Census: Inland California counties growing at fast rates

By PAUL CHAVEZ and SANDRA MARQUEZ
Associated Press Writers

LOS ANGELES (AP) Californians are moving farther and farther away from the coast to more affordable inland counties, even if it means lengthy commutes, according to demographers and newly released U.S. Census data.

Placer County, between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, is the fastest-growing county in the state. Its population increased by 12.1 percent to an estimated 278,509 from April 2000 to July 2002, far outpacing the national growth rate of 2.5 percent over the same period.

By contrast, Los Angeles County, the most populous in the nation with an estimated 9.8 million residents in 2002, grew by only 3 percent over the same period.

California's 10 fastest-growing counties are inland areas once associated with farming, outdoor recreation and retirement living. These counties in the Riverside-San Bernardino area, the Central Valley and the northern foothills of the Sierra Nevada are now destined to become important population centers as demand for affordable housing surges.

``California has very high housing prices,'' said Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at the Davenport Institute at Pepperdine University. ``People are forced further and further away. There are only a few places to go.''

Retirees from the San Francisco Bay area and people looking for more affordable housing and a bucolic quality of life are drawn to Placer County in the Sierra foothills, said John Marin, the county's administrative officer.

The fast pace of growth in Placer County 48 percent between 1990 and 2000 has had drawbacks as well, with the chief complaints being increased traffic and a shortage of high schools, Marin said.

Growth in the state's inland areas is part of a long-term shift in California's population that started in the 1970s, said Hans Johnson, a demographer with the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California.

``Coastal areas are more expensive, they're filling up and it's harder to build housing,'' Johnson said. ``Inland areas offer less expensive housing and in some cases inland areas are becoming places where people are commuting from to coastal areas.''

Southern California's Riverside County saw its population swell 9.9 percent to an estimated 1.7 million between April 2000 to July 2002, making it the second-fastest growing county in the state.

``The basic process is population growth in places where people can afford to buy houses. That is what is happening,'' Kotkin said.

Maribel Guzman said her hometown in Central California's Stanislaus County, which ranks as the state's third-fastest growing county, is no longer dotted with the peach and almond groves of her youth.

``It's grown a whole lot. It used to be ranches and orchards. Now it is houses coming up everywhere,'' she said.

Guzman, a real estate agent, said she has sold homes to young San Francisco Bay area couples who have decided to move east, lured by the opportunity to buy three-bedroom starter homes for about $185,000.

Although they can no longer afford to live near San Francisco, many of Stanislaus' new residents continue to work there despite daily round-trip commutes of up to four hours.

``They can't afford a house over there, so they come here,'' Guzman said.

Experts say employers could soon follow in the footsteps of their employees.

``Companies will have to chase their work force to a certain extent,'' said Kotkin.

``It is increasingly very difficult to have an employment base in a place like San Francisco where only 20 percent of the population can even think of buying a house,'' Kotkin said. ``You are going to find more and more people unwilling to work there.''

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)