Augusta's growth rate leads Columbia, SC; Chattanooga, TN; and Cobb County, Athens, Macon and Savannah in GA in 2008

[DisgustaSucks]

JAZZY.. the problem with these numbers is that Savannah gets shortchanged on itys true metro area. Whereas Augusta gets Aiken and Edgefield counties in South Carolina included in their stats.. Jasper and Beaufort Counties (right across the river from downtown Savannah) get left out of Savannah's numbers. When you factor those two counties in.. Savannah jumps ahead of Augusta. Not to mention that Chatham county alone has 45,000 more people than Richmond County. MDSA stats are very tricky.. because you are trying tro draw conclusions on economic activity from stats manipulated by political, rather than economic units of measurement. Political boundaries are not always congruent with economic boundaries.

[PJA]

It's not really a problem. Those counties don't yet meet the qualifications to be included in the Savannah metro.

[truemann]

There is alot of growth in augusta going on right now. I think we will outpace alot of georgia cities in the future. And even the south carolina cities.

[DisgustaSucks]

what is occurring in Augusta isn't so much growth as it is replacing older obsolete shopping centers, etc. For every new shopping center that opens in the augusta area you can drive around town and find 4 empty ones. The only part of metro Augusta that is seeing any real growth is Columbia County. Augusta and richmond county grew less than one half of one percent last year.. after several years of actually losing population. Many of the construction projects are "catch up" projects planned over a decade ago.
The Villages at Riverwatch and the watermark condos has stalled.. with no clear sign when construction will begin, if ever.