California is growing as its economy booms, but the fastest-growing cities are far from where the jobs are, according to new data released Monday by the state’s Department of Finance.
With one notable exception — Menlo Park — the Bay Area cities that grew the most last year were suburbs where housing tends to be more plentiful and more affordable, a trend that helps to explain the perennially jammed roads and freeways. East Bay cities such as Dublin, Brentwood and Hercules; Rio Vista in Solano County; and Gilroy in southernmost Santa Clara County were among the cities with the greatest growth in 2016.
“I think that it really underscores how central housing is to these times,” said Jordan Levine, a senior economist for the California Association of Realtors. “Folks want to be able to maintain access to those good jobs in San Francisco and Santa Clara and San Mateo, but can’t afford to live there.”
I wonder if gentrification results in less population density. You have higher income people, so they don’t have to cram as many people into the same housing units to afford them. Also, if families are being displaced by people without kids, then the population might decline.
But wasn’t the media the one serving us Kool-Aid all these years that all these people were moving to Oakland to escape the Fab 7x7 and other places? Unless there was migration and then more seepage on the backend (lower income leaving Oaktown) to negate it…yeah, what you were saying @marcus335 essentially…
