Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Unless they’re triple counting Tufts students in Medford there’s no way. Seriously has to be a correction or methodology issue.
15th in the country for percentage growth over the last year, no less!
I know that not a single new house (not counting 2 tear downs) has been built within 1mi of me for the last year. And I can’t think of a single apartment complex that’s been built in the last year; there aren’t even any under construction anywhere in the city that I know of.
It’s absurd. There’s no flippin way. And it really throws all the estimates into question for me.
Last edited by Boston Shudra; 05-18-2023 at 06:48 PM..
San Jose and San Franscico seeing big drops. Is it cost of living the main reason? Houston only has 1k more people than it's census according to estimates. That's interesting.
Looking at this again, cities are taking big hits in these estimates again. Houston and Dallas are not exempt. I also find it hilarious that Port St Lucie has a larger population than Ft Lauderdale.
Cambridge/Boston is interesting. Boston is down 24,500 since 2020 while Cambridge is up 500.
Seems to run against the idea that upper class professionals are fleeing the city for rural areas/the south. Since Cambridge is like entirely those kinds of people and held up well. While Boston is much more diverse socioeconomically and got hammered.
Also New York is super sketchy. A 9% drop in 2 years just did not happen. They’re be massive reverberations in the real estate market. That’s twice as fast as Detroit shrank in the 2000s and that city property values still not back
Also the gap between St Louis and Buffalo is supposedly under 10,000 now.
Last edited by btownboss4; 05-18-2023 at 08:34 PM..
Wow. After reading the past few pages of replies I am completely disavowing these annual estimates. I especially don't see how Medford, MA could be the 15th-fastest growing city in the entire country if we have a Medford resident on here saying there have been no large-scale residential infill builds over the past two years anywhere in the city. I also don't see how NYC could have declined by nearly 10% in two years.
Pittsburgh, for a change of pace, may not be that far off. I was anticipating that the city would more or less floor in terms of population around 300,000 and then dance up and down around that number consistently for a while. That seems to be the case with modest growth taking us well above 300,000 from 2020-2021 and then modest decline from 2021-2022 taking us back down a smidge above 300,000 (and keeping us roughly stagnant from 2020-2022). On the ground here about half the city is booming with cranes and dumpsters everywhere and half the city is like North St. Louis or Detroit or East Cleveland, so that would track for us just being stuck in a state of inertia.
Northwest Arkansas is now a top 100 metro, with the 8th fastest % growth rate among the top 100. Myrtle Beach is a boomtown and Boise will reach 1 million in the next 4-5 years at this rate. Good stuff for the small to medium size metros.
There are other ways to grow your population without massive building projects (incidentally do we know if Medford 2021 was revised upwards?). Namely shrink your vacancies and grow your household sizes. With a couple thousand empty housing units in 2021, Medford could theoretically grow within current parameters. The main question would be if Medford was uniquely positioned to benefit from Boston families leaving for the suburbs. I don’t know enough about the area to speculate.
There are other ways to grow your population without massive building projects (incidentally do we know if Medford 2021 was revised upwards?). Namely shrink your vacancies and grow your household sizes. With a couple thousand empty housing units in 2021, Medford could theoretically grow within current parameters. The main question would be if Medford was uniquely positioned to benefit from Boston families leaving for the suburbs. I don’t know enough about the area to speculate.
It's possible, and likely, that astronomical housing prices have forced some more "doubling up" in households.
But with household sizes generally decreasing over time, that would be unlikely to have been the driver of growth, and it's certainly not an option preferred by the vast majority of people generally. Most people choose the "path of lease resistance" to the best option of housing for themselves and their families. In the case of cities/regions with very high housing costs, that means looking elsewhere that's more affordable.
I'm willing to bet that the Medford estimate is much more likely to be a statistical anomaly, especially when similarly sized and populated municipalities around Medford are remaining even or ever-so-slightly declining since 2020.
There are other ways to grow your population without massive building projects (incidentally do we know if Medford 2021 was revised upwards?). Namely shrink your vacancies and grow your household sizes. With a couple thousand empty housing units in 2021, Medford could theoretically grow within current parameters. The main question would be if Medford was uniquely positioned to benefit from Boston families leaving for the suburbs. I don’t know enough about the area to speculate.
I think Medford was revised upwards for 2021 given its population of Tufts University undergraduate and graduate students. While Medford has seen steady home construction growth as the average home price approaches $800,000, they are still only adding about 100-500 new units per year.
I don't think enough inventory has been added to Medford over the past two years to event warrant a 3,000 population increases, however, Medford has become significantly more attractive with the GLX and its proximity to Boston, therefore leading me to two conclusions:
A) Its just an upward revision with steady population growth in recent years. Between Tufts students and families moving into Medford to take in the relative affordability and/or school system, the average household size could be increasing in combination with the new housing that have been added.
B Tufts undercount and subsequent revision.
Wow. After reading the past few pages of replies I am completely disavowing these annual estimates. I especially don't see how Medford, MA could be the 15th-fastest growing city in the entire country if we have a Medford resident on here saying there have been no large-scale residential infill builds over the past two years anywhere in the city. I also don't see how NYC could have declined by nearly 10% in two years.
Pittsburgh, for a change of pace, may not be that far off. I was anticipating that the city would more or less floor in terms of population around 300,000 and then dance up and down around that number consistently for a while. That seems to be the case with modest growth taking us well above 300,000 from 2020-2021 and then modest decline from 2021-2022 taking us back down a smidge above 300,000 (and keeping us roughly stagnant from 2020-2022). On the ground here about half the city is booming with cranes and dumpsters everywhere and half the city is like North St. Louis or Detroit or East Cleveland, so that would track for us just being stuck in a state of inertia.
Hmm some of the estimates do seem a little odd New York dropping down like that? San Francisco Absolutely Plummeting? Boston taking a big hit. Sure i expect Milwaukee Baltimore Memphis Cleveland to show small declines but San Francisco San Jose and Boston did even Worse
And How Did Houston Dallas and Nashville!? Lose Population
Austin Leapfrogs Jacksonville Oklahoma City Leapfrogs Nashville in city limits population
Census Give Atlanta 500,000k Already
Atlanta Estimates
2022 499,127
2021 498,715
2020 496,461
I Wonder, Does the federal government save money if cities are smaller? Bigger Cities mean More Federal Dollars. So Theoretically a City Population Decrease would mean a Budgetary Increase for the Federal Government. Does the Census have a vested interest in reporting City population Declines
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
