of these cities, as they appear in their proposals, also attract other investors.

Cities often appeal to companies planning to build in their area, but it is rare to see a company openly auditioning cities in this way. The candidate cities have collapsed to offer the most attractive tax incentives, but it is hard to say what will drive Bezos to choose a city – and it is unclear how the tax cuts could affect the results of the chosen city.

Although wooing Amazon for its second seat seems like an obvious victory, experts warn of the drawbacks, such as increased traffic and housing price inflation. "It's like feeling Willy Wonka and the chocolate factorySaid Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics, at NBC News. "It's a real price, but they'll have to be very disciplined. It's a big problem, a big project with a lot of moving parts.