Urban Growth and Housing Affordability: The Conflict

This article addresses the potential conflict between urban growth and housing affordability. The pervasive urban decline of the past, in which two-thirds of America's thirty largest cities as of 1970 declined in population, has been replaced with urban growth. Two-thirds of these same cities have since resumed growing, but affordability challenges arise in many newly growing cities. The authors address the forces, both internal and external, driving urban "turnarounds" and the potential consequences for housing affordability.