The root cause is that once Americans move somewhere, a very large portion of them immediately turn around and try to prevent others from moving there, too. So you end up pushing people out to barren places.
One of my theories is that people in Arizona hate the government and New Yorkers don't because in New York you can drill a well and take care of yourself but in Arizona you have to plug into a tightly regulated network and live where they tell you you can live and how they tell you to live.