Another Feel-Good Story About The Central Corridor

The linked article at CNBC doesn't say anything regular readers didn't already know: the central corridor is surging.

Sophisticated drilling techniques-including the controversial method of hydraulic fracturing, or " fracking "-have unlocked enormous energy reserves previously inaccessible in shale formations in North Dakota and elsewhere, making U.S. energy independence a real possibility. U.S. shale oil production, which was 230,000 barrels a day in 2007, is forecast to top 2.3 million barrels this year-a 1,000 percent increase-according to the Department of Energy. 

"This energy boom has literally transformed the financial landscape of the central corridor; creating jobs and rising incomes," Whitney wrote in her book "Fate of the States: The New Geography of American Prosperity" (Portfolio/Penguin, 2013). In late 2012, unemployment rates in North Dakota, Oklahoma , Wyoming and others were among the nation's lowest.

This prosperity echoes an earlier era, Whitney said.

"You want to think of where the great Sun Belt drove so much migration into these retirement communities of Florida , Arizona , Nevada , and so much subsequent home price appreciation," she said. "The same thing's going to happen to the central corridor." 

My hunch: newly-minted millionaires in the central corridor will buy homes in the Sun Belt, and maintain a presence in their home states, at least for awhile.