Elizabeth Gardner and state
demographer for Colorado.
So Adams County is about 520,000 people
increased about 78,000 over the last decade.
That was the 4th largest growth
numbers within the state,
17th though in percentage change so that
we have some other counties grow faster.
Some of the interesting characteristics with
atoms is that if one has the largest number.
In terms of Hispanic population in the state,
and had the largest growth in the
Hispanic population in the state.
Second largest growth was in
the two or more population,
and another interesting piece
this last decade.
It became our first kind of Denver
Metro Front Range County that became
a majority people of color and it is
a very interesting place in terms of
it's got a higher median household
income than this than Denver,
for example,
but a much lower median home price.
Than Denver,
so it's a great bang for your buck.
It's on some great transportation corridors,
making it super accessible to
the Denver metro area.
Although this last decade,
almost every county produced fewer
housing units than the previous decade,
so that is one of the pieces that is
causing a constraint across the board is
that we didn't produce as many housing units.
This last decade, first with economic
development and population growth,
should always be seen with
the lens of two sides.
There are benefits, and there's drawbacks.
If you plan for it.
The likelihood that you're going to
have a lot more benefits is up there.
It's when you have unplanned.
Growth that.
Things are a challenge and that
you're stuck in a situation
that you're not ready for.
They are forecast.
They are in our forecast out to 2051 of the
largest growing counties that we've got.
Now, granted,
that's going to be up to local
decisions within the Adams County.
Are they building housing
and do they have the water?
Two of the biggest questions
that have to be answered.
We know what the national and state
projections are in terms of population.
We understand births and deaths.
And so our idea in terms of where we're
seeing that growth is pretty good. Uh,
and so you can close your eyes and say no,
we're not going to do it and then
you see prices increase because
the demand for housing is not.
You know your supply is not keeping
up with that demand, so I think that.
Adam County has been actually fairly
progressive and fairly on top of
understanding what their long run
population and economic projections are,
and I think they do want to see a
continual balance between the two.
A big take away is that.
In the United States and in Colorado,
we're starting to see downward
pressure on growth O,
even though folks are very
cognizant of growth right now,
especially in terms of housing.
Some people may get panicked and
want to put on growth constraints.
What we need to be able to do is think about
things and the unintended consequences,
because a lot of times if we
look at putting in constraints,
especially on housing growth,
all that does is push prices up.
What we should be thinking about
is how do we actually accommodate?
Growth better.
How do we provide the transportation
corridors, the housing,
the Community services to make it flow
better rather than constraining it?
Because constraining it will again
cause a lot of unintended consequences.