Employment continued to rise in the month of December, both statewide and in all of California’s largest counties. A total of 242,000 jobs were gained in California over the course of 2011. San Francisco was especially quick to add jobs in 2011, with 3% more jobs in December than one year earlier. Jobs also rose [...]

A New Geography analysis of 2010 U.S. Census data reveals that Americans prefer less dense suburban areas to crowded major cities. According to this report, 9% of population growth occurred in metropolitan areas with more than one million people during the 2000s, down from 15% growth in these areas during the 1990s. All remaining growth [...]

This article examines the financial viability of homeownership in the wake of the housing crash, and how the housing crash impacted ideas about mortgage spending and commuting.

The guise of the suburban American Dream has ended, per Brookings Institute analysis of 2010 Census data. Rolled up like a flag and put away until another time. 15.4 million American suburban residents are living below the poverty line, up 11.5% from last year and 53% from 2000. Now, one-third of the nation’s poor reside [...]

This article discusses the current residential vacancy rates in California and the pressure vacant properties place upon this decade’s real estate recovery.

The Baby Boomer generation will soon begin retiring en masse, bringing about a radical change in California real estate transactions. This article explores the repercussions of that great demographic shift. Chart last updated 3/13/11 Chart last updated 7/10/11 Data courtesy of the US Census Bureau The two charts above track homeownership by age in the [...]

Part II of this article series comments on the deterioration of suburbia in its current form and discusses the factors shaping suburbia’s future.

Part I of this article series comments on the coming depopulation of suburbia as the highly educated Generation Y and retiring Baby Boomers return to California’s urban cores.

This article reviews the shifts in California’s population during the past decade, and examines the potential impact of current migration trends on residential rentals and sales.

  Chart last updated 6/15/11 Summary: Population estimates from the US Census Bureau from 1990 to 2010 show the percent change in population for California and the nation. While both populations continued to increase throughout this period, the rate of increase fluctuated and cumulatively slowed. Even with population fluctuations in California taken into account, the [...]