To solve the affordability crisis,
Bay Area housing stock must
grow 50 percent in 20 years
When a region is fortunate enough to host the birth of a new industry, its population tends to increase. New jobs are created, attracting workers from outside the region who may bring their families. Those new employees need goods and services, which, in turn, attracts more workers and their families to arrive.
We have seen this pattern play out in past economic booms.
The automobile industry exploded from 1910 to 1930, during which the metropolitan area of Detroit, already one of the nation’s largest urban areas, grew its share of the United States population from 0.8 percent to 1.9 percent. The U.S. auto industry subsequently lost its preeminent position with the rise of Asian competition in the 1980s, and Detroit’s share of the U.S. population declined from 2.2 percent in 1970 to 1.4 percent as of the most recent 2010 census.
