Loft-Style Living Becoming Popular In Smaller Towns

"The change is driven by consumer tastes that nowadays filter down from New York to Marion, Ala., in the time it takes to boot up a laptop. In an age when Netflix, Young Jeezy ringtones and MTV are just a keystroke, finger tap or satellite dish connection away, the South has become virtually a boondocks-free territory. Small and midsized towns see the effects, with pieces of them more like Manhattan than Mayberry."

Whether it's midsized cities like Greenville, S.C., with a downtown population expected to reach 4,500 in the year 2009, or "fading cotton towns" like Greenwood, MS, old warehouse-style buildings in historic downtowns are being converted into hip, urbane apartments and condos.

Also contributing to the trend "is the boom in bigger cities like Charlotte, Nashville and Birmingham, where rising congestion and real estate prices have people moving to what once were rural microdots. Many of these exiles bring their big-city consumer habits with them."