As investors compete in an increasingly crowded global marketplace, attention is returning homeward where relatively low pricing and positive job growth look amazingly attractive on a global scale. While a few prime central business districts have garnered the lion’s share of new investments recently, 11 significant areas are emerging in the United States. They have been labeled mega-regions.

The distinctive characteristics of a mega-region are job-creating industries and growing housing markets. Some of these regions are growing at a pace similar to global emerging markets (such as the BRIC nations) but with much higher income and education levels.

Mega-regions are generally defined as large networks of metropolitan areas that are connected by similar environmental systems and topography, linked infrastructure and economies, settlement patterns and land use, and shared culture and history. If managed well, cities that are part of these large agglomerat