Census: Bay Area Grew By More Than 90,000 People In A Year
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – New Census numbers out Thursday morning prove what we've already seen on the roadways and in housing prices: more people are moving to the Bay Area.
From July 2014 to July 2015, the San Francisco-Oakland region (San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Mateo Counties) grew by 60,152 people, making it the 11th fastest growing metro region in the country.
The San Jose metro area added 22,488 people in that same time span. Also, the Vallejo-Fairfield area added 5,301 people, the Santa Rosa area added 2,472 people and Napa area added 905 people.
Looking at counties, Alameda County added more than 25,000 people for a 1.6 percent gain, making it the 18th fastest growing county in the country. Most of the 20 fastest growing counties were in Southern California, Florida and Texas.
Gabriel Metcalf is president of SPUR, a nonprofit that tries to help cities improve the urban experience. He told KCBS it's depressing to see people being forced out to the Central Valley because they can't afford anything closer.
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"Existing cities like San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland are so anti-development, they're not making room for people. So a lot of the new growth is being forced out to the edges," Metcalf said. "I mean, the de-facto affordable housing policy for San Francisco, for most people, is to make them live somewhere else, which is increasingly out in the Central Valley. Places like Stockton."
SPUR said between 2010 and 2014, the Bay Area added 446,000 private sector jobs, but only 54,000 new housing units.
