Thursday, May 25, 2017

Population Growth

The Census Bureau released updated population numbers today and the Austin Statesman provides some analysis for central Texas.

"Similarly, Georgetown, which fell to No. 5 from its top rank last year as fastest-growing U.S. city above 50,000, is still seeing a large influx with an added 3,501 people, or 5.5 percent growth, in 2016.
Real estate broker Carol Fahnestock, who owns 29 West Realty Group, pointed to a large stack of papers she had in a binder Wednesday from people interested in moving to Georgetown.
Fahnestock’s customers — many of them coming from the San Francisco area — tell her they like feeling close to Austin but being in a more laid-back town that is less expensive and has less traffic, she said.
“A house that we sell here for $400,000 to $500,000 would be triple that in California,” she said."
Two observations; One, Georgetown's growth rate is slowing and is now about 5.5% year over year. With annual inflation running at 2.2%, the sum of population growth plus inflation is 7.7%. The Georgetown budget is growing at a rate far exceeding 7.7% and inquiring minds want to hear the justification for this excessive budget growth.
Two, the influx of people from the San Francisco region is very worrisome. They bring their morals and values with them and for many they are antithetical to those of long time residents of Georgetown. The culture of San Francisco looks to government to solve all of societies problems by extracting more and more money from the citizens and incrementally restricting personal freedoms. All in all, this is not a positive development for Georgetown!

1 comment:

  1. Idiotic assumptions about the culture of San Francisco. You clearly know nothing about the Bay Area or the character of the people who live there and such generalizations are a disservice to the usual fine quality of your posts. Perhaps the morals and value they bring with them will topple the white supremacist top heavy government of Georgetown and also pull down our blatantly racist symbols of oppression.

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