Orlando holds on to its ranking as the 7th-fastest-growing
area in the country.
Orlando Sentinel
Joe Newman | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted September 7, 2005
Orlando remains one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas, better
weathering the economic troubles that slowed growth in some other big cities,
according to a study released Tuesday Through the first four years of this
decade, Orlando was the seventh-fastest-growing metro area in the country, the
same rank it held through the 1990s.
Metro Orlando, which has added 203,489 new residents this decade, grew
faster than any other Florida
metro area. Sarasota, Jacksonville and Tampa were also in the top 20."There's something new
about Orlando," said Bill Frey, a demographer with The
Brookings Institution who wrote the study. "It's not just retirees, it's
not just service jobs -- it's evolving.
"There's
kind of a buzz about Orlando."
People are drawn to the metro Orlando area, which includes Orange, Seminole, Lake and Osceola counties, because of the relatively
affordable housing market and its growing base of service and hospitality jobs,
Frey said. Most of the people moving to metro Orlando are coming from elsewhere in the United States, with immigration accounting for 19.4 percent of the
area's growth between 2000 and 2004. Among the fastest-growing metro areas, Orlando was in the middle of the pack as far as its level of
immigration.
Immigrants are still drawn to the traditional ports of entry -- New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago, Frey said. When the high-tech bubble burst, it
dramatically slowed growth in cities such as Austin, San Francisco and Boston. Austin
dropped from the third-fastest-growing city of the 1990s to eighth from 2000 to
2004. Meanwhile, San Francisco, San
Jose and Boston all found themselves on the list of slowest-growing
metro areas for this decade. While the service-and-tourism industry suffered
during the recession, they have bounced back. "We were significantly
affected by the recession but, that said, our economy is clearly more
resilient," said Hank Fishkind, an Orlando economist. There are also encouraging signs that Central Florida's economy is diversifying, Fishkind
said.
While some metro areas such as Orlando, Las
Vegas and Phoenix continue to grow rapidly, this decade also has seen
new areas emerge as hot spots. In particular, some of the cities in
California's interior made big gains during this decade, including Riverside,
Stockton, Sacramento and Bakersfield, all of which are newcomers to the top-10
list.
The trend in California is fueled by people moving from expensive coastal
areas, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, to more affordable communities. What happens in California is often a microcosm of what is happening nationally, with people
leaving the expensive Northeast for places in the Sun Belt, such as Florida, Frey said. Of course, population growth is only one
side of the story. All those new people require new roads and services,
something Central Florida leaders have struggled to provide." It's a
significant challenge that needs to be addressed as we continue to
prosper," Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty said.
"It's something we need to get our arms around."
Also check out this article from the Orlando Business
Journal