Have to disagree, dont have the numbers in front of me, but while several sun belt metros do hog much land, so do northeastern msa's. Boston's stretches from ME to RI or CT. New York's is HUGE as well. Those cities sprawl just as much, but they do have denser and more urban intown neighborhoods and inner cores. There are some exceptions, Atlanta's metro size is probably one of the largest in the US, but people living 100 miles away literally DO commute to ATL for work, thats insane and thats part of the reason why traffic is miserable.

The Southern cities are growing in density and overall area size, and soon will trump the northern cities. It is inevitable with all the northerners moving down. Hell my mom and her parents moved from Chicago to Jax, and my dad's family comes from Philly and Boston and most have moved to Jax as well. Plus we have the immigration just as the northern cities do. We are only going to grow in every respect, including density so just hold on and chill out, you guys will be handed yours soon, don't worry.