Where will the Path of Progress be in the future?

In the late 90’s and early 2000 it was very easy to follow the path of progress just by watching development after development being constructed sprawling away from the city center, but as the economy and the Real Estate industry recover have these Paths of Progress changed?

Will past areas of growth still be considered the Path of Progress?  Many of these developments are still lettered with homeowners that are underwater, banks still control abandoned properties and investors have scooped up homes being offered by motivated sellers and creating neighborhoods of renters.

Will developers create new neighborhoods on the outskirts of these developments or will they steer clear of these prior areas and try to establish new Paths of Progress?

A lot of questions, but as an investor I need to stay in front of the curve, and not chase the curve. What are your thoughts?  Where will developers look, and where will the new Path of Progress be?

@Tim Farrell  I think most studies are showing the younger people want to be close to city, downtown redevelopments are at all time highs in midwest. I also think looking at a local market to determine where things are heading could be gold to buy in a d neighborhood that could potentially turn into a B or even a A class in 10 years. If I can cash flow at what I buy it for, it doesn't matter, but if I am right its like winning the lottery. Just my thoughts. 

Jeremy.... thank you for your thoughts

Tim, I had a response that the platform didn't let me post for some unrelated reason. I think it's great that you're asking this question. In fact, I believe there are problems that the urban growth model is solving, and as long as you're solving that, then there's going to be good return. 

However, when people are interested in the downtowns it's because the burbs aren't meeting all their needs or desires. I think there's opportunity in the burbs because there are problems to be solved there. I also think they are less talked about right now but yet aren't going away.

We are a long way from equilibrium in most markets as far as interest in and development of downtowns. The longer play that really is interesting to me is how to make suburbs healthy. That's barely even talked about, and not remotely cool yet.