The latest Census data is showing that growth is slowing in Washington’s suburbs, including once-hot Northern Virginia:
The galloping growth of Washington’s outer Virginia suburbs is slowing at last, according to Census Bureau estimates to be released today, with high housing costs beginning to dull the appeal of counties that have long been a magnet for newcomers.
Loudoun, the nation’s second-fastest-growing county in 2005, dropped to fourth place largely because only 7,506 people moved in during 2006, compared with 12,002 the previous year.
Fairfax’s growth rate also declined, but for a different reason: Ever more residents are moving out of the county.
The shift brings Northern Virginia in line with the District and Maryland, where Montgomery County’s growth rate continued to slow and growth in two other counties — Anne Arundel and Prince George’s — stagnated in 2006.
“There’s still growth in the Washington region, and there’s still migration from the inside of the doughnut to the periphery. But it’s kind of slacking,” said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “From being a very fast-growing exurban place, Washington has now come down to more normal levels.”
The most fascination piece of data, aside from not surprising declines in places like Prince George’s County, Maryland, is the fact that Arlington County’s net population gain in 2006 was 15, not 15 percent, 15 people.
Gee I wonder why this is happening:
Mike Gorman, owner of Oakridge Communities, which builds homes in Loudoun and Prince William, blames high housing prices, which in Loudoun have reached about $694,000 for a detached house and $426,000 for a townhouse.
“It’s just expensive to live in Loudoun. The cost of a single-family home is expensive. The cost of a townhouse is expensive,” Gorman said.
By contrast, Lang said, “you could move to Nashville or Atlanta or Columbia, South Carolina, and pay $300,000 for a right fine house. . . . So a lot of the people who are leaving Fairfax may just be bypassing Loudoun and heading straight for those places.”
Yea, that could be a reason.
March 23rd, 2007 at 4:28 pm
There’s plenty of work to be had all across Virginia. The current problem is the housing situation. There are so many working homeless in Virginia, especially near DC. It’s quite discouraging. Yet, we are so frantically trying to help third world countries, we’ve forgotten to help ourselves as well.