DFW

Interesting facts about the Dallas-Fort Worth area

If you make $50,000 annually in Dallas, you'd need the following salaries to maintain the status quo in these cities: 
     Austin-$58,343
     Houston-$50,800
     San Antonio-$48,971
     Boston-$85,029
     San Francisco-$113,714
     Seattle-$81,543
     Atlanta-$53,714
     Los Angeles-$82,057
     Chicago-$60,057

Annual mean wage:
     2005:  $45,146
     2009:  $49,856
     2011:  $46,160

Metro-area population:
     2005:  5,816,407
     2009:  6,447,615
     2011:  6,526,548

Interesting stats:
     2.6  Average household size
     21.1  % of obese adults
     31.8  Median resident age
     27.7 % of adults with at least a bachelor's degree
     58 % of family households
     1,603 Number of full-service restaurants
     $1,196 Average monthly rent for one-bedroom apartment
     $135,600 Estimated median house or condo value
     $87,400 Estimated median house or condo value in 2000

Unemployment rate:
     5.8% July 2008
     8.7% July 2009
     9.1% July 2010
     8.9% July 2011
     7.9% July 2012

[This information gleaned from The Dallas Business Journal week of October 26, 2012, page 11.]

The City Square "Opportunity Center"--a dream coming soon. . .



Cities

Echoing antiurbanites throughout the ages, Mahatma Gandhi said that "the true India is to be found not in its few cities, but in its 700,000 villages" and "the growth of the nation depends not on cities, but [on] its villages."  The great man was wrong.  India's growth depends almost entirely on its cities.  There is a near-perfect correlation between urbanization and prosperity across nations.  On average, as the share of a country's population that is urban rises by 10 percent, the country's per capita output increases by 30 percent.  Per capita incomes are allmost four times higher in those countries where a majority of people live in cities than in those countries where a majority of people live in rural areas. 

Edward Glaeser

Triumph of the City:  How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter,

Greener, Healthier and Happier,

page 7