Outlying Areas Lead Region's Growth Charts

By Daryl Kelley

May 10, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

New population estimates for Southern California show that while many older cities are building new housing on vacant or underused lots, most of the region’s growth occurred last year in suburban housing tracts in relatively few cities.

Los Angeles County and four neighboring counties -- Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura -- grew by 279,229 people in 2004, pushing their population to about 17.65 million, nearly half of all the people in the state.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. May 12, 2005 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday May 12, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 48 words Type of Material: Correction
Growth patterns -- An article in Tuesday’s California section about growth patterns in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties reported that the total population for the region was 17.65 million. The region grew to 17.9 million during 2004, according to the California Department of Finance.

These five counties grew at a rate of about 1.6%, compared with 1.5% statewide and a national rate of about 1%.

A closer look, however, shows that just one-fourth of the region’s 180 cities grew faster than the average for their counties. And much of the population surge occurred in dry, hot inland areas where sprawling developments still provide the closest thing to affordable shelter in the region’s superheated housing market.

“More than half of all the single-family detached homes sold between the Mexican border and northern Ventura County were sold in San Bernardino and Riverside counties,” said Redlands economist John Husing. “This is still where people move when they want to buy a single-family house.”

The new population figures are part of an annual report on city, county and state population changes released last week by the California Department of Finance.

Demographers use a variety of data -- including driver’s licenses, school enrollments, Medi-Cal recipients, birthrates, immigration and state-to-state migration -- to estimate the change in total residents.

Thirteen of Riverside County’s 24 cities exceeded that county’s blistering overall growth rate of 3.8% -- the highest in the state -- with Beaumont’s 14.1% rate ranking third among the state’s 478 cities. Moreno Valley added the most new residents in the county -- nearly 7,500 -- while Murrieta and Indio grew by about 6,000 residents each. The cities of Riverside and Palm Desert grew by about 3,700 each, and La Quinta, Coachella, Temecula and Perris each added between 2,500 and 3,100 residents.

Riverside County also easily led the state in single-family home construction last year, issuing about 29,500 building permits, more than twice as many as the next highest county, San Bernardino.

That growth spurt is no aberration: Since the 2000 U.S. census, 10 of California’s 50 fastest-growth cities have been in Riverside County, and six have been in San Bernardino County.

Last year, 11 of the 24 cities in San Bernardino County grew faster than the county average of 2.5%. That included Victorville, which saw about 8,300 new residents, Rancho Cucamonga, about 6,100; Hesperia, about 5,400; and Fontana, about 4,300.

But even in the Inland Empire, developers began to build more condos and apartments as surging home prices made single-family homes unaffordable for most potential buyers, said lead regional planner Joe Carreras of the Southern California Assn. of Governments.

“Out there, you’d think only single-family construction is occurring,” Carreras said. “But we’re seeing an increased demand for multifamily housing, partly due to runaway prices.”

Riverside County issued about 4,750 multifamily building permits last year, while San Bernardino County handed out about 4,500. That compares with about 4,900 in Orange County and about 15,000 in Los Angeles County, according to the Construction Industry Research Board.

In the slower-growing coastal counties of Orange and Los Angeles, builders constructed more condos and apartments than detached single-family homes as a housing shortage and more flexible government policies opened commercial areas to home construction.

But this so-called in-fill construction -- mostly in aging city centers and along commercial and transit corridors -- provided only limited opportunities for growth in the land-short coastal areas.

Only six of the 34 cities in Orange County surpassed its 1.1% population growth; and in Los Angeles County, just 11 of the 88 cities grew faster than its 1.2% average. Four of the 10 cities in Ventura County surpassed its 1.1% average.

Even in Los Angeles County, the fastest growing communities were far from urban centers: upscale Agoura Hills, on the county’s western edge, and the desert communities of Palmdale and Lancaster. Together, the three added 10,000 residents.

Despite fast growth on urban fringes and in the desert, the city of Los Angeles ranked first in the state in population increase last year: Its increase of 44,092 residents compared with second-ranked San Diego’s 14,035 new residents.

Still, Los Angeles’ growth rate was only 1.1%. That’s because growth rates are based on percentage increase in population, not on how many new residents arrive.

While spotlighting the population explosion of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the new population figures also revealed slow growth in a number of the region’s cities.

In Los Angeles County, the small cities of Avalon, Industry, Irwindale, La Habra Heights, Hidden Hills, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and Sierra Madre grew by fewer than 100 residents each.

Among larger cities, 87,000-resident Whittier grew the least in Los Angeles County, increasing its population by 170, or 0.2%.

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Population growth

Forty-five cities in these five Southern California counties grew faster than their counties between Jan. 1, 2004, and Jan. 1, 2005, according to an annual population survey released last week by the California Department of Finance. Each city name is followed by its rate of growth.

Growth rates by county

Riverside: 3.8%

San Bernardino: 2.5%

Los Angeles: 1.2%

Orange: 1.1%

Ventura: 1.1%

Ten fastest-growing cities in the five-county area

By percent gain

Beaumont (Riverside): 14.1%

Victorville (San Bernardino): 10.7%

Indio (Riverside): 9.9%

Adelanto (San Bernardino): 9.5%