If you like investing, then if you read nothing else I write, read this. The information from this article comes from research performed by the renouned Brookings Institute and Virginia Tech. It describes places around the US that perhaps are the best places to invest.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/26/pf/megapolitan_biz20_1105/index.htm?cnn=yes
Of course, put your wisdom hat on while you read this. As a reminder, information like this doesn't particularly help with an individual's decision to purchase a home. A decision like that needs to consider more micro forces. This information serves to help guide your larger decisions, such as, "should I move to Austin" or "will Austin become a large metroplex".
This information will no doubt be extremely beneficial to commercial investors attempting to decide whether Austin is the place or not. Austin, and for that matter, just about anywhere along the I-35 corridor is "a good place to be". End of story.
This is a site about Austin, so I've pruned the list:
Houston / New Orleans - This is one that I personally don't fully understand. Since the Katrina disaster, I suppose it's a land grab if you can afford it. But I think that will stabalize pretty fast As a resident of Austin, I happen to know that a lot of people "fled" to Houston and Dallas after the tech bubble crash searching for work. Many are gone for good, but many will come back. I'm not sure that Houston will be a boom town. But again, I don't fully understand it. The people that did the research are pretty smart.
I-35 Corridor - That's the area between San Antonio and Kansas City, which includes Austin. Take a ride down I-35 and you'll see it in action. Places like Austin are nice places to live.
As an added note, Boston / NY / Washington were listed. Big surprise. Immigrants come into the US and move right into these places, supplanting the previous "natives" who emigrate away from the coast toward the interior. However, more people tend to stay than leave, increasing the population and value of the already scarce land. Where do these move to? Where it's hot and nice. It's historically been Florida and Arizona, but some move around here.