ABSTRACT
The experiences of the urban areas of the South and West, although quite varied, were in general different from those of the urban areas of the North. This chapter describes the four major urban areas in Texas: Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. Population growth in metropolitan Houston was 26.1 percent from 2000 to 2010. All four major metro areas in Texas experienced significant population growth, but employment growth fell well short of the population growth rate. New Orleans is the one urban area in the United States that must rely on a system of levees, pumps, canals, and flood insurance. The housing bubble and crash occurred in the urban areas in Florida, but not in the other southern urban areas that are included in the Case-Shiller index. In the West, Denver avoided the bubble and crash, but six of the other seven western urban areas that they consider did experience them.
