The next hot spots in America

The cities that exploded way before these? :dunno: I would like to see cities that have been loosing people boom again.

People tend to go where land and property is cheap, taxes are lower, and there are more opportunities exist.

Based on that, a couple places stick out. North Dakota and Montana have oil underground that is economical to drill for. Permits for oil wells in North Dakota have soared in the last year or two years. Land is cheaper in Montana and North Dakota, especially in North Dakota. I don't know how taxes are out there, but I imagine that they can't be as bad as places like Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, or similar states. I think it is possible that those states, and states in that general area (Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota) could see some impressive growth.

I think Boise, ID will begin to "graduate" into "major city" status on the level of a Portland or a Salt Lake City. There will be as many as 650,000 people in the Boise area by 2010 and it could easily surpass 1 million before 2020.

xzmattzx said:

I don't know how taxes are out there, but I imagine that they can't be as bad as places like Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, or similar states.

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I hate to be nitpicky here, but the myth of Taxachusetts needs to die. For the past 15 years, the state has greatly reduced taxes across the board, and the state currently ranks 28th in terms of average tax burden. New York ranks #3, New Jersey ranks 10th.

Mass residents have lower tax burdens than people who live in North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Indiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Maryland and some other surprising places.

Check out the list for yourself:

http://www.retirementliving.com/RLtaxburdens.html

According to a CNN report (albeit in 2005), Mass ranked 32nd.

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/taxesbystate2005/index.html

In addition to the previously mentioned areas (Idaho, Montana, Dakotas)...

I'll add Iowa and Missouri. They have strong economies, growing populations, good schools, and reasonably priced housing.

in terms of cities, Sioux Falls will continue to boom, as will Des Moines. Some possible surprise growth areas are the Quad Cities and Peoria in Illinois, both of which are perfectly positioned to benefit from the agricultural/commodity boom.

I see Missouri as a big one, and Wisconsin too. I have the feeling that Madison is going to start booming big time soon. It has a strong economy, beautiful, clean, safe, cheap, and awesome education. On the plus side, its very close to Chicago and Milwaukee, and not all that far from the Twin Cities. I def see Madison as the next big one.

I also see other places growing. As we can see, people like living in warm climates. This is especially true for retirees. Florida and now Arizona have been booming.

I can see New Mexico and west Texas becoming a big retiree area some time. I think that New Mexico will have spillover from Arizona, just like Arizona and Nevada currently have spillover from California. Some places in Texas could also boom as a place to live, especially for retirees. Any place with a very comfortable Winter climate, either similar to Arizona or Florida, would probably become popular. West Texas or southern Texas could be big.

Spillover from Florida might also happen. I can see people retiring in southern Georgia, especially along the coast, as it becomes a cheaper alternative to Florida. Savannah could be the epicenter of that. I think South Carolina is already seeing some big retiree growth, although we don't hear about it if it really is growing a lot.

I really expect some of the major urban areas of the past experiencing new population increases.

Cities such as Boston, Philly, Chicago.

I think the superior infastructure that these cities have over some of the newer cities will allow attract residents as gas prices continue to rise.

Out of pure speculation, it also seems that many youth who grew up in suburbia are moving back to urban environments.

Gtownoe said:

Out of pure speculation, it also seems that many youth who grew up in suburbia are moving back to urban environments.

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Yes. Not only young people but also the baby boomers.

I think some of the smaller cities of the Sunbelt and interior West in particular will constitute some of the new hot spots.

hudkina said:

I think Boise, ID will begin to "graduate" into "major city" status on the level of a Portland or a Salt Lake City. There will be as many as 650,000 people in the Boise area by 2010 and it could easily surpass 1 million before 2020.

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You know, when I wrote my original post, Boise was the first place I thought of also. I'm with you...I think the growth of Boise is just beginning to explode.

I don't think it will be to the same degree as the places listed above but I think places like Salt Lake City, UT, Boise, ID, and Anchorage, AK will see some pretty big growth. Although Anchorage might be further towards the end of that 20 year time frame or not until after it.

Small cities like this will be the ones to flourish surprisingly well I think.

I think SoCal will stay pretty strong for a while.

I'd like to see Detroit bounce back, but i dont know how likely that is.

The cost of energy (air conditioning) and demands for water that isn't there in a region being depleted of it would make any boom areas in the mountain west highly unlikely.

in a time when conservation is being more and more forced on us, I doubt that there will be a lot of booming taking place. Realistically we are going to be dealing more with what we have than with what we can generate. And that could be a very good thing.

Places with a ton of rail such as Chicago (grow even more), Buffalo, Pittsburgh, etc. Places that have/had booming steel production and factory production in the past.

I hope that the Northeast starts growing again.

Well, the fact that our (CT) economy is outpacing the nation for once is a start, I guess.

Baltimore, Charlotte.

As for North Dakota and Montana. The problem with the oil analysis (despite there being 3.6 billion barrels of economically extractable oil, the area that the oil is in is in the most sparsely populated region of both states. It's a no-mans-land.

I think both Albuquerque and Boise are poised for great growth. Can't say either will be the next Vegas, but they will both be growing a lot. Also, look to Sacramento and the cities between Sactown and the San Francisco area.

I live in Spokane right now, though it is stable and growing, I cannot see any sort of explosive growth here. It's a nice place, and will probably reach a million for its metro some day, but not very soon. The positive side of Spokane is that it seems to have weathered "de-industrialization" and it is coming out of its funk.