Dispersion is continuing virtually everywhere, and with it, a movement of the economic center of gravity away from the city centers in most regions.

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Danny Quah, professor of economics and international development at the London School of Economics, has calculated that the world's economic center of gravity measured by looking at income averages across more than 700 places worldwide has shifted east over the past 30 years, from the Transatlantic Axis to somewhere across the Arabian Peninsula.

WSJ: Wealth Over the Edge | WSJ.Money Spring 2013

Certainly sustained economic growth, low density and more affordable housing all clearly continue to push the center of population gravity toward certain Sun Belt cities, primarily in the Southeast and Texas.

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