{"id":716214,"date":"2026-06-20T21:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/716214\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T21:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T21:35:10","slug":"four-california-cities-among-americas-newest-boomtowns-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/716214\/","title":{"rendered":"Four California cities among America’s newest boomtowns, report says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From San Francisco during the Gold Rush<\/a>\u00a0era\u00a0to Silicon Valley\u00a0cities amid\u00a0the tech\u00a0surge,\u00a0boomtowns have played a defining role in California history.<\/p>\n

Today, the Golden State still has a handful of new boomtowns, which \u201cstand out for attracting people, investment and development at a pace that sets them apart,\u201d according to\u00a0SmartAsset, a financial technology company.<\/p>\n

In a recent report<\/a>,\u00a0SmartAsset\u00a0said it assessed more than 400 cities\u00a0nationwide\u00a0that had populations of 65,000 or more to\u00a0identify\u00a0places experiencing rapid growth.\u00a0The company then used three factors\u00a0\u2014\u00a0economic output, housing\u00a0units\u00a0and labor force size\u00a0\u2014\u00a0based on five-year growth to derive an overall\u00a0score\u00a0for each city.<\/p>\n

Those scores were then used to rank 75 cities, including four in California, as America\u2019s newest boomtowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoomtown\u00a0status does not mean growth benefits everyone equally, but it does reflect a city\u2019s expanding economic capacity and the new opportunities that come with it,\u201d\u00a0SmartAsset\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0what to know about the report and what it found for the California cities that made the list.<\/p>\n

SmartAsset\u2019s\u00a0methodology <\/p>\n

SmartAsset\u00a0focused on cities with populations of more than 65,000, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau\u2019s 2024 American Community Survey. It then scored each city based on three growth metrics: five-year changes in labor force and housing units, and county-level compound annual real GDP growth.<\/p>\n

Changes in labor force and housing units were\u00a0determined\u00a0using\u00a02019 and 2024\u00a0American Community Survey\u00a0data.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor force includes residents\u00a0ages\u00a016 and older who are employed or actively seeking work,\u201d\u00a0SmartAsset\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

To estimate economic output, the company used 2019 and 2024 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, noting that county-level real GDP served as a proxy for city-level growth.<\/p>\n

The cities were assigned overall scores based on the three metrics, then ranked accordingly.<\/p>\n

What to know about California\u2019s new boomtowns <\/p>\n

Four California cities were identified as emerging boomtowns in\u00a0SmartAsset\u2019s\u00a0report: Menifee, Rancho Cordova, Santa\u00a0Clara,\u00a0and Sunnyvale.\u00a0All are in Northern California except Menifee, which is located in Southern California.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s\u00a0a closer look at each of the state\u2019s\u00a0boomtowns.<\/p>\n

Menifee\u00a0(#65) <\/p>\n

Housing unit increase: 29%<\/p>\n

Labor force increase: 45%<\/p>\n

Compound annual real GDP growth: 2.4%<\/p>\n

Menifee is in southwestern Riverside County<\/a>, about 30 miles southeast of the city of Riverside. The\u00a0city had a population of just over 100,000<\/a>\u00a0in 2020,\u00a0which grew to an estimated 118,592 by July 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.<\/p>\n

Rancho Cordova\u00a0(#70) <\/p>\n

Housing unit increase: 21%<\/p>\n

Labor force increase: 17%<\/p>\n

Compound annual real GDP growth: 2.5%<\/p>\n

Rancho Cordova is in Sacramento County<\/a>, about 15 miles east of downtown Sacramento.\u00a0The\u00a0city\u2019s population was\u00a0nearly 80,000<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 and rose to about 87,000 by July 2025, Census Bureau estimates show.<\/p>\n

Santa Clara\u00a0(#72) <\/p>\n

Santa Clara<\/a>, nestled in\u00a0the heart of Silicon Valley,\u00a0had a population of 127,647 in 2020,<\/a>\u00a0increasing to an estimated 133,446 by July 2025, according to the Census Bureau.<\/p>\n

Sunnyvale\u00a0(#75) <\/p>\n

Sunnyvale<\/a>,\u00a0also\u00a0in the heart of Silicon Valley,\u00a0had\u00a0a population of 140,081 in 2020,<\/a>\u00a0growing to an estimated 156,577 by July 2025, Census Bureau data shows.<\/p>\n

Key takeaways,\u00a0highest-ranking\u00a0boomtowns\u00a0nationwide <\/p>\n

Florida leads the nation with the most boomtowns, claiming 19, which is the highest number in SmartAsset’s study.<\/p>\n

Texas follows closely with 18 boomtowns. Two of its cities also top the list, with Georgetown ranking No. 1 and New Braunfels No. 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two Central Texas cities each saw five-year increases of more than 30% in labor force size and housing units, while county-level economic output grew at compound annual rates of 7.7% in Williamson County and 6.8% in Comal County,\u201d\u00a0SmartAsset\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

Lehi, Utah, which ranks third,\u00a0has seen its population size\u00a0nearly double\u00a0since 2010, \u201cas major employers, including Adobe,\u00a0Microsoft\u00a0and Texas Instruments, have\u00a0established\u00a0or expanded facilities in the city,\u201d\u00a0SmartAsset\u00a0said.<\/p>\n

There is just one boomtown in the Northeast: Portland, Maine, which ranks at 55. SmartAsset attributes its boomtown status to \u201cinvestment tied to biotech and artificial\u00a0intelligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are the top 10 boomtowns in the\u00a0United\u00a0States, per\u00a0SmartAsset\u2019s\u00a0report.<\/p>\n

Georgetown, Texas<\/p>\n

New Braunfels, Texas<\/p>\n

Lehi, Utah<\/p>\n

Leander, Texas<\/p>\n

Lewisville, Texas<\/p>\n

Palm Coast, Florida<\/p>\n

Nampa, Idaho<\/p>\n

McKinney, Texas<\/p>\n

Conroe, Texas<\/p>\n

Frisco, Texas<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: 4 California cities rank among America’s newest boomtowns<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From San Francisco during the Gold Rush\u00a0era\u00a0to Silicon Valley\u00a0cities amid\u00a0the tech\u00a0surge,\u00a0boomtowns have played a defining role in California…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[308638,2356,9273,269695,192,129105,50153,79],"class_list":["post-716214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-boomtowns","tag-california","tag-census-bureau","tag-economic-output","tag-environment","tag-housing-units","tag-labor-force","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}