STAMFORD, Conn. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — November 27, 2012 — Houston, Atlanta and the Washington D.C. metropolitan areas are projected to add the most households in absolute terms over the next five years, according to new data released today as part of Pitney Bowes Software’s inaugural Metro Magnets Index. Houston will add 141,000 new households between 2012 and 2017, with Atlanta adding 106,000 and D.C. adding 84,000.

In relative terms, the major metropolitan areas (defined for these purposes as having an excess of 100,000 households) projected to see the highest percentage growth rate through 2017 are Provo/Orem (UT), Austin (TX) and Killeen/Fort Hood (TX).

Detroit (MI) and Charleston (WV) are the only major metropolitan areas that can expect to see a decline in the number of households over the next five years, with Cleveland, OH, expecting just a 0.2% increase.

Growth Across the U.S.

The number of households is projected to grow between 2012 and 2017 in 98% of U.S. metropolitan areas, according to the new data.

Of the 384 U.S. metropolitan areas analyzed as part of Pitney Bowes Software’s inaugural Metro Magnets Index, just eight are set to see a decrease in the number of households. While growth remains, to some degree, almost across the board, the average annual growth rate for the next five years is projected to slow in 78 percent of American metropolitan areas when compared to the average annual growth rate for the years between 2000 and 2010.

“Projected household growth is a critical indicator for the economic prospects of a specific geographic area, and this data can help real estate, retail and a range of other businesses, plan their growth strategy scientifically,” said John O’Hara, President of Pitney Bowes Software. “It is no longer acceptable to make strategic business decisions on gut feel alone. Given the plethora of data, and the advanced tools for analyzing it, business leaders can stay ahead of real estate trends for planning.”

Phoenix, AZ and Riverside, CA, were among the top five growers during 2000-2010, but they are projected to slip to sixth and seventh between 2012 and 2017. The Phoenix area is projected to slow its pace of household change from an average annual rate of 2.9 percent to 0.9 percent. The Riverside-San Bernardino area is projected to slow from a 2.5 percent annual pace to a 1.0 percent annual pace.

Washington D.C. and New York, on the other hand, have returned to the top five metropolitan areas for absolute growth.

Household growth rates are slowing in the Lone Star State along with the national projections, yet Texas is still one of the fastest growing areas with five separate metropolitan areas in the Top Ten for projected percentage increase in the number of households. The Austin, Fort Hood, San Antonio, Houston and McAllen/Mission metropolitan areas all have projected household growth rates above 6.6% for the five-year period.

Location Intelligence

Through its location intelligence software products, Pitney Bowes Software helps organizations to visualize spatial data and understand relationships between specific locations, thus helping them to make more strategic business decisions. The MapInfo Professional® product line provides dynamic and flexible tools to combine location-based data sets with the ability to map and visualise location-based data. The result is actionable intelligence which can benefit organisations in a variety of ways: For example, improving operations (such as site location), improving marketing, understanding risk and strategic planning.

About the Data

Pitney Bowes Software’s demographic projections combine top-down and bottom-up phases. The top-down phase develops national, state, and county projections that become "control totals" for the bottom-up sub-county projections. Detailed national projections by age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin complement state and county projections based on county trending from the Census Bureau. Counties are the building blocks for the Census Bureau’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The bottom-up phase of the projection methodology begins with Census 2010 block-group level data. The Pitney Bowes Software data team develops trending models based on historical MicroBuild® household estimates from The Gadberry Group, a PBS data partner based in Little Rock, Arkansas.

About Pitney Bowes Software

Pitney Bowes Software provides multi-channel solutions that leverage data to create relevant dialogue between organizations and their customers. These solutions enable lifetime customer relationships by integrating data management, location intelligence, sophisticated predictive analytics, rules-based decision making and cross-channel customer interaction management to increase the value of every customer communication while also delivering operational efficiencies.

Pitney Bowes Software is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE: PBI), a customer communications management technology leader. For more information, please visit www.pb.com/software and www.pb.com.