Increasing U.S. population is no need for concern; Yet
By Justin Hunter
Population control is a concern in just
about every city, state, country or province
worldwide. With population comes less
natural resources and less available real
estate. At least concerning the U.S.
the population increase should not be
a concern at least for the next 35 years.
The article, “The Coming Crunch”
printed in the October 13, 2006 edition
of The Wall Street Journal and written
by June Kronholz, explains how the use
of everyday resources and real estate
market may drastically change once the
U.S. adds another 100 million people to
its population pool.
“The U.S. population will hit 300
million at 7:46 on Tuesday morning, says
the Census Bureau. But it's the 400 million
milestone, which the U.S. will reach in
about 35 years, that has demographers
and economists really talking.”
Immigrants will comprise of the majority
of the additional 100 million people,
replacing baby boomers in the work force
while keeping the economy vitalizing.
Conversely, the additional population
will further crowd cities, highways and
parks. This will cause for new developments
in science to preserve natural resources.
White (Caucasian) Americans
will also lose their majority race status.
“‘It's not that we're going
to be running out of this and that,’
says Princeton University professor Charles
Westoff, who headed a 1972 presidential
commission that called for stabilizing
the population. ‘But how many more
people do we want?’”
“With about 86 people per square
mile nationwide now, the U.S. would seem
to have plenty of room for more. Even
after the next 100 million people
are added, the U.S. still will have one-sixth
the density of Germany, whose population
is expected to stop growing within a few
years.”
How is this possible considering everyone
lives on top of each other in, say, New
York? The Center for Environment and Population
produced some interesting results that
demonstrated that more than half of the
entire U.S. population lives on the coasts
and this trend will continue in the future,
so in 35 years 50 million more people
will cram into coastal cities.
“North Dakota is losing population,
Ohio is adding a mere 20,000 people a
year and heartland states like Kansas
and Nebraska average fewer than 14 households
per square mile.”
So what does this mean for the future
of the U.S. housing and real estate market?
The overall real estate market including
condominiums and apartment units will
survive because of the need to build up,
which has started already. Midland states
will most likely lower prices to attract
and accommodate all the people stuffed
into coastal cities. Homes will become
premium-priced on the coasts. Suburbs
of large cities will become large cities
themselves, invoking the need for available
real estate. Condominium developers will
be licking their chops once housing becomes
limited due to space.
“The U.S. Census Bureau has been
recording the steady march to the 300
million mark with an online population
clock that adds one person every 11 seconds.
The bureau calculates that one person
is born every seven seconds, one dies
every 13 seconds and one immigrates every
31 seconds.”
