Urban Populations Rebound

Cities are the new suburbs, apparently. USA Today reports that thanks to the housing crisis and economic downturn cities are sporting population increases once again. Los Angeles scored its biggest annual increase since 2002 last year, New York had its second largest increase in the last 10 years, and Chicago turned around a five-year shrinking streak by increasing its population 0.73 percent, according to census estimates. Furthermore, older cities were more likely to grow or retain their population, as opposed to new hot spots such as suburbs and exurbs, possibly because people haven't been able to sell their homes or don't have jobs that would let them leave the cities. All in all, we're facing the biggest migration slowdown since World War II.