As more Americans move into cities from the suburbs on a steady economic growth, Redfin - the real estate firm - conducted a study to find the fastest growing cities in the country.
The study, which took into account metropolitan areas with population of about 500,000, analyzed job growth and home affordability in several cities from 2006 to 2012 and found that many inland cities were faring better than the coastal regions.
Below is the list of cities that saw its population rise in 2013.
Experts at Redfin claim that home affordability is a major factor when it comes to moving to a particular city. While jobs and wages also matter, price of a home and cost of living were equally or perhaps a tad bit more important.
"The influence of affordability on domestic migration is a long-term consequence of the housing boom and bust. People aren't just moving to where the jobs are; it now matters how much homes costs when they get there. Affordability continues to play an important role in a choice to move from one city to another. Because of this, cities in the middle of the country will continue to be among the nation's fastest growth areas," according to the Redfin report.
A March Census Bureau report showed that more number of Americans were living in metros in 2013 when compared to a year before. The metropolitan ara population count went up to about 269.3 million. The bureau also found that about 29 percent of the metro area residents were in their 20s and early 30s - that's a 6.3 percentage point's increase from 2000.
"We've entered an era now where certain cities are magnets for young, innovative, productive workers. It's having this magnetism that a number of the rest of us in places that are not on this list are trying to aspire to: the Salt Lakes, the Phoenixes, the pretty much anywhere in Middle America," Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics at the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, told Forbes.
But, another recent paper published by Harvard Kennedy School Professor Edward Glaeser claimed that more Americans were flocking to gloomy cities like Detroit, Cleveland etc.
Reason? Same. The cost of living. Apparently, the high price in the happier places is driving people to cheaper areas - the unhappy regions.
