The new Census population estimates are out today, and only two metros added more than 100,000 people between July 2013 and July 2014. Houston and Dallas—both in Texas. Only one metro with a population greater than 1 million people grew by 3 percent last year. It's Austin—also in Texas. And you'll never guess what state had the most entries in the list of 50 counties with the greatest population gains. I'm kidding, you definitely will guess, because it's Texas. If you pretend that the United States is populated exclusively by twentysomething graduates of national research universities, you'll develop the sense that everybody is moving to the city centers of New York, Chicago, San Jose, and Boston. In fact, all three of those metro areas have seen more Americans leaving than coming in the last five years. The cities with the highest levels of net domestic migration since 2010 are Houston, Dallas, Austin, Phoenix, Denver, and San Antonio. Once again, we're talking about Texas. More broadly, we're talking about sprawly metros with fast-growing suburbs in the Sun Belt. Where Americans Are Moving: Net Domestic Migration Between 2010-2014, by City The unavoidable takeaway from the Census report is that Americans have resumed the westward suburban ho of the early 21st century, before the Great Recession came crashing down. None of the 20 fastest-growing metros are in the northeast. Rather, they're in the sunny crescent that swoops from the Carolinas down through Texas and up into the west toward the Dakotas. Americans are back to sun-worshipping, as the New York Times explains in an all-too-clear graph: The story of immigration is slightly different. The list of cities with the greatest foreign-born influxes since 2010 includes some of these warm metros, like Houston and Dallas, but also filling out the top-ten metros for immigrants are areas where more native-born Americans are leaving, like New York (#1), Los Angeles (#2), Boston (#7), and Chicago (#9). But the upshot seems to be that even as the recession sparked interest in an urban revival, the metros that seem to be winning the population lottery are suburbs of warm metros—including many of the very Sun Belt areas that seemed devastated by the recession. LINK
I would have just more broadly assumed mid-sized cities without the costs or pedigree competition of Northeastern or West Coast centers.
I think it's about the extent to which one defines quality of life by either convenience or worldliness of surroundings. I came back down from the "breadbasket" a few years ago and would probably take a pay cut to go back; meanwhile my brother works in NYC and grouses about the cost of living, but any time I send him relevant job postings from other cities he curtly responds he would never live in any of them.
It's because the cheaper property allows fast food chains to open as many locations as possible. A wide variety of them too. In River Oaks you get access to a Jack in The Box, Whataburger, and a Taco Bell. That's about it. In Katy they have obscure fast foods like Steak and Shake at the end of each cul-de-sac. Americans love fast food.
I think they'll always have a net gain: they take in a trillion immigrants a year, and I'm not sure designers, print journalists or non-media artists or performers of any kind can work anywhere else.
A lot of this is also due to the fact that corporations are also moving here. State Farm, Toyota, Liberty Mutual, FedEx Office, etc. are all moving their headquarters or major parts of their operations to the DFW area. This is also causing housing values to skyrocket since new housing supply can't keep up. It ain't quite so cheap like it used to be to live around here, but it's still relatively cheap.
Austin has been growing insanely fast. We've been here since 1980, and back then I was concerned with how fast Austin was growing, it having changed a lot from the Austin of the 1960's and '70's that I loved to visit. I didn't know how good we had it. Traffic today is getting out of hand. Even my shortcuts are busy!
People move to the suburbs because its safer, the schools are better, and you get more real estate for your dollar. Poor people can not live in the suburbs because there aren't a lot of apartments and there is no access to public transportation.
I moved to Texas back in '86 and visited Austin a year later for the first time. It was sort of a sleepy city that seemed like a great place to live. Might have moved there if the employment prospects in my industry made it possible. Seems like it grew into a traffic monstrosity in a short period of time. Can't stand the place and only go for business reasons. A few years ago I decided to visit one last customer in Round Rock before heading back to Houston. What a huge mistake! A 10-minute sales call set me back nearly 3 hours.
Yep, it sucks. Every March 6 some buddies and I would head down to the Alamo. There used to be fields and empty spaces on that drive. Now, it is strip malls, mega churches, and housing developments.
