Florida ranks in the top 10 fastest growing cities, Florida real estate

Port St. Lucie and Cape Coral came in third and fourth amongst the 10 fastest-growing (population of 100,000+) cities in the U.S., according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimated population poll.

Los Angeles ranked second at 3.8 million while New York more than doubled that figure and remained at number one for the Nation’s most populated city. Phoenix ranked fifth place passing Philadelphia at sixth.

In 2006 the Census Bureau showed that over 75% of the top 10 most populated cities are located in States that bordered Mexico.

Suburbial cities were prominent among the nation’s fastest growing cities based on growth rate rather than absolute population numbers. In mid 2005, North Las Vegas, Nevada had the fastest growth rate amongst large cities (population of 100,000+) with an 11.9% increase to 197,567. Joining North Las Vegas on the top 10 list was three metro areas in Dallas: Ranking second was McKinney, sixth was Grand Prairie and Denton was fifth. Fort Worth, another of Dallas’ cities ranked eleventh.

Gilbert and Peoria, two cities in Arizona ranked in the top ten. Cary, North Carolina and Lancaster, California each had one ranking in the top ten. Leading all states was California which had seven cities among the 25 fastest growing.

Adding more than 43,000 residents to reach 1.5 million between 2005 and 2006 was Phoenix with the largest population increase. According to the census bureau, Phoenix became the nation’s fifth most populous city; However, Texas was the highest ranked with the largest numerical gainers, with San Antonio , Fort Worth , Houston , Austin and Dallas each making the top 10. Rounding out the list of the 10 biggest numerical gainers was North Las Vegas; Miami; Charlotte, N.C. and San Jose, Calififornia. Leading all states Texas had eight cities among the 25 biggest numerical gainers.

The largest population loss by far was New Orleans among all cities with populations of at least 100,000 people. The city lost slightly more than half of its pre-Hurricane Katrina population falling 50.6% from 452,170 to 223,388 in less than a year. Hialeah, Florida saw its population decline by 1.6 percent which was the second-highest rate of loss over the same period.

The above information was gathered by the Florida Association of Realtors using statistics from the Census 2000 population counts. If you would like more information you may go to; http://www.census.gov/popest/estimates.php.