Suburban development trends

The USA Today published an item this month regarding suburgan development trends throughout the United States. The paper noted the end of four decades of suburban growth throughout the nation:

"Places that have done the worst are places where basically real estate was the economic engine," says Ed McMahon, senior research fellow at the Urban Land Institute, a non-profit group that promotes sustainable development.

emphasis added

What does this mean for Central Pennsylvania? We have not suffered the same consequences as the Sun Belt cities during the recent economic downturn, thus indicating that real estate is not the real "economic engine" for Central Pennsylvania. Instead, government employment has been the main economic engine in the Harrisburg area and continues to prop up the real estate business locally (with help from stimulus money and homebuyers credits).

Does this mean that the real estate bubble is safe in Central Pennsylvania forever? Will real estate prices forever rise? Don't count on it.