By Carey Eskridge
Forbes.com recently published its list of the nation's fastest growing cities. Austin was third behind Las Vegas, Nevada, and Phoenix, Arizona.
COMPILING THE LIST
Forbes consulted with a St. Louis-based research group to crunch the numbers, using population data from the U.S. Census for 2000-2006. Cities that qualified were those with the highest population increase as a percentage of overall population and these figures were further broken down into growth resulting from births, migration (domestic), and immigration (international).
According to the article, Austin's population has increased by 21.1 percent since 2000. While Austin's grown almost as much as Las Vegas and Phoenix, Austin differed from the top two candidates in two important ways.
- First, the Texas housing market is still healthy.
- Second, Austin's job growth is not as closely tied to the home construction industry as it is in many western cities. The economy is a much more diverse and sustainable population since 2000.
WHERE DOES AUSTIN FIT IN?
I can throw in another anecdotal difference: water.
- The southeastern United States is currently experiencing a drought of epic proportions. Atlanta, another city on the list, has less than a 90-day supply of water.
- The population growth in the west has seriously depleted the water stores there, as well.
- Lake Mead, which supplies Las Vegas and Phoenix with water, is 100 feet lower than normal and unlikely to ever recover to its previous level.
Austin has certainly had it's share of drought, but so far we're not in immediate danger of running out of water.
Obviously, this kind of growth presents a lot of challenges for a
city. Austinites are reeling from the influx of people and
the strain on our infrastructure (Traffic, for instance, is a growing issue). There
are certainly advantages. With real estate market so alluring,
the constant supply of educated workers, and the superior quality of
life, employers continue to relocate to Austin.
For now, it seems we are still on track.
RELATED STORIES
The Austin housing market is still going very strong even though the credit markets have tightened up a bit. We haven't noticed any significant downturn in home loan applications during the 3rd and 4th quarters. This may be due to the fact that Austin has a very healthy job market that is not dependant on a small pool of employeers. We have a diverse community that holding strong inspite of the credit crunch.
Posted by: Austin Mortgage Broker | Friday, December 14, 2007 at 05:04 PM