The los angeles county, which includes the second largest city in the US, has suffered the largest population loss in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic, according to the US Census Bureau, with almost 180,000 fewer inhabitants. The Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcettihas blamed high house prices, currently at $773,490 (about 705,000 euros), which is 84% more expensive since he became mayor in 2013, as one of the factors in this fall.
With almost 90 municipalities with more than 9.8 million inhabitantsLos Angeles County is the most populous in the US. It includes the city of the same name, Los Angeles, the second largest in the country, with 4 million inhabitants, only surpassed by New York. However, during the last year marked by the coronavirus pandemic, the county has seen its population decrease by about 180,000 inhabitants, the largest drop seen in the country.
Bloomberg has interviewed the mayor of the city of Los Angeles, Democrat Eric Garcetti, who is about to serve his second term and will no longer continue to lead the city. The leader has blamed high housing prices as part of the urban exodus experienced in this last period. “If you ask me, what are the top three issues facing Los Angeles or California? I would say in this order: housing, housing and housing.”
The median home price increased 84% since 2013, year in the Garcetti I take the baton of control of the Los Angeles capital. According to the California Association of Realtors, the median price of a single-family home in Los Angeles County was $773,490, nearly $705,000 at current exchange rates.
To combat this rise in prices, the council proposed to increase the availability of housing. In 2021 alone, it approved some 17,900 new construction visas for housingmore than double what was issued when Garcetti took office in 2013, but those efforts have fallen short of the need.
The The state of California has pledged $12 billion in investment, some 10.7 billion euros, to address the housing shortage. Despite all these efforts, the number of homeless people in the city of Los Angeles has doubled in the last decade to about 42,000 people.
The program to develop 10,000 new homes for the unprotected in 2016, with a budget of 1,200 million dollars, about 1,077 million euros, has been affected by bureaucratic tangles and high costs, which have left an average price per unit of almost 600,000 dollars, about 538,700 euros at the current exchange rate.
Nevertheless, California and Los Angeles continue to offer the ‘American dream’ with attractive jobs, high salaries, and a good climate. “Part of the problem in Los Angeles is that a lot of people want to be here,” the mayor said. “This isn’t Detroit or Pittsburgh in the ’80s.”
Population moves to smaller urban centers
According to US Census Bureau, the country’s coastal cities experienced the largest declines in residents during the pandemic, such as New York or San Francisco. “In addition to the cost of living, the factors that contributed most to the urban exodus ranged from strict confinement rules to higher taxes or lack of citizen security. A lower birth rate, slower foreign immigration and rising deaths, mostly from covid, also played a role.
On the other hand, the county of Maricopa, en Arizonawhich includes the capital, Phoenix, gained almost 47,000 inhabitants, followed by the riverside county, east of Los Angeles, with more than 31,200 new residents. Both experienced some of the largest population increases, according to the census report.
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