The U.S. population is expected to grow by 100 million people in the next four decades, all of whom will need a place to live.

A new study suggests cities like Fargo will be a natural choice if communities capitalize on their advantages.

Bottom line is, you've got a hundred million more people who have to go somewhere, said Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow with the New America Foundation, which has issued a report that sees the nations heartland playing a potentially major role in the country's economic future.

Speaking at a news conference at North Dakota State University Thursday, Kotkin said metropolitan areas on the East and West coasts cannot absorb the expected population boom.

Instead, Kotkin expects a migration to the center of the country, where factors like attractive housing prices will lure many people, as long as there are jobs for them.

There's a whole generation of upwardly mobile people who have no opportunity to buy a house. That's a huge driver that is really going to change where the labor market is going to go, Kotkin said.

When it comes to jobs, states like North Dakota have a huge untapped potential for developing renewable sources of energy, as well as manufacturing and technology, said Delore Zimmerman of CEO Praxis, a growth strategy company.

Kotkin and Zimmerman teamed up to produce the New America Foundation report and its Heartland Development Strategy.

One thing the strategy calls for is the creation of a special bank that would focus $10 billion worth of lending on trade and technology infrastructure  things like more broadband communication capacity and alternative energy development...

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