The Atlanta region is growing, but still not like it did in the boom years, according to estimates released Friday by the Atlanta Regional Commission.
The new data show that from April 2012 to April this year, the 10-county region added about 40,100 people. Fulton and Gwinnett counties remained the strongest drivers of that growth, with each adding just over 9,000 people.
The growth is slower than in previous decades: ARC estimates the region added about 77,000 people a year from 1990 to 2010. But it’s a sign of more growth to come, according to the agency.
“While our latest population estimates reflect slower growth than we became accustomed to in the 90s and 2000s, metro Atlanta is still a place that attracts many people,” Doug Hooker, ARC’s executive director, said in a statement. “Our local jurisdictions have had a few years to catch their collective breaths and are preparing for faster growth that will come as the housing market and the economy continue to bounce back.”
A look at building permits, one of the indicators used by ARC, tells the story. Over the last three years permits have started to recover, and this year’s recovery is stronger than the previous two. However, at just over 10,000 annual permits, the pace is still nowhere near the decades when, year after year after year, permits easily surpassed 40,000.
Tad Leithead, chairman of the ARC’s board, believes that eventually the region’s growth will return to the raw numbers those hot decades saw, although it probably won’t attain the same percentage growth, since the region will be bigger.
Right now, “we have population growth but we don’t have job growth,” Leithead said in an interview. “People are coming here for other reasons than jobs – to be closer to family, for the quality of life, whatever the case may be. I think when the economy recovers and people start coming for jobs as well, you’ll see those kinds of numbers again.”
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