The nation's housing downturn has spread to the fastest growing counties in the sunbelt, where most saw reduced domestic migration in the year ending July 1, 2007, while more rural counties experienced population losses.
"Torrid population growth rates in Sun Belt metropolitan areas from Florida to Arizona, Nevada and California have slowed amid a severe downturn in the nation's housing market, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Census Bureau data (July, 2006 to July, 2007) released today."
"Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, says the new data reflect only "the front edge" of the housing crisis. "Next year at this time, I think you're going to see even more of a slowdown in domestic migration," he says.
"Bernard Markstein, senior economist at the National Association of Home Builders, agrees the housing slump is a likely factor. The slowdown is particularly acute in Florida, where William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution, says "growth stopped on a dime." Population growth dropped from an average of nearly 1,000 new residents a day from 2000-06 to about 530 a day in the latest 12-month period."
"Nearly twice as many counties lost population this decade as during the 1990s; 85% of them are rural...in America's heartland," says Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.
[Editor's note: see the color-coded map of county-by-county national population trends.]
FULL STORY: Housing crisis cools migration to former hot spots

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

Ken Jennings Launches Transit Web Series
The Jeopardy champ wants you to ride public transit.

BLM To Rescind Public Lands Rule
The change will downgrade conservation, once again putting federal land at risk for mining and other extractive uses.

Indy Neighborhood Group Builds Temporary Multi-Use Path
Community members, aided in part by funding from the city, repurposed a vehicle lane to create a protected bike and pedestrian path for the summer season.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service