Income inequality is rising, along with crime and resentment among groups left out of the economic surge.

In Austin, millennials have been migrating to the East Side to escape soaring housing prices downtown, displacing black families, said Bo McCarver, board chair of the Blackland Community Development Corporation, which builds low-income housing.

“We’re inundated with speculators,” McCarver said. “A lot of the new shops aren’t affordable to low-income families.”

Such challenges won’t stop the region’s ascendancy, said David Albouy, an associate professor of economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

“The momentum is there,” he said. “We are going to see ups and downs in this trend, but it’s going to continue on an upward trajectory.”

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