Some call it "sprawl"

Wendell Cox has been doing a fine job checking the various claims that "the cities are back." Today's WSJ includes "Suburb Population Growth Slows" which cites a recent Brooking study of 2008-2009 population growth in the top 100 cities (not metro areas). The report suggests that recession-year residential moves are down.

But the boundary issues again muddy some of the picture. Five of the top-ten (by population) cities that grew faster than the national average over the 12 months involved here are very spread out. Some would say that they "sprawl". The cities Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas and San Jose cover huge areas (average 400 square miles) that include neighborhoods that many of us would think of as suburban.