City-A-Go-Go: The Nation's Fastest Growing Metro Areas
Quick growth brings jobs and prosperity, but also pitfalls.
Nov. 2, 2007 Special to ABCNEWS.com — -- For some city dwellers, more people means more headaches. Roads become congested, trash accumulates and getting a reservation at a top restaurant becomes a Herculean feat.
But economically, it's generally a good thing. Increases in population, immigration and migration mean more money for the city and local businesses. It also helps to create a healthy housing market by introducing new buyers into the mix.
Benefiting most in this regard? Las Vegas. It's seen a nearly 30% population increase since 2000. Job growth and a healthy local economy are driving people to Sin City. In the last few years, it experienced a housing boom that's only now slumping. But even that downturn couldn't knock it from its perch at the top of our list of fastest-growing cities.
Click here to see America's fastest growing cities at our partner site, Forbes.com.
To determine these areas, we consulted Demographia, a St. Louis-based research company that compiles U.S. Census growth data from 2000 to 2006. Each metro was measured based on population increases as a percentage of overall population. This means that while New York had a large population upswing (495,000 people), that growth represented only 2.7% of the overall population. A city like Atlanta, by contrast, experienced a 21% uptick, bringing its population to 5.1 million.
Population figures were broken down into births, migration and immigration--migration being new domestic residents and immigration being new foreign ones. Other cities that grew at accelerated rates: Phoenix; Austin, Texas; and Orlando, Fla.
Population increases have far-reaching economic implications.
Growing cities are more able to attract, retain and develop businesses by offering a robust workforce. And more people means more tax revenue.
In the housing market, the implications are obvious. Nationwide, the inventory glut has contributed to plummeting prices in cities around the country.
But in areas experiencing growth, housing markets are relatively healthy. These include Austin; Charlotte, N.C.; Houston; and Dallas. In other areas on our list, such as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Sacramento, Calif., rapid growth led to more overbuilding during the boom. The good news, however, is that the sustained population and economic growth makes these areas more apt to recover instead of losing residents, as in Buffalo, N.Y., or Detroit.
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