Official US 2010 Census Results

[Sounder]

Strong showing by the income tax free states. 

[Sounder]

Strong showing by the income tax free states. 

Difficult to declare whether it is a symptom or a cause though.

The slowest growing income tax free states were the fastest growing states in their respective regions.   Slow growth states should consider dumping the income tax to attract growth and investment.

[Sounder]

Question for the northwesterners: why is Deschutes county (Bend, OR) growing so fast?

It's beautiful and a paradise.  It is on the east side of the Cascades, so it is sunny with a more continental climate.  It is home to the premier ski resort in the Cascades (Mt. Bachelor) and the large Sunriver Resort.   The Deschutes River is famous for fishing and rafting.   The 10,000+ ft. tall Three Sisters volcanoues and Mt. Bachelor tower off in the distance.  Black Butte, Newberry Crater, and Pilot Butte (Bend's extinct volcano) show off the area's volcanism.  

Sisters, Sunriver, and Bend are all popular vacation and retirement destinations.  Quite a few former pro athletes live in the county.

 

I think Bend also experienced growth the same way Las Vegas and Phoenix did--it was a low-cost housing market of a certain size convenient to some wealthy, high-cost housing markets.

Not at all.  Bend is isolated.  It is on the east side of the Cascade Range.  It also isn't that cheap.   I am sure it did experience growth from Californians cashing out and fleeing California, but so did everywhere else out west.

[Sounder]

The resort town of Kalispell (+40.1%) grew fastest among the top 20, followed by Bozeman (+35.5%), the Bozeman suburb of Belgrade (+29.0%), and two of Kalispell's Flathead Valley neighbors, Columbia Falls (+28.6%) and Whitefish (+26.3).

Great write up, but Kalispell isn't a resort town.  Kalispell is the regional hub of NW Montana.  Whitefish 15 miles north is the major resort town of the area.  Lakeside and Bigfork on the Great Flathead Lake 15-20 miles south are smaller resort towns.  Columbia Falls, despite being the closest major city to Glacier N.P. is an industrial town built around lumber mills and an aluminum plant.

[Sounder]

I am sure the adjacent resort areas bring a lot of money into the area, but few would confuse Kalispell with a resort town.   It's the hub city that supports the nearby resort and resource industrial towns.   Hospital, "mall," community college, Costco, etc.   Calling Kalispell a resort town would be like calling Wenatchee a resort town because it is 20 miles away from Mission Ridge, Entiat, and Leavenworth.   Over the last decade, growth related industries (construction, real estate) were probably a more important driver of the economy than tourism.   A lot of people are relocating to the area.