Communities in northern Lake County continue to lose residents while southern Lake County areas grow, new U.S. Census population estimates for 2007 show.

"You're still having the migration into Northwest Indiana, but shifting within the area," said Lauren Rhein, demographer with the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission.

Rhein attributed some changes to annexing of land as well as shifts in township boundaries.

There were no significant population declines between 2006 and 2007 for most of the region. A few communities saw single-digit increases, including perennial growth areas Winfield and Burns Harbor.

Winfield Town Council President Jim Hick called location its No. 1 draw. Winfield's population has nearly doubled since 2000, to 4,209 residents. Hicks predicts that to hit about 15,000 in the next 15 years.

The town's close proximity to Chicago entices homeowners, he said, as does the area's low tax base.

Hicks said the town wants to attract new businesses to the area, including light industry, and is looking into annexing land as the municipality grows.

Some of the region's largest cities -- East Chicago, Gary and Hammond -- continued steadily losing residents in 2007, as did their smaller neighbors, including Griffith and Whiting, census figures show.

The figures may account for the most recent slump in the housing market, which has a dramatic downturn in home sales and an increase in foreclosures.

Tiny lakefront Whiting has shrunk 4 percent over the last four years to about 4,700 residents, in part by its own doing, Mayor Joe Stahura said.

Over those years, the city has been taking inventory on empty rental properties and has been trying to convert many of the dwellings into single-family homes, Stahura said.

"We're not surprised by the numbers. We're fine with that," he said.

In fact, Stahura said, "We're selling new homes faster than we can build them. We just don't have the property right now."

Where Whiting's housing market has been fairly stable, other parts of the region have suffered.

"It is not the intensive growth that you saw when the housing market was good," NIRPC's Rhein said.

The market hit its peak in the region about 2005, Rhein said, and building permits have dwindled since then. She said the housing market slump has slowed the regular migration of Illinois residents into Northwest Indiana.

In Illinois, the communities of Crete and Lynwood continued to grow, while Calumet City, Lansing and South Holland steadily have lost residents in recent years.