Behind Census Figures Showing Boom in Nevada, a Story of Bust
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/us...a.html?_r=2&hp
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By any measure, it should have been a cause for celebration in a place that surely needs one. The Census Bureau reported that Nevada grew by 35 percent over the last decade, making it the fastest-growing state in the nation. Instead, it was another reminder of how bad things have become here, and how exhausting a decade this state has endured. This was the boom capital of the country — which explains the census report — until the economy collapsed in 2007. People started moving out, chasing jobs or escaping a house market with the highest foreclosure rate in the country. Unemployment here is now 14.3 percent, the highest in the country.
“People come for the good jobs and the good life, and if that’s no longer here, they are gone,” said David F. Damore, an associate professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “People are just moving out.” The state demographer, Jeff Hardcastle, estimated that Nevada had lost more than 90,000 people since July 2008, and expects the decline to continue through next year. He said that before 2007, Nevada had been the top-growing state for most of the past 20 years.
People are leaving in search of more prosperous economic climates. But analysts said the state’s population had been hurt by a declining birthrate, not uncommon during tough economic times, and illegal immigrants leaving, or at least avoiding census takers as public attitudes toward them turned harsh.
Here in Henderson, a place of once seemingly unstoppable sprawl, there were banners Wednesday advertising cut-rate deals on homes built where there was desert 20 years ago. Or worse: places like Vantage Lofts on Horizon Ridge Road, a housing complex abandoned in mid-construction. A pile of exposed glass, plywood and cement, surrounded by chain-link fences, gave testimony to the hopes, and unfounded speculation, of developers.
Indeed, many of the abandoned or underused housing, office and retail developments were built by speculators drawn by what once seemed the prospect of endless growth, the lure of Wild West development and the promise of an economic jackpot. “Prior to 2007, the underlying assumption was, build it and they will come,” Mr. Hardcastle said.
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Nevada at a Glance
Population: 2,700,551
Change since 2000: An increase of 35.1 percent
Nevada will gain one seat in the House of Representatives, giving the state four seats, its most ever.
Foreign-born residents make up 18.7 percent of the state’s population; 27.5 percent speak a language other than English at home.
Median age: 35.3 years
Families below the poverty line: 8 percent
Median value of owner-occupied homes: $275,300
The word “nevada,” in Spanish, roughly means snow-covered.
Nickname: the Silver State