Superstar Cities

Joel Kotkin, the great author of "The City - A Global History", wrote a very interesting column about the 'myth of superstar cities'. Of course L.A. is also part of this elite club:

What as much as anything distinguishes elite places — what Wharton real-estate professor Joe Gyourko calls "the superstar cities" — are their absurdly high real-estate prices. New York, Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles have long been more expensive than, say, Dallas, Houston or Phoenix — but in recent years the difference in price, he calculates, has increased beyond all reason. San Francisco prices since 1950, for example, have grown at twice the national rate for the 50 largest metropolitan areas.

Now I also understand why finding work has always been challenging:

The non-superstar cities have become the nation's most prodigious centers for job creation. Between 1990 and 2006, job growth in Las Vegas averaged over 6% annually; Phoenix and Riverside well over 3%; Houston, Atlanta, Dallas and Charlotte right around 2%. New York City, L.A., Boston, Chicago and San Francisco all remained well less than 1%.