Growth And Migration In The U.S.

Experts sound off on the state of American growth today and the cause of what people are calling "the greatest population re-distribution since the dust bowl".

1 minute read

July 17, 2007, 2:00 PM PDT

By Nate Berg

"Today, Americans are abandoning traditional growth centers. What is behind this mass movement? Some argue the implications of affordability and metropolitan-growth management are playing a far bigger role in the housing market than the symptoms of subprime lending and ARM rollovers are."

"Brookings Institute scholar Robert Puentes says the shift is 'more significant than the migrations of the 1950s or 1970s'; University of Illinois professor of architecture and urban planning Robert Bruegmann calls it 'an undeniable trend'; Demographia Research founder Wendell Cox simply calls it 'radical.'"

"What's causing the shift remains unclear. If jobs and strong local economies were the sole motivators, Los Angeles would not be hemorrhaging population at a faster rate than Detroit, and Chicago would not be losing people more quickly than Pittsburgh."

"Could it be something as simple as housing affordability?"

FULL STORY: The Great American Migration

Monday, July 16, 2007 in Forbes

Social / Demographics Urban Development United States

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