Bloomberg: U.S. Housing Crisis Worsens as Population Shrinks

Headline: Declining populations in many cities means more people are moving to fewer places where affordability will get worse, not better.

In what feels like contradictory statements, Bloomberg news declares in its article the following:

News that the U.S. population barely grew this year, together with ever-falling birthrates and the decline in immigration, raises the possibility that the nation will be shrinking in the not-so-distant future. So fewer people should make housing more affordable for those looking for it, right? Well, don't get your hopes up.

People tend not to want to live in shrinking places, and if the U.S. population starts to decline, it might lead to even less housing demand in stagnant metro areas, and an even worse housing affordability crisis in the smaller number of places that continue to attract new residents.

With the population growth in 2021 at just 0.1% - the nation's lowest in its history - 72 of the country's 384 metro areas had declining populations from 2010-2020.  

The housing dynamic is similar to the concept of "climate refugees" — the idea that the impact of wildfires, hurricanes and floods will force people to flee from dry and hot places in the West and coasts in the southeast to more resilient parts of the country. The parallel with population growth might be something like "demographic refugees," with Americans looking to leave the ever-expanding number of places with falling populations to move to the smaller number of places that are still growing, providing better job opportunities and the hope for a more prosperous future.