The sky is falling, the sky is falling–Not!

At the risk of sounding like a real estate salesman, let me say that I am confounded by the sensationalism of headlines trumpeting “sharp price drops” for Manhattan apartments, as the New York Times blared today. The drops were reported by various brokerages for the second quarter.

New Orleans grows apace, but NYC remains biggest

The population of New Orleans grew 8.2 percent in 2008, faster than any other large city in the U.S., according to population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. As of July 1, 2008, the population of New Orleans was 311,853, up from 210,768 in 2006 following Hurricane Katrina but still below the pre-hurricane level of 484,674 based on the 2000 Census.

“As the 2010 Census approaches, these population estimates provide a sense of the population trends throughout the decade,” said Tom Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau’s acting director.

Round Rock, Texas, a city north of Austin, was the second fastest-growing city (8.16 percent) in the nation from 2007 to 2008.

All in all, four of the 10 fastest-growing large cities were in Texas, including McKinney (north of Dallas, ranking fifth), Killeen (north of Austin, ninth) and Fort Worth (10th). North Carolina had a pair of cities in the top 10 fastest growing — Cary (west of Raleigh, third) and Raleigh (eighth).