The Change Mariner

Real Estate Drive Coastal 'Brain Drain'

Yahoo! News:

Soaring property values in California have made many homeowners there rich -- and many real estate agents here delighted. In an exodus that some demographers say could reshape the American landscape, young professional families are increasingly fleeing the exorbitant coast for Austin, Dallas or San Antonio, for Atlanta, Denver or Phoenix, for Charlotte, N.C.

They're selling their cramped "starter homes" in California, some worth $500,000 or more, and buying luxury homes, for cash, in the nation's interior.

...

The 2000 census tracked movement of college graduates around the country and found the metropolitan areas around Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix were top magnets. (San Francisco made the list, though demographers say it's attracting more single dot-com workers than young families.) Experts say the migration inward has accelerated since the census, as housing prices in California and New England have soared.

Calling the shift dramatic, demographer William Frey has dubbed the Southwest and Southeast the nation's "brain gainers." A scholar at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, Frey sees a "smart belt" emerging in the Sun Belt.

Posted by Timothy Fredel at June 28, 2004 03:56 PM | TrackBack
Related Categories: Area - Social - Demographics | Quadrant - Economic | Quadrant - Social

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