Young Professional Families On the Move

Soaring property values in California have made many homeowners there rich — and many real-estate agents in Austin delighted.

In an exodus that some demographers say could reshape the nation's landscape, young professional families are increasingly fleeing the exorbitant coast for Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Atlanta, Denver or Charlotte, N.C.

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

The 2000 census tracked the movement of college graduates around the country and found the metro areas around Atlanta, Dallas, Denver and Phoenix were top magnets. (San Francisco, too, made the list, although demographers say it's attracting more single dot-com workers than young families.)

Although the Midwest has proved a less attractive draw, cities such as Minneapolis, Kansas City, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Madison, Wis., are also beginning to lure professional families from the coasts.

Demographer Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at Pepperdine University's Davenport Institute for Public Policy, predicts the trend "may lead to a stabilization, or even a limited resurgence," of the long-declining Rust Belt.

More here.