NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Americans, it seems, still have a love affair with the West. Texas and Wyoming were the big winners in the Census Bureau’s annual population estimates, which were released on Wednesday.

In the year ended July 1, Texas added more people than any other state, and Wyoming had the highest growth rate in the nation.

The population of the United States has grown more than 9% to 307,006,550 since the 2000 census. The population grew 0.86% since last year’s estimates.

Just three states shrank during the year. Michigan’s population fell by 0.33%, Maine dropped 0.11%, and Rhode Island lost 0.03%.

Other Sun Belt states have fared much better. Texas, for example, never went through the boom-and-bust housing cycle that devastated the Sand States. Home prices remained affordable, and the state’s unemployment rate was 8% in October, a full two percentage points below the national average.

So, it’s no surprise that Texas added more than 3.9 million residents during the 2000s. Its population also grew by the greatest number of people (478,000) during the 12 months ended July 1.

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Lone Star Luck
In No. 2 city San Antonio, home to four military bases, and Austin, our third-ranked city and the state seat of government, municipal jobs supplement Texas’ robust energy sector. In Dallas (No. 6), it’s a thriving tech industry that buffers it from energy highs and lows. Although Houston (No. is invested mostly in oil, it has diversified its energy industry beyond oil rigs into refining and chemicals manufacturing.

What’s more, the state’s housing prices never ascended to the unsustainable levels the rest of the country hit at the peak of the housing bubble. Thus, it didn’t crash as hard. These factors have toughened the local economy against a recession that is inextricably tied to real estate.

“Texas didn’t have as big of a boom,” says James P. Gaines, research economist at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “So we’re not having anywhere near the kind of bust.”

Top 5 Fastest Recovering Cities

1. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metro Area

2. San Antonio, TX Metro Area

3. Austin-Round Rock, TX Metro Area

4. Pittsburgh, PA Metro Area

5. Harrisburg-Carlisle, PA Metro Area

Full list…

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Among the places in America that have welcomed the most newcomers in 2008, three are home to major colleges and universities: Raleigh, N.C., Provo, Utah, (home to Brigham Young University, one of the country’s largest private colleges), and Austin, Texas, home to the University of Texas at Austin.

“If there are lots of newcomers, it’s easy to make friends; there’s a sense of vibrancy there,” says William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Places that don’t have a lot of new migrants tend to be older and more stagnant. They’re also more close-knit.”

Intellectual centers like the above-mentioned college towns, however, reliably attract new residents because universities are large, relatively stable employers–and a steady flow of students keeps the population young.

“You have an educated population, and you have a large youthful population,” says Alexander von Hoffman, senior fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. “These places retain people after they’ve graduated, and attract like-minded people.”

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Austin took the #2 spot in this national top-40 list for its economic strength.  Interestingly, 8 of the remaining top 10 on this list are in driving distance of Austin.  It’s no accident that these areas continually make these top-10 lists from various sources, the Texas area has economic strength and stability!  It’s what draws so many to the area as well.

1. San Antonio, TX
2. Austin, TX
3. Oklahoma City, OK
4. Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR
5. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
6. Baton Rouge, LA
7. Tulsa, OK
8. Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA
9. Houston-Sugarland-Baytown, TX
10. El Paso, TX

Austin, a high-tech center, is also home to the University of Texas. Employment in the Austin metro peaked in the fourth quarter of last year. Gross metropolitan product peaked in the second quarter. Home prices grew 2.5% in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. And the unemployment rate in June was 7.1%, up 2.6 points from a year earlier.

Job growth (since peak) rank: 2
Gross Metro Product (since peak) rank: 2
Unemployment change (year over year) rank: 16
Home price change (year over year) rank: 18

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Four Texas markets will be among the first in the nation to recover from the recession, says a nationwide forecast by IHS Global Insight.

Austin and San Antonio will lead the way, bouncing back to their pre-recession job levels sometime next year, according to the Lexington, Mass.-based economic forecasting firm, while Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth are among eight other metropolitan areas predicted to recover by 2011.

2010

• Austin
• San Antonio

2011

• Houston
• Dallas-Fort Worth
• Kansas City
• Oklahoma City
• Raleigh
• Salt Lake City
• Virginia Beach-Norfolk

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Washington

Ranked the healthiest by online industry magazine

AUSTIN (KXAN) – A homebuilding industry online magazine has ranked Austin the nation’s healthiest housing market. Builder Online cites low unemployment and high demand as reasons why the Austin market is making a comeback.

Home prices in Austin were still going up last year, unlike most of the country, but they have finally started to fall. The latest numbers show home prices down 4.6% in 2009.

“Clearly we’re not as good as we’d like, obviously we’d like for things to be better but still it gives you some feeling of assurance that things aren’t as bad as some people are having,” said Harry Savio with the Greater Austin Homebuilders Association.

Builder Online notes that Austin’s population grew by more than 4% during the first half of this year which created demand and will help to firm up home prices.

“The fundamentals are there for housing to continue to grow,” said Savio. “We don’t have a lot of inventory, we don’t have a lot of excess houses on the ground.”

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For the exasperated job-seeker to whom employment opportunities seem bleaker than ever, salvation may lie in the Lone Star State. Texas, home to dozens of energy heavyweights and nearly as many innovative small companies, has three of the best cities to earn a living: Dallas, Houston and Austin.

When taking into account the cost of living, strength of industry, economists’ predictions for the future state of employment and, of course, salary, these are some of the best U.S. cities in which to take home a paycheck.

4. Austin, Texas

Number of Forbes’ 400 Best Big Companies: 1

Number of Forbes’ 200 Best Small Companies: 1

Median Income: 28,826

ACCRA Cost of Living Index # (100 Median): 95.9

Five-Year forecasted Annual Job Growth: 2.4%

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1. Dallas, Texas
2. Houston, Texas
3. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
4. Austin, Texas
5. Washington, D.C.
6. St. Louis, Missouri
7. Seattle, Washington
8. Atlanta, Georgia
9. Kansas City, Missouri
10. Denver, Colorado

Do you think that Austin deserves it’s spot on this list?

The Cross-Pollinator: Austin, Texas
“What you have to realize about Austin is that it’s a city of scenes,” explains Bijoy Goswami, founder of the in-person and online community Bootstrap Austin, and Austin’s entrepreneurial culture guru. “We have a music scene, a food scene, a film scene, a tech scene. Recently we’ve gotten to critical mass with an entrepreneur scene, and there are a lot of things going on.” What’s happening is a commingling of creatives facilitated by events like High Tech Happy Hour where participants share their new ideas, Rise Austin seminars where experienced entrepreneurs share their journeys, and the popular South by Southwest Interactive conference. All of that is bolstered by a strong slate of resources like the Tech Ranch and Capital Factory incubators, as well as traditional and boutique VC firms and angel networks. “Theoretically, people here are competing, but the opposite is happening,” Goswami says. “Part of that Texas ethos has percolated into the entrepreneur scene: People in Austin just treat each other well.”

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Environmental news and information group The Mother Nature Network has named Austin as one of the nation’s 10 greenest cities.

The network praised the city of Austin’s Climate Protection Program, a plan to go carbon-neutral by 2020; and the city’s electric utility Austin Energy, the nation’s largest provider of renewable energy, among its reasons for naming Austin a leader in green.

“Austin is a green city because of our engaged community, and we hope our residents will continue to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ester Matthews, director of the Austin Climate Protection Program.