WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- Population growth in outlying U.S. suburbs, the fastest-growing areas from 2000-2010, has fallen off dramatically, the Census Bureau reported.
The latest Census figures cover the period from April 2010-July 2011 and reflect the effects of the recession.
The outer suburbs, sometimes called the exurbs, had boomed with population growth most of the last decade as young families bought homes while credit was still easy to obtain, The New York Times reported.
But with the downturn in the economy and the collapse of the housing market, the growth in exurbs declined precipitously.
"The exurbs were the cutting edge of growth in the United States in the boom period," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. "That growth has really come to a standstill, and is maybe being given up for dead at this point."
The latest statistics indicate many people have been unable to buy or sell homes because of the poor credit market and have been hesitant to move because of economic uncertainty.
The statistics show four of the five fastest-growing metro areas with 2011 populations of 1 million or more were in Texas while the other was in North Carolina.
