Here’s a chart from a NY Times story about how growth continues in the sunbelt cities, and not so much in the Northern parts of the country:
For the record, the Twin Cities are growing faster than many other cities in the midwest or upper midwest, but the take-away from the Times piece is this:
Where is the population growing fastest? Places that are warm, places that have ample affordable housing and places that are popular retirement destinations. It is an old story. But during the housing bust, local real estate conditions varied so much that this basic pattern broke down, as people responded to collapsing home prices above all. In 2014, the old pattern reasserted itself.